DREZEWIECKI: A fun, quality app for baseball fans

Friday, August 24, 2012 10:28 PM EDT

James Drzewiecki
Staff Writer

Buster Bash is an app available on apple devices and if you want a game that is similar to Angry Birds but with a baseball theme, well this would be it.

Now, let me say this ? this isn?t a perfect app. I did run into two issues that did make me like it less, but I?ll get into that later.

First, here is an overview of the game. You play as, well, your finger as you follow a boy named Buster in his baseball career. You start in his backyard in Leesburg, Georgia and as you progress you end up in the Big Leagues.

In each round you get 10 baseballs and the goal is to hit as many home runs as you can. As you hit balls you will earn sunflower seeds and these can be used to buy power-ups and equipment to help you hit those balls even farther.

The way you hit these balls is by swiping your finger across the screen, where my first annoyances with the game.

It could be just me but sometimes when I swipe my finger across the screen and clearly connect with a ball, the ball just goes right through my hit. It?s annoying and I could be wrong, I could be missing them, but I?m 97 percent sure I?m not.

The other is all the game?s fault. There comes a point in the game when the pitcher throws the ball and the ball bounces off the back of his head and falls. This will cause you to get 0 Feet. I can see if it happened once, but this happened at least seven times in a row.

Yet, when the game works it works great and it?s free to download and play. It?s not as smooth or fun as ?Angry Birds? but it takes a lot of hints from that game and tries to deliver something new and refreshing and for the most part it works.

One thing that I dislike about all these apps, not just Buster Bash, is paying real money to achieve in-game currency. I brought this up awhile ago in a column where I talked bout the new Tiger Woods game. In these games you can just dish out real money to unlock currency, in this case sunflower seeds, to buy new equipment. Yes, you can collect sunflower seeds in the game and choose not to buy it for real but why even give us the option? I hate this option because if you?re feeling lazy you will just buy the in-game currency and it cheapens the experience. I know some people like this option, but come on you have to admit that it does take away most of the challenge, because if you get in a tight spot you?re not going to worry because you can just buy your way out.

These options to buy-in game currency should be taken out. If the companies want to make money off these apps then charge for the app and later release level packs you can also charge us for.

Closing out this week I want to say that app?s are becoming more and more popular and there is some great ones out there. But I will say that mobile phones app can?t compete fully with Nintendo or Sony?s handhelds. Yet, I do believe that it?s headed that way.

In the future I would like to see phones being able to bring full handheld versions of sports games that are also available on Nintendo?s and Sony?s systems. But until then the smart phones are giving us a different type of gaming and that?s fine, it separates it from the others.

James Drzewiecki can be reached

at (860) 584-0501 ext. 22 or

jdrzewiecki@bristolpress.com

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Source: http://www.newbritainherald.com/articles/2012/08/24/sports/doc503837100d8bd965239006.txt

bastille day