Been playing these games since I got them at garage sales when I was a kid, so this was my most highly anticipated game of the year. Pros: - The animations look great, and I appreciate the sound design. Very polished. - Various quality of life improvements, such as hotkeys for batting stance, make micromanaging easy. - Hitting the ball feels really nice, especially on homers. In the older games, it was euphoric to get a hold of a curveball and blast it 600 feet, and they've modernized that feeling here. - I like the extra options for base running. Controlling the sprinting and sliding is both fun and creates a welcome skill ceiling. - The voice acting is, for the most part, good. I really enjoy the new Sunny Day, and I have no issues with the players. - It feels like some of the notoriously mediocre kids in previous games got buffed to the point of viability, without sacrificing the best players. I like the variety that this will create in both single player and multiplayer when it eventually comes. I never thought I'd see the day where Jorge Garcia has a reliable skill set, but here we are. - Overall, the faithfulness to the original games is positive, save for a few things I'll get into. I figure there's some artistic restraint necessary when making a new game in a series like this, balancing trying to make your own mark with sticking true to what works. I think the devs did a good job making it feel like a backyard game instead of a husk trying to live off the label, much like any backyard game released after 2005 felt to me. No Real Opinion: - This section is basically just about the Gatorade inclusion. I don't really care about it, but I understand if others are peeved. I'm neutral about it because Gatorade didn't replace 100% juice. If Gatorade HAD replaced it, I would've been pissed. Devs, PLEASE don't get any ideas. Areas for Improvement: - Not having multiplayer on launch hurts. I can still get dozens of hours out of single player, but playing against friends or even random people was something I was really looking forward to. Obviously this is something I'll remove from the review when it comes to the game, but the clock is ticking to make the multiplayer viable while the hype is still here. - HATE the change to power-ups. Getting strike-outs should give a pitching power-up, and getting a hit off a power pitch should give a batting power-up. I can't imagine anyone out there likes this change, but at the very least, I'd appreciate the ability to toggle it to the classic system. - I've played games with the pitch locator and without it. Without it, I can barely make contact. The new pitch animations look nice, but don't have the same arcs as the older games. Obviously this is something I'll get used to eventually, but no veteran of the series should assume they can just jump in with no pitch locator. Now, because you pretty much have to use the pitch locator to get a hit when you start playing, the game is incredibly easy. I'm talking 40 runs an inning easy. The pitch locator shows the exact location of the pitch instead of shading a general area. Previous games in the series have an option to show a rough area as well as the exact pitch location, and I believe this would be better than what is currently in the game. I can't comment on the difficulty levels since I haven't unlocked the hardest difficulty, but I can't imagine it'll change too much with the pitch location dichotomy. - I need way more stats. I need more stats in-game when players are at bat, I need to be able to pause a game and see how each kid on both teams are doing up to that point, I need to be able to use stats to scout my opponent, and I need to be able to see the league leaders. The irksome part of this bullet point is the fact that I'm not asking the devs to add something I've never seen before. I'm asking for something that is in the nearly 30 year old game(s) and NOT this one. Feels like a very easy, slam dunk fix that will add to the feel of season mode. - There are some more very minor gameplay things. I don't think the CPU takes enough time between pitches. The old games had it down pat, but in this game the opposing pitcher is on what feels like a 3-second pitch clock. You won't notice it in most situations, but it's jarring when you're trying to steal. Along these lines, there's a couple things I've found that don't follow the rules of baseball. When an outfielder catches a ball that bounces off the wall, it's been counted as an out multiple times for me. Also, if there's two outs and you get caught stealing for the third out of the inning, the batter that was at the plate when that out occurred doesn't go back to the plate, instead moving on to the next kid in the lineup. I don't know if these are bugs or intentional, but I figure these'll be fixed. - Vinnie's voice acting feels off. Like there's a lapse in the accent at the end of sentences that gets a little grating. I don't think a change here is even feasible, and it's not a particularly big gripe, I just wish the voice acting was better for one of the two characters you hear the most. - Lastly, $40 is too much for the product that we currently have. I've already played it too much to refund, but I never had any intention of doing so. There is a world where this game gets to $40, though. As long as multiplayer is nailed, I'll be happy. I'm also hoping there are free updates along the way. But as I write? $40 is steep. And if they have plans for DLC that's anything other than free, that'll be a big issue. Overall, while I think I had a lot of cons, I'm feeling good about this game's trajectory, as practically everything I said is fixable. This game has GREAT bones. It looks and sounds great, I'm enjoying gameplay, and it's very faithful to what made the older games work. I care about these games so much that this is the longest review I'll probably ever give for anything, and I think the devs have that same passion. I can definitely see a world where there's constant tweaks for the better, major content updates, and a vibrant multiplayer scene. I'm going to recommend it with the caveat that you love the series. If you're new to the games, I'd buy '01 instead and see if it speaks to you before committing to this $40 price tag.