Anyone used to the Triple Play or World Series Baseball series is accustomed to realism; realistic graphics, realistic sound, and realistic heads. Upon watching this game's FMV introduction sequence you will probably ask yourself "How do these players get their heads off their pillows in the morning? They must weigh 80 pounds!"
I love RBI baseball, and while the players in that are not the most physically fit you might find in a baseball game, they look like fine tuned Olympic athletes compared to these fellas. Their feet, which are about half the size of their heads aren't even attached to their bodies. That said, the intro is nicely done, although it is nothing that couldn't have been done on the Playstation.
Upon reaching the main menu you are greeted by a host of play modes: Exhibition, Success, Home run derby, Camp (training), Pennant, League, and Scenario. For those of you with some understanding of Japanese these options will add a lot of replay value to this game, but if you don't speak Japanese, you'll most likely be sticking to Exhibition and Home run derby, as none of the menus have any English on them. The home run derby is simple, and lots of fun. The computer serves up meatballs for you to try and hit out of the ballpark and many of the parks are so small that you can indeed put a ball into the parking lot.

The PS2 version (Left) The N64 version (center) and Dreamcast version (above)

In the audio department this game is about as average as you get. While I concede that the sound effects in a baseball game can go only so far, this game is pretty bland when it comes to its soundtrack. A brass fanfare loops throughout the entire game, playing the same song over and over, only mixing it up between innings to play "Shave and a haircut".
The crowd is not too bad, they react to the situation accordingly, and if a runner reaches third base they can get downright rowdy. A two-man announcing team call the action, and seemed to be right on the ball. They didn't seem to lag behind the play, and you could hear the excitement in their voices as a ball carried towards the stands.

When you take a look at the gameplay, you'll understand why this series has been successful for such a long time. Because that is what makes or breaks any game especially a sports game, I'll spend the most time discussing it.
The controls are simple, X pitches the Ball and X hits the ball. Square throws the ball to third, Triangle to second and you guessed it, circle to first. Both pitching and hitting are simply a matter of lining up the cursor to the spot that you want and hitting X. The pitcher has a small box at the top of the screen where they can line up the pitch before they throw it, and then you fine tune the location as the ball is traveling towards the plate. The batter can cheat a bit by looking at this screen, but you'll soon end up with a migraine from trying to hit like that. I learned to focus on the pitch cursor, and became a much better hitter.
There is a pretty steep learning curve when it comes to playing this game. The first game I played against the computer I lost 34-0, the second 19-0, but when I took on my brother I beat him 28-1. This shows I was actually getting better, and even though the computer was spanking me, I could have been worse. This really adds to the game's replay value, although it is frustrating at first. The only gripe that I have with this style of hitting is that it is very hard to judge the speed of the pitch when you are trying to line up your hitting crosshairs. Countless times I have had my cursor properly lined up only to miss because I wasn't watching to see if the pitch was a changeup or a fastball.
The fielding in this game while difficult is very enjoyable. You are not given any indicator showing where the ball is going to land, so it's up to you to judge the trajectory and shadow of the ball to make the catch. This is probably the most realistic part of the game, the ball comes off the bat very fast, and if you get a bad jump on the ball you are in big trouble. Another realistic thing is how difficult it is to reverse your momentum once you are running in a certain direction; this applies in fielding as well as baserunning. Even though this game has the feel of RBI baseball, you are not going to be advancing your runners if you wind up in a rundown, just like in real life your runner is going to be thrown out.

This game is not for everyone, if you are a big fan of the old school RBI or Baseball Stars games, this might be worth looking into. Since most people outside Japan prefer the more realistic sports games it is highly unlikely that Konami will be bringing this title overseas, so you'll have to import it. Even though I was constantly getting smacked around by the computer I still enjoyed this game; it didn't feel like I was giving up 20 runs and 30 hits. The only reason I would hesitate to recommend this title would be because it is really not worthy of being on the Playstation2. It seems like it was slated to be a Playstation title, and Konami switched development to the PS2, and voila! a Playstation2 game was born.