For baseball stat junkies, the Out of the Park series has been the text-based PC alternative to flashy graphics and empty gameplay for several years. Relatively inexpensive and incredibly realistic thanks to a phenomenal stat-based engine, there really isn’t a better baseball game to be had if you don’t mind missing out on the visual appeal of the game.
Given all that, I entered into iOOTP Baseball 2011 tempering my expectations. This is the first version of Out of the Park for an iOS platform, and given that it’s been built for an iPhone and not the cozy interface of a computer, I expected at least a little something to get lost in the transition.
Surprisingly, the in-game engine of iOOTP Baseball 2011 doesn’t miss a beat. Given this is a manage-only game, players have the opportunity to skip entire at bats or innings if they don’t feel like participating, otherwise there are easy commands to give basic managerial instructions like “take a pitch” or “hit and run” depending on the in-game situation. If you tell the batter to swing, you’ll be forwarded to the final pitch of his at bat, which helps speed things up if you don’t want to make a decision on every single pitch.
Where iOOTP Baseball 2011 could use a minor tune-up is in its off-the-field interface. What feels simple to navigate and understand on the PC, especially regarding players on your disabled list or other roster maneuvers, feels a little more labored on an iPhone. It’s not that anything is difficult to do, it just feels like it takes an extra few screens to get where you need to go.
Newcomers to the series are unlikely to notice a problem, and even veterans who have decided to give the mobile version a shot will probably find so much to like here that a mildly clunky interface shouldn’t be seen as anything more than a minor irritant. If you think you’d be a better manager than your favorite skipper and you don’t mind not swinging the bat yourself, iOOTP Baseball 2011 is as close to an ideal experience as you’re likely to find on a mobile device.
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