Home Run King for Gamecube FAQ
Version 1.0
April 7, 2002
Copyright (C) 2002 by NavinRJohnson - All Rights Reserved
This FAQ may not be reproduced or redistributed in part or whole
without express written consent from the author.
Section 1: Revision History:
============================
Version 1.0 - April 6, 2002 - Initial version. Basic coverage of
controls and gameplay options, Lots of TBD remains.
Section 2: Introduction:
========================
Home Run King is Sega's latest console baseball offering. Though based on the
Dreamcast World Series Baseball 2K1 title, this fast-paced,
high-scoring baseball game improves on its ancestor in many
ways. While WSB2K1 was recognized as visually appealing, its gameplay
had substantial flaws. Fielding was handled automatically by the
computer, eliminating a fun and demanding aspect of the
game. Baserunners advanced without tagging up on fly balls, leading to
many absurd outs. WSB2K1 also used an unusual control scheme for
hitting which players either loved or hated.
HRK retains the great-looking graphics, improving on them a bit with
the GameCube's hardware. It adds manual fielding to the mix (though
auto-fielding is still an available option). Baserunning remains
challenging, but the hitting interface has been simplified with button
presses managing the hitter's swing.
HRK is billed as an "arcade" baseball game, which leads to
an expectation of a lack of realism in the game. Though home runs are
plentiful on the lower difficulty settings, don't expect an NFL
Blitz-style set of rule changes or "flaming batter" gimmicks to be a
part of the game. HRK plays baseball straight-up. The pitcher-batter
interface is well designed and leads to interesting and credible
showdowns, and the dynamics of the ball and players in the parks are
generally modeled realistically.
Section 3: Controls
===================
This section is really what got the FAQ started. I
initially rented this game from my local Hollywood Video and the
control information printed on the box was almost insufficient to let
me play the game. I muddled through and enjoyed myself enough to buy
the title, but then almost discovered an entirely different game was
waiting for me when I learned how to really control the action.
Pitching:
=========
On the mound, you'll be presented with a set of directional
arrows on the screen. They'll vary based on your pitcher's handedness
and the pitches he knows, but for a rightie they'll look something
like this:
^
|
|
|
+---->
|\
| \
| \
V V
The arrows will be filled to their ends with red-orange color at the
beginning of the game.
Each arrow represents a kind of pitch. If your pitcher is strong with
a particular pitch, the arrow for that pitch will be long. If he's
weaker on that pitch, the arrow will be shorter. As your pitcher plays
and grows fatigued, the color will drain away from each pitch.
The effectiveness of a given pitch at any given time can therefore be
measured by the length of the fill amount in its arrow. If your
pitcher's fastball is his best pitch and has five segments in its
arrow, and his slider is weaker with only three segments of length,
but halfway through the sixth inning you've used your fastball to
death and haven't touched your slider, you may find that you've got
two colored segments in both arrows. At that point, they'll be about
equally effective.
So what does effective mean? Well, it refers to how controllable the
pitch is for you and how hittable it is for the batter. The more
effectiveness you have remaining in a pitch's arrow, the higher its
velocity will be. The more effectiveness you have left the easier it
will be to "paint the corners" with the pitch without having the pitch
1) fail to break for a breaking pitch or 2) miss the strike zone. So
look to go for your most effective pitches in critical situations, and
balance your use of all your pitches throughout your time on the mound
to keep the hitter on his toes.
For a right-handed pitcher, the pitch arrows mean the following:
Straight up: Fastball
Directly right: Slider
Right and down: Curveball
Straight down: Change-up (knuckle ball or fork ball for some pitchers)
Left and down: Sinker
For a lefty, simply flip the directions and you get the same meanings
(i.e. Left and down becomes a curve, right and down becomes a sinker).
So: you're on the mound. You've got the arrows up showing you which
pitches your pitcher can throw and how effective each will
be. Meanwhile the batter has taken several practice swings, called
time out and stepped back out of the box, stepped back in, readied
himself a bit more, and the cycle has repeated numerous times while
you read all this. Time to let it rip.
Push the left control stick (the grey one) straight up to select a
fastball. You'll see the pitch selection arrows vanish and the pitcher
move to the set position. And nothing else will happen. Now what?
Well, you've just told your pitcher to get ready - you haven't said to
pitch yet. Furthermore the pitch you selected just now is not final -
you could still change to another pitch. More on that in a second.
There are three speeds of pitch you can throw - hard, regular, and
soft. You indicate these with Y, A, and X respectively. To pitch, you
will press the selected pitch speed button twice.
