by Wyatt "JOEDOG" Elliott
Sega has redefined the sports game with their awesome 128 bit Dreamcast line up. NFL 2K, NBA 2K, NHL 2K, and now we have the return of World Series Baseball.
World Series Baseball 2K1 is the only baseball action we will have this year on Dreamcast. Unfortunately its not an instant classic like the rest of the Sega sports series.
2K1 features some of the best looking player graphics to appear on any system. These guys look so real its creepy. It appears Sega spent so much time on the player graphics they forgot to give attention to the stadium.
The fans in the stands look like they were dumped in from the Sega Genesis, not the Sega Dreamcast. NBA 2K showed they could have awesome player and audience animations in the same game.
This is not the only problem with 2K1. It should be noted that World Series Baseball 2K1 is a port of Sega's Arcade baseball game World Series Baseball '99. This is important to know because the arcade game was prominently batting practice. Which explains why 2K1 has absolutely no fielding control.
The computer controls the outfielders except for which base to throw to. This is very frustrating at times. World Series 2K1 controls like no other baseball game you have ever played. You can not just jump into this game no matter how experienced in other baseball games you are. This game will make a fool out of you unless you read the manual.
Sega's announcing team for this series is not to be compared to NFL 2K either. Its slow and boring, with nothing interesting happening.
PUBLISHER: SEGA
GRAPHICS: 8.5 MUSIC & SOUND: 6 CONTROL: 5
SECRETS: N/A ORIGINALITY: 5 FUN & REPLAY: 4
World Series Baseball 2K1 is not the Baseball simulator we were promised. Sega would have done much better for themselves if they would have released an arcade translation of '99 and a Dreamcast sim to earn the title 2K1. However that was not Sega's decision and since konami bailed on us with their baseball game, 2K1 is all we have. OVERALL: 6