Ahh, batting, the most essential part of any baseball game and one that seems to be the hardest to get right. While I found Smilebit's batting scheme functional and eventually intuitive - I am still not a big fan of it.
In order to hit the ball you need to move a cursor around the strike zone and guess where the pitch is going to be. If you get close to the area, it will zoom in and 'lock-on'. While you are doing this, you have to hold the A button and watch your power-meter as you wait for the pitcher to throw. Although it sounds easy, this system takes a lot of concentration and timing. Even though I said it was not needed - a batting practice option would have helped a lot.
Pitching is easy - just pick a pitch and throw. As the game goes on, your pitcher tires, requiring him to be pulled out. I really liked this system, although it is what most baseball games do anyway. Fielding is just as good - which surprised me because that's usually one of my main gripes in any baseball review. Fielding controls are very easy to grasp and the computer actually does a good job of auto-selecting the closest player. It is such an easy concept, yet developers seem to have the hardest time figuring it out.
Although it skimps on things, Baseball Advance is an excellent game and definitely the game baseball fans should pick up to play while waiting for a game at the ballpark.