So let's throw that fastball. Hold the control stick straight up while
you press A. This confirms that you want to indeed throw the heater-
holding the stick in a different direction while pressing the pitch
button would choose a different pitch at this point. (I think the
purpose here is to let you somehow throw off a human opponent sitting
next to you on your pitch selection... ?) As soon as you press A
you'll see your pitcher start his windup and you'll see a vertical bar
appear on the screen near your pitcher. It will start to fill from the
bottom. Wait until it reaches its peak and then press your pitch
button (in this case A) again. If you time it right, you'll see MAX
appear over the bar in yellow. The pitcher will then deliver the pitch
with its velocity determined by the strength bar you just filled.
As soon as you have started the pitch velocity bar filling, let the
control stick return to its neutral position. To control the
positioning of the pitch, tip the control stick in the
direction you want the ball to go. Bear in mind that the control stick
is analog- the more you tilt it in a direction, the more strongly the pitch
will go in that direction. Generally you'll want to tip the stick no
more than 1/3 of its total range of motion in a given direction if you
want to keep your pitches in the strike zone. Beware of hitting the
batter - tipping the stick too far in the direction that the batter is
standing will result in him getting plunked.
Finally, if you have a runner on base who's taking too much of a lead
you can try to pick him off. Press the B button while holding the
control stick in the direction of the base (right for first, up for
second, left for third) to throw to the bag.
That's pitching. The rest is practice and technique (more on that
later).
Fielding:
=========
So pitching didn't go so well and the ball's been hit. What now? Well,
the computer will determine what it believes will be the best
candidate fielder to go after the ball in play. The grey control stick
will now control this fielder's motion. You'll see a baseball circle on
the field with an ever-shrinking red halo around it. The circle
represents the ball's position over the field and the size of the red
halo represents its relative height (the larger the halo, the higher
the ball). If this is a routine fly ball, then run your fielder under
the ball (on top of the baseball circle on the field) and wait for it
to come down to you. If you do this right, just before the ball lands
the fielder will begin an automatic animation showing him fielding the
ball and getting ready to throw it in.
What if you are close to the ball but can't quite get there? Hit the A
button to make a diving/ sliding/ leaping catch. You may be able to
get the spectacular play or you may blow it and be out of position to
continue the play. That's the risk/ reward proposition.
Once you've fielded the ball, you may need to get it back into the
infield to stop a baserunner. Pressing B at this point will throw the
ball back in to the computer-selected cutoff man. Generally this will
be to second or home. To select a specific base to throw to, push the
grey control stick in the direction of a base (right for first, up for
second, left for third, down for home) and press A.
A note- you generally want to press the throw button slightly before
the ball is actually fielded if you want your fielder to catch and
immediately throw the ball in. If you delay with your fielder in
pressing a throw button, he may stop and run with the ball before
throwing it, delaying your throw.
Setting Fielders:
=================
Before the pitch, the left and right triggers can be used to move your
infielders and outfielders through different defensive
alignments. Left trigger changes the infield alignment, mostly useful
to set your fielders up for a double play or to defend the bunt. Keep
pressing left trigger to cycle through each alignment and around back
to "normal". Likewise the right trigger cycles through alignments that
position your outfielders to the left or right, deep or shallow.
Batting:
========
Now you're at the plate. Time to find out why the game is called Home
Run King. As you step into the box and take some warm-up swings, you'll
see the familiar pitching arrows appear again in the middle of the
strike zone box. Now you're being given the opportunity to predict the
pitch you'll be hitting. Press the control stick in the direction of
the kind of pitch you believe the pitcher will send your way.
For the purposes of this FAQ, let's assume you pressed "up" to predict
a fastball. The strike zone will now fill with a white crosshair
surrounded by a blue circle. The blue circle represents your batter's
contact zone. When the pitcher delivers the ball, use the control
stick to move your contact zone over the spot where the pitch is
coming and press a hitting button (more later on that). If you find
the pitch you'll get some sort of hit. If you don't, it's a strike. Of
course, if the pitch is going outside the strike zone, just lay off
and don't press the swing button to take the ball.
The better your batter, the larger the contact zone circle will
be. Power hitters' generally are large, while pitchers' circles are
often little larger than the crosshair.
If you've predicted the pitch correctly, you'll see the contact circle
turn orange as your cue. If it doesn't, you'll know what the coming
pitch *isn't*.
When the pitch is on the way you'll need to time your swing as well as
set the contact zone circle into place. There's no way to really describe
what the right timing looks like - you'll just need to practice. I
recommend trying the Home Run Derby to learn - you'll get
consistently-placed fastballs so all you have to master is your
timing.
You have four types of swing you can try. The A button gives you a
standard swing. B squares you around to bunt. X goes for a "contact"
swing, expanding your contact zone slightly in exchange for less
power. Y unleashes the power swing, shrinking your contact zone but
increasing your power.
The power swing is definitely something to use sparingly. The dramatic
reduction in your contact zone makes your hitting percentage much
lower. I've found you're better off working your swing position on a
normal swing in general, unless you've correctly predicted the pitch
type and you can get right on top of the ball.
