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I'll tell you right off the bat, I bought this game because of the promo web site at www.acclaimnation.com and some of the previews at various Saturn web pages. It looked good and the previews all said it was a good game. I paid around $50 for it at a local toy store. I'm glad the price was not around $60 or $65 because it's not worth that much. It's a good game, but it's not a super game. If you want to play a solid game of hardball on the Saturn, this is the game you want.

The graphics are decent, but could be a little bit better. The stadiums are all right but not the best. The stadiums for the preview of World Series Baseball on the Bootleg Sampler disc that came with my Saturn rival the look of the stadiums in ASB 97. The players are above average. The batters could have a little more realism with their swings but look good. The pitchers are very good in every aspect. The baserunners and the fielders are done very well. Their running is good and the throwing motions are well done.

The gameplay is tough to get used to, but after a few games, it's easier to deal with. The controls are the hardest part of this game. It takes a while to perform a decent extrabase hit. It gets even harder when you try to steal and move more then one runner. The fielders are better off in automatic fielding, because if you use manual, the player you control changes at the weirdest times.

The computer A.I. is done well, but sometimes I wonder why they do what they do. Standing in the very back of the batters box as far away from the plate as they can get, then swing at a curveball on the whole other side of the plate out of the strikezone. One other question is the errors. Sometimes, the players can't get a hold of a slow roller, but stab a fast liner that Cal Ripken would have trouble getting.

There are a lot of nice extras in this game. The play-by-play by Jon Miller is great. Makes the "SportsTalk" of the old Joe Montana Football on the Genesis sound like a two year old. Most of the calls are right on time, with the others being very close to instant. The ballpark announcer, the crowd, the hotdog vendor and the organ are all very nice touches. Along with the 1997 schedule with interleague play and Home Run Derby, the day before the All Star Game style, you will be interested in this game for a long time.

All in all, I'd have to give this game a 8.75 out of a 10. It's good, but there are a few things that could've been fixed to make this game great.