HomeReviewsBaseball Riot Review

Baseball Riot Review

-

Having already received relatively positive responses to the previous two titles launched on Xbox One – Sparkle Unleashed and Crimsonland – developers 10tons are back with a third. The ID@Xbox program has enabled them to bring a baseball themed, physics based puzzler to the market titled Baseball Riot. Essentially a sequel to the successful Tennis in the Face mobile and console game, can 10tons knock it out of the park with Baseball Riot for a Home Run or could it be a swing and a miss?

There’s an evil energy drink manufacturer fuelling goons everywhere and turning them crazy; no, it’s not the one that gives you wings but instead the corrupt company known as Explodz Inc. Former baseball star Gabe Carpaccio decides to step up to the plate after realising his old team mates are in trouble and so he begins his crusade to free them, armed with just his trusty baseball bat and a shed load of balls.

Gabe is a one man wrecking crew, determined to take down anyone in his way and that’s the sole aim of the player; hitting balls to knock out various goons whilst also collecting stars that are dotted around the play area. It seems pretty straightforward and in reality it is, but being simple to grasp and easy to complete are two entirely different things… the latter it certainly is not.

Baseballriot1

There are eight regions in total with each one containing anything up to thirteen levels, all of which are completed by smashing balls at all the goons within it and picking up stars. Gabe will be positioned like a statue in a certain place on each level and the goons are stood on platforms between what appears to be two buildings. The idea is to aim the swing wherever you wish and bounce the ball off walls, obstacles or platforms to reach the goons. There’s no power gauge, all it takes is pressing the A button after choosing a direction.

The ability of hitting the ball never changes, however the layouts and obstacles do, thus becoming more difficult to take everyone out as you progress through the regions of the world. Glass and spiked objects are the most difficult ones to navigate around as touching either one will immediately stop the ball. Using the ragdoll nature of the enemies can work to your advantage though by knocking one of them into the glass to shatter it instead.

Enemies come in various styles, the majority of whom are simply aesthetically different. Amongst those that have that something extra are the Umpires that are protected from the front and the Fielders complete with large gloves which enable them catch the ball if it ends up flying through the air in their direction. Touching on the ragdoll movements once again, it feels pretty sweet when one downed goon falls into another in a domino effect, basically doing your job for you. Chaining enough takedowns together will grant extra balls and having additional ones can only make things easier.

Baseballriot2

Trial and error plays a massive part, but with only three balls you’ll be restarting a lot, which fortunately is really easy to do at any point of the level with a press of the Y button. Most of the time you could be a slight touch of the analog stick away from achieving success and that can be rather irritating. Early on, the frustration is short lived, if even present at all and I found myself breezing through levels. Sadly, it becomes annoying with less obvious ways to get the ball to the intended targets, to the point where I just have to switch off because it feels like I’ve tried every possible angle.

Baseball Riot could be based on any ball orientated sport with the emphasis clearly being on using physics to reach targets; the balls don’t travel through the air forever and eventually lose velocity which then changes the expected trajectories. Everything related to the way the balls and enemies move seems spot on, the only issue coming from the rare moments when an explosion occurs and objects don’t move. What’s great is that anyone could have a bash at this game considering the simple control layout and the fact you could succeed via pure luck if you’ve just so happen to aim correctly.

The layouts within the levels are well thought out in regards to platforms and objects but the actual visual designs of the backdrop are creatively bland despite having plenty of colour. Everything comes across cartoon-like, which works given that Baseball Riot doesn’t take itself too seriously.

I would’ve liked to have seen power-ups for the main man Gabe to freshen things up and maybe a power bar to give the player more control instead of just pressing A.

Overall though, Baseball Riot is a decent offering for a low price and generally delivers on the physics front. It can be picked up by anyone but at times feels a bit too simple to play which makes things samey once you’ve played a few levels. In truth, it becomes far too difficult to be fun at anything past the halfway mark.

James Birks
James Birks
Been gaming casually since the SNES as a youngster but found my true passion for games on the Playstation 1 (the forbidden word ooo). My addiction grew to its pinnacle with the purchase of an Xbox 360 & Xbox Live Service. A recovering GS hunter that will still play literally any game.

1 COMMENT

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

1 Comment
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
trackback
8 years ago

[…] Read Full Article → […]

Follow Us On Socials

24,000FansLike
1,671FollowersFollow
4,922FollowersFollow
6,570SubscribersSubscribe

Our current writing team

2798 POSTS23 COMMENTS
1506 POSTS2 COMMENTS
1261 POSTS18 COMMENTS
995 POSTS46 COMMENTS
856 POSTS0 COMMENTS
389 POSTS2 COMMENTS
116 POSTS0 COMMENTS
81 POSTS0 COMMENTS
78 POSTS4 COMMENTS
24 POSTS0 COMMENTS
12 POSTS10 COMMENTS
8 POSTS0 COMMENTS

Join the chat

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you

1
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x