9 Innings Pro Baseball 2009 is an app for the iPhone and iPod touch that attempts to bring a serious, in depth baseball game to the app store. It almost succeeds.
The app opens up with a great intro video that shows off some pretty nice artwork and actually does get you excited to start the game. The first menu lists six options: start game, mission, options, help, leaderboard, more games, and about. This screen also displays your currently total points in the upper left side, a directional pad in the lower left, and an OK button in the lower right. There is also a smiley baseball in the upper right side of the screen, but tapping on it will quit the app to open safari and bring you to a list of other games by the developer. Tricky little smiley baseball.
Starting the game offers six modes. You can play an exhibition game, tournament, start a season, play a homerun derby, or upgrade your manager. Your manager plays a big role in your team's ability to win. When you start a new game you can choose from three difficulties, easy, normal, or hard. Easy will basically do everything for you, whereas hard will allow you to control fielding, running, and pitching, all on your own. Obviously, if you are a true sports gamer, you'll want to choose hard right away. The next screen allows you to choose teams. The game has no MLB licenses, so the team names are made up, and there are only eight. For example, you'll get to play as the LA Bluehills! Each team has statistics shown so you can see what their strengths and weaknesses are. The next screen shows options for innings and stadium choice where you can actually choose to play in Fanway Park (yes, with an A)! After selecting a manager and adjusting your roster, the game begins.
At the start of every game you are given missions to accomplish, such as stealing a base, or getting three strikes in a row. You receive points after completing these missions which can be used to upgrade you team manager. The more you upgrade your manager, the better chance you have of winning the game.
The graphics, animations, and sound are not impressive at all. The iPhone is capable of much more than this game offers. When you are at bat, your batter's upper body simply moves up and down while waiting for a pitch. During this time there are no other animations and absolutely no ambient sound, not even crowd noise. This lack of audio and graphics really doesn't put the player in the game. You do get some nice pitch and hit sounds. But, when you do hit the ball and the crowd cheers, instead of the sound fading down and out, the cheering is abruptly clipped off. Also, the umpire's voice is incredibly annoying. You'll have a flashback of Tony the Tiger when you hear the umpire's calls.
The actually process of batting is very simple, consisting of three buttons. The main button lets you swing. That's all you have to do and it's all about timing. There are two smaller buttons that let you bunt left or right. Base running and stealing are done by tapping on a runner's icon on the directional pad. Pitching is actually done very well. Each pitcher has a different set of pitching choices. After choosing a pitch you can use the directional pad to move a little white circle around the strike zone to set the pitch location. When you tap OK, a large red circle will surround the white one and start to get smaller. You'll want to tap OK again when the red circle lines up with the white one. The closer the red circle gets to the white circle, the more accurate the pitch. After a ball is hit, the players will run to the ball automatically, but you can manually throw to any base.
The game's strength is in its gameplay. It is definitely a fun baseball game. There are tons of stats to check out and the missions add a rewarding element to the app beyond just winning a game. The different modes definitely maximize replayability and the homerun derby is also tons of fun. But, I cannot recommend this app at its current price. It's too expensive for an app that lacks the graphics, animations, and sound that make games really great. If the price was lowered a couple of bucks, I would say you're getting a great value here. But until that happens, I would save your money for something of higher quality.