GameCube-owning baseball fans may be upset that Sega's World Series Baseball 2K3 was recently announced as an Xbox exclusive, but Sega hasn't completely forsaken Nintendo's console where hardball is concerned. As a replacement, or a stand-in depending on how you look at it, Sega has released its arcade-influenced baseball game, Home Run King, exclusively for the GameCube. Attempting to appeal to the casual sports fan, Home Run King has been pushed by Sega as an over-the-top baseball game that's easy to play. But further inspection reveals a game with fundamental flaws that limit its appeal to both the casual player and the ardent baseball guru.

Normally when a sports game is promoted as an arcade-type game, the rules of the sport tend to get bent. And why not? If you're going to create a zany interpretation of a sport, why not go all the way? But after studying the gameplay modes and rules in Home Run King, you'd think it was the latest installment in your favorite baseball simulation. In addition to the typical exhibition mode for up to two players, Home Run King includes a season mode that can be customized to your liking, a playoffs mode for those who like to go straight to the big time, and a home run derby to practice the big swings that are presumably required to succeed in a game of Home Run King's ilk. There's also a fairly extensive player-creation tool that lets you plant your own likeness in the starting lineup of your favorite team. The rules of the game are the same: three strikes and you're out, four balls and you walk, and three outs and the inning's over. There's nothing madcap about the rules at all.

The gameplay only furthers the lack of wackiness that the rules provide. The only major difference between playing Home Run King and any average baseball simulation is the pitching and batting interface. Like in most baseball games, the primary goal for hitting the ball is to line up your batting cursor with the pitching cursor and time the swing. But how the pitches are selected is a bit different from the norm. Before each pitch, an icon appears in the strike zone, and it looks very similar to a compass, with arrows stretching from a central point in several different directions. Each arrow represents a specific pitch type-- the longer the arrow, the more effective that particular pitcher is with that particular throw. To select a pitch, you simply press the analog stick in the corresponding direction. One drawback with this system is that pitch types are not included in the interface. Therefore, you must memorize the direction that each pitch type corresponds to or sit with the instruction book open to access the key. After a few days, you'll have all eight directions memorized, but it can be annoying in the early stages of gameplay. After a pitch is selected, you can press any button to start the windup. While the pitcher is going through his windup, a small power meter appears next to him. Tapping any button a second time will then set the power of the pitch.

Batting is handled similarly. Before each pitch, you can attempt to guess the type of throw by pressing the analog stick in the corresponding direction. Once the pitch is in the air, your batting cursor's shape changes, depending upon the pitch you selected. If you guess the pitch correctly, the batting cursor turns red, and your chances of knocking the ball out of the park are drastically increased. The lack of an ability to pull the ball or tailor the direction of your hits is disappointing, but this is one area where Home Run King actually resembles an arcade sports game. There are five different difficulty settings in the game, and hitting the ball is fairly easy, no matter which setting. The balls come in slow, and the speed does not change as you increase the difficulty setting. Instead, the direction that the ball flies changes, so you'll find that more balls go to the defense on the harder settings even though you're basically swinging exactly the same. Once you learn which pitches correspond to each direction, the pitching and batting interface in Home Run King works just fine. The ability to choose the velocity of each pitch comes in handy when you're attempting to preserve your pitcher's arm.