In past years, Acclaim has not been well known for their graphics in sports, so I wasn't really expecting much from this department. However, I must say I was fairly impressed with the debut of All-Star Baseball 2002. The overall look of the game was what caught my eye. Stadiums were mimicked to perfection, complete with the waterfalls in Kauffman Stadium and Bernie Brewer's Slide in Miller Park. The players themselves brought their own look, including life-like facial textures and over 1500 motion captured animations. But the action wasn't just out on the diamond. Team mascots were also strutting their stuff on top of the dugout. Unfortunately, everything was not all good in this department. Sometimes, the animations took a turn for the worse, like when the outfielder looked like he was throwing the ball towards the warning track, only to have it really go to the infield. Little things like these make the difference between good and great games.

The audio was like the graphics, a great hit, but not a home run. The play-by-play sounded great, probably the best I've heard in a long time. The banter between Bob Brenly and Thom Brennaman was very fluid and enjoyable. Plus, they kept track of the batter history of that particular game. However, a couple of calls were obviously wrong at times, like when I fouled it back behind the backstop, but they said it went down the right-field line. The sounds of the game were there, with the crack of the bat and sound of the glove, plus the crowd volume was good in itself, but again, I felt cheated in that the sound effects were underdone.

My hat goes off to All-Star Baseball 2002 for probably being the most realistic baseball game so far this year. Although the ball was smaller than I am accustomed to in the batters box, it provided the extra incentive for me to want play it over and over again. Be aware though, those bats are corked! Being the Twins fan that I am, I was very surprised to see that Denny Hocking, of all people, was capable of multi-homer games. Now I mean no disrespect to the Hocking family, but lets face it, he's not a marquee player. But this does lead me to my next point, that ASB contains all 30 teams, and has over 700 players to play around with. That's not even including the Hall of Fame team that includes old greats like Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt and Nolan Ryan, complete with Turn Back the Clock uniforms for each club.

Despite the minor flaws that I mentioned earlier, the rest of the gameplay for All-Star Baseball 2002 was very realistic. When fielding, every play is capable of being a highlight reel with the diving and jumping taking place. Also, take note that errors are unavoidable, even if you yourself do everything right. One example is when you try to throw someone out with a tag, but the throw is high, and the runner slides underneath. The game modes themselves are pretty much standard: Exhibition, Season, World Series (just the playoffs), Home Run Derby and Batting Practice, all of which are self explanatory. And after you complete a Season, awards are handed it out like the MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Gold Glove. There's also a General Manager option that lets you trade, sign free agents, draft and create players.

Of all the options in this game, the one I didn't seem to find was how to change the levels of difficulty. Thankfully, things will get harder with the teams you play with and against. There is no guarantee you'll be able to win every game, unless you've put together the ultimate roster. Probably the hardest thing is batting, with the incredibly small bat and ball that Acclaim has provided.

The controls for All-Star Baseball 2002 were similar to other baseball games, one direction for one base. Also, a new wrinkle in the fold is how you can select the base you want to throw to while fielding the ball. This makes a more fluent and quicker reaction to the play. Be advised, once you've selected the base to throw to, you can't go back, so be careful. Pitching also has a post feature, where you change the direction of the pitch after you have selected it. During mid-windup, use your left analog stick to move the pitching target. Should your target go out of the batters box, the controller will begin to shake. An added bonus was the lack of loading time. The same could not be said about the amount of space that was used on the memory card.

Like I've been saying all along, All-Star Baseball 2002 has its bugs, but for a debut series, I think it did very well.