Bottom Of The Ninth

While Konami s Bottom Of The Ninth may not look as impressive as its previous sports titles, the gameplay is so deep as to more than make up for it.

The pitcher batter interface is extremely detailed first of all, which is a nice change for baseball games. When at bat, you control a rectanular cursor that increases in size depending on the player s abilities. Timing your swing can be tricky as you must hold down two different buttons at the same time, while maneuvering the cursor. This ensures you ll have control over where the ball will go when hit. On the mound, you have a variety of real pitches to throw at the batter that respond to physics just as a real ball would. You actually have to change up your pitches to strike out a good batter, and not just throw fast and wild like in most other games.

Graphically, the game is a little weak. The screen is cluttered, and there aren t any real major league stadiums. Still, Bottom Of The Ninth is an intensely detailed game.