There's so many baseball cartridges around that any new games are really going to have to stand out to be worth buying. Unfortunately ESPN only makes it to third base. ESPN is a good, solid baseball game. It's main strength is its graphics, with superbly animated and large player sprites. There's lots of detail, and the batting and pitching animation is faultless. Unlike the Electronic Arts games, there is no change of view point throughout the game. The camera always rests behind the catcher and when you hit the ball you have to peer at the tiny map in the bottom corner of the screen to look at where it's heading. Fielding is terrible. The outfielders are ridiculously slow and it's very hard to get them in the right position for an incoming catch or stop. Other gripes include the lack of a season mode, player names and statistics. Generally, controls are good and players get the hang of pitching and batting very quickly. As with all sports games, you'll get the most out of ESPN when playing with a friend. It's actually quite a laugh. ESPN is a good baseball simulation but needed a lot more polishing to make it an EA beater.