The crosshair in the hitting circle is key to understanding the kind
of hit you'll get. If the ball comes in above the crosshair, you'll be
getting the bat under the ball and lofting it into a fly ball. Under
the crosshair means the bat comes over and slaps a grounder. Left and
right of the crosshair, in combination with whether your swing was
early or late, governs the left to right spread of where the hit will
go.
If you predict a type of pitch other than a fastball you'll see the
contact zone stretch into an oval of some sort. This represents the
breaking motion you should expect from the pitch.
Baserunning:
============
The left and right triggers control baserunners. Pressing left trigger
until it moves in to the "click" position tells all baserunners to
advance, while the right trigger pulled in to the "click" tells all
baserunners to retreat. Holding the stick toward a base and using the
triggers directs your command to only the selected baserunner.
You can lead off a base by pulling lightly on the left trigger to inch
your runner away from the bag. Watch the pickoff throw and get back
quickly with right trigger, or try to steal by pulling in until the
trigger clicks.
Your baserunners will start to advance immediately when the ball is
hit - fly or grounder. If you see that you've hit a fly and that it's
likely to be caught for an out, you should immediately hit right
trigger to cause your baserunners to return and tag up - otherwise
they'll be tagged out on the basepaths.
Substitutions:
==============
Press Start to pause the game, then choose Substitution from the
circular menu. Use the control stick to select the player you want to
pull, then press A. You'll get a list of players you can
substitute. Pick the player from the list and press A again to execute
the swap or B to cancel.
You'll see a bar under each player's name. This represents the
player's fatigue level. Fatigued players will of course perform less
well. For pitchers, their starting fatigue level when you bring them
in will determine the starting effectiveness of their pitches, so
check your relievers' fatigue level before you decide which to bring in.
Section 4: Gameplay Modes:
==========================
Exhibition:
===========
Pick two teams and go at it. You can choose the game length, stadium,
time of day, and weather. Choosing Quick Start instead of Exhibition
will allow the computer to make all these selections for you.
One thing you'll notice in exhibition mode is a running score tally at
the bottom of the screen. Good plays (strikeouts, home runs, etc.)
increase your score while bad plays (being struck out, giving up runs,
etc.) decrement your score. At the end of the game you're offered the
chance to save your high score.
Season:
=======
Pick a single team and play a season. You can determine the length of
the season to play. The game point score from Exhibition mode is not
kept here. You'll be walked through the season day by day and offered
the chance to play or simulate your team's game for each day of the
season. You'll also see the other teams' schedules and game results
for the day. Be sure to save your game (34 blocks) periodically.
Home Run Derby:
===============
Pick your batters and swing away. You'll play through several rounds
of home run hitting, being scored on length and average.
Section 5: Tips and Tricks:
===========================
Weather: Rain is the weather choice that seems to make the biggest
difference in the gameplay. In an outdoor stadium, rain makes
grounders die quickly in the field, slowed down by the water on the
grass and dirt. Getting hits becomes much more difficult. Combine this
with a strong wind blowing in to keep the number of fly hits down and
you can end up with a tight, low-scoring game.
Wind: The wind indicator in the upper right corner of the screen can
have a substantial impact on the game. The color of the indicator is
important to read. If it's a blue or green color, the wind is soft
enough to have no effect. Yellow, orange, and red, however, indicate a
wind strong enough to influence fly balls. You'll notice in a windy
game that getting under a fly ball to field it becomes more
challenging, as the ball will drift with the wind before coming down.
Alternate Uniforms:
In Exhibition mode, pressing on the left and right triggers while
selecting teams will allow you to select the teams' alternate uniforms
for the game. In season mode, the computer determines when to pull out
the special unis.
Fielding: As pointed out in the fielding section above, you'll want to
press the throw button just an instant before you catch the ball in
order to quickly whip the ball into the infield - otherwise you may
find your fielder running with the ball and holding it much too long
for you to make the play.
Section 6: Q/A:
===============
Franchise Mode: Does the game have a franchise mode? No. Season mode
lets you play a basic season and manage your roster, but no
traditional franchise mode. Season mode doesn't track an exhaustive
array of statistics.
Game option sliders: Can I control the different aspects of the game?
Yes - there are a number of control sliders that let you do everything
including turning auto-fielding off and on. (to be filled out further
in later versions of the FAQ)
Worth playing: Sum it up- is the game fun? Is it worth renting/
buying? Of course Your Mileage May Vary, but I'd say Yes. It's
definitely worth a rent, and after you've played a couple of games you
may find that you want to plunk down your cash for a permanent
copy. The gameplay is both challenging and exciting, and the pace is
excellent. HRK is one of the most fun baseball titles I've played.
