Baseball Superstars 2009

I've been looking for an Android football game, given that it is the heart of the NFL season with the playoffs just around the corner, but have had no luck. Instead I found Baseball Superstars 2009. Baseball Superstars 2009 is one of a limited... ok, very limited... selection of sports games for the Android. Baseball Superstars 2008 is the other choice (please correct me if I am wrong as I WANT to be wrong). I'd really like to see some good football, hockey, and soccer games on the Android platform. A basketball games might be nice, too, for those that enjoy that sport.

So here I am with Baseball Superstars 2009 from GAMEVIL in the midst of football season. Fortunately, this game rocks. It's a prime example of how to do almost everything right on an Android game. But first, the negatives. For a start, the text size is microscopic in size on the menus. If you have poor eyesight you won't be able to play this one. Next, it uses my favorite style of control; the on screen gamepad. It will let me use my Droid's DPad, though, but it treats the middle as the fire button and I find that worse as I can't navigate and then quickly get a middle click in with the same DPad.

Once we're past those issues this game is a gem (and the on screen controls aren't too bad given that baseball isn't a constant stream of button presses like an arcade game). The graphics are cute. The audio is sharp. The game play is smooth. It's this kind of game that reinvigorates my faith in the platform and shows that the same games that are on the iPhone CAN be done on the Android platform given hardware with enough horsepower (i.e. the Droid).

The game itself is packed with options from choosing a team's lineup, to season modes, to home run derbies, to a quick pickup game. When I first started playing the game it was unbelievably difficult. I had what seemed to be a billionth of a second to correctly swing at the ball, and the computer opposition would hit most of what I pitched. Further reviews revealed 3 difficulty levels and, better yet, 5 speeds. I was on speed 4 with middle difficulty. I dropped it down to easy and speed 2 and things turned around quickly. I need to bump it back up to speed 3 and perhaps back to middle difficulty, but the good news is that I still have 2 speeds and hard difficulty to go before I can retire this game.

The game also offers a lite version to give it a test drive. I really appreciate when companies do that and I'm sure it helps them cut down on the refunds by allowing people to more effectively try before they buy. But all in all this game is an excellent adaptation of baseball for Android owners that all baseball aficionados should have.