The Xavixgame fitness system was released in 2005 and has not shared the same success as the Wii. The concept is very similar but each game has its own unique and realistic controller. The Xavix Baseball game comes with a baseball with four buttons on it, and a bat that has one button.

Tell me about the game

There are four game modes: Championship, Regular Game, Homerun Derby, and Training Games. Because timing is so critical in this game, I highly recommend you do the training first. The training has three modes: one to teach you batting, one to teach you how to pitch and the last one is to test your reflexes. The Test Your Reflex game is probably the most interesting. You have to swing the bat within a certain range and the balls come at you faster and faster. Fortunately you have three tries per round, and it just takes one successful swing to get you to the next level. Championship and Regular game modes are practically identical when it comes to game play. You can have up to eight players in championship mode and in regular mode you can play against the computer or a live opponent. Each game has you start by picking one of eight teams. Each team has its own personality so to speak. There are three stadiums to play in World, Satellite, and Space Station. The latter two just offer a night sky and different scenery only. You will wear out your wrists with swinging the bat and throwing the ball. Fortunately, you don’t have to play all nine innings. You can start the game from the 1st, 4th or 7th inning. You can also choose which side will bat first and the right/left handedness of the team or player.

Teams

There are 8 teams to choose from. They are all basically the same with slightly different attributes (offense, pitching, hitting) and different pitches are available on each team. They are: Spikes Red Devils Wheels Tidal Wave Silver Fox Big Horns Troopers Stray Dogs

How do I pitch?

The baseball has four buttons on it and when it’s your turn to pitch a legend will be displayed on the screen showing you how to throw six of the nine different pitches. So you don’t have to memorize or guess what you’re throwing. You can throw a Fastball, Slider, Curveball, Cutball, Change-up, Sinker, SinkingFastball, Splitfinger, or Knuckleball. Once you choose your pitch you just pitch when the screen tells you to. I’m not sure how the speed/strike/hitting is determined.

Controls/Interface

Once you press enter on the console initially you can maneuver around the rest of the menus using the bat. Using the buttons and ball for the pitching is pretty easy. Batting is another story. For starters the bat is a bit on the small side so it’s a little uncomfortable for adults to use it. The timing for hitting the ball takes some getting used to. On a lighter note this game must have been written in a non-English speaking country, as it has a bad case of poor English. For example, in batting practice the game displays “Now you try to batting”.

Graphics

The graphics on the Xavix system are very poor. They are somewhere between Nintendo 8bit and Super Nintendo quality. The characters and team logos are not very detailed.

Sound

The background music in this game is MIDI quality. The announcer is obviously computer generated; you can especially tell when it’s reporting the ball/strike ratio.

Appropriateness

Baseball is a pretty clean sport and this game is fine for all ages.

Final Thoughts

I’ve definitely been spoiled by the polish of Nintendo’s Wii Sports Baseball. This game is rough around the edges in many regards. When it comes to the sound, graphics and controls, this game does poorly. The timing is so picky that hitting the ball at the right moment has a steep learning curve. You can’t tell if you’re swinging too early or too late. It still boggles me how they let such bad grammar slip through without being noticed. I only recommend this game if you already have a Xavix and really like baseball.