If you read my Mario Baseball GCN impressions, you probably know Im not a big fan of simulation baseball games. This is because of the unintuitive and sometimes bizarre pitching and batting systems companies implement in their games. Sometimes it seems more a chore than fun to play a baseball sim. So you can imagine my mindset going into playing Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball for GameCube. I was hoping against hope for a good time, and to my surprise, I wasnt too disappointed.
Lets get one thing settled first; Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball has mediocre graphics. The animation is choppy, the textures are blurry; it just doesnt look good. If you can get past that and if youre a baseball fan looking for a fun sim to play, Pennant Chase might be for you.
The demo I played allowed you to choose from any team in the Majors. Naturally, I chose the Dodgers (LA, baby). I was somewhat surprised to see that my starting lineup in-game was almost identical to the actual starting lineup (except for left fielder Jason Werth, who was on the DL at the time the season started). Everyone was present, which was somewhat impressive since there was some discussion on who would make the club from Spring training. I guess whomever was scouting did their homework. Derek Lowe was my number one starter, which is consistent with the opening day roster. I chose the Anaheim Angels as my opponents (since my cousin is an avid Angels fan and is always telling me about how the Angels are better (we'll just see about that)). Anyway, I was able to choose from a variety of stadiums and so of course I chose Dodger Stadium at night. You can choose night and day games. Dodger Stadium looked pretty good at night time and also during the day. I live down the street from the actual stadium and I can faithfully say that its a very good representation of the real thing. The bleachers, the pavilions, the palm trees -- it looks like they actually went to the ballpark and took photos to model it after.
The first thing that you will experience when you play Pennant Chase is the batting system. The batting system tries to replicate what an actual batter will face, so the view is behind the batter (no different than most sim baseball games and Nintendos own Ken Griffey Baseball from the SNES days). When your player is in the batters box, youre given a boxed area representing the strike zone where you can move around your bat before the pitch is thrown. This gives you the opportunity to position your bat depending on the type of pitch you think is going to be thrown. This is hard to explain to people that dont follow baseball, but fans should know exactly what Im talking about. The thing about the behind-the-batter view is that you only get a good view of the height of pitches and not distance, since you cant really tell how far away they are from you on a 2D display. This requires you to look at the arm angle of the pitch, just like a real batter, and to try and gauge the release point. This can get really tricky since you only have a split second to adjust your bat position. So I found myself getting under a lot of pitches and popping them up, or chopping soft grounders to the shortstop and second baseman. I had to really try and anticipate what type of pitch was coming, whether it was fastball or a breaking ball, because its difficult to adjust the instant the pitch is thrown -- there just isnt enough time. This kind of mirrors real baseball, which can be a plus or minus depending on what youre looking for in a baseball game. Most sim fans will appreciate the realism. Once I got used to the batting engine, my reaction got better and I was able to hit some balls into the outfield for singles or doubles; I even got a home run.
The pitching system in Pennant Chase isnt too much different from most sim baseball game pitching systems. Depending on the pitcher, you have a variety of pitches to choose from that are designated to different directions on the control pad -- you can use either the analogue pad or the D-pad. Once you choose your pitch, the pitcher goes into his windup and youre shown a meter, much like a golf game, where you need to press the A button in the correct range to get the most effective pitch. The thing I had trouble with at first was my pitch selection. I tried to use basic baseball pitching techniques, like going up the ladder on batters (pitching low, then sequentially higher) and pitching in and out, trying to nibble the corners. I got raked, hard. I would pitch low and away, then try and come inside and get raked for doubles and triples. So I tried to mix up my pitches which seemed to have more success. I threw some fastballs low and away, came in with sliders, moved up and in with fastballs, trying to ultimately fool the batter with a changeup. Once I got into a rhythm, I was throwing no-hit and 1-hit innings. Im not sure I can attribute that to my skill, my pitcher, or the game mechanics.
When the ball was hit in play, it was a simple matter of fielding the ball and moving the control stick to the appropriate base and pressing the A button to throw. You can also dive for a fly ball or try and jump for a ball that might go over the fence.
Im not going to expand on the other aspects of Pennant Chase because theyre like most other baseball games, sim or otherwise. You can steal, try and pick off runners, etc. What I will say is that Nintendo Pennant Chase is a baseball sim thats trying to be fun at the same time, however, if you're not really into baseball, you're not going to be looking here for a fun time -- instead you would be looking at something like Mario Baseball. Pennant Chase is for those people who like baseball and follow it to some extent; and who maybe want to play a season with their favorite team. If thats you, it looks like Nintendo might have a little gem on its hands, that is of course if you can get past the graphical problems.
Unfortunately, Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball currently lacks a release date. Here's to hoping the game finds a North American release later this year.
By Angel Ruedaflores