Nostalgia can be a powerful thing to tap into but that doesn't necessarily mean what was popular in the past will translate well current day.
MLB Advanced Media, who took on development of the R.B.I. Baseball reboot three years ago, should have come to that realization by now. When the return was first announced there was a great deal of excitement. That quickly dissipated when consumers got a look at the outdated visuals and meager feature set. In this day and age there are much higher expectations that just a recognizable name that have to be met for consumers to part with their money.
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The new R.B.I. Baseball series has been created for both the latest generation of consoles and for mobile devices with very little difference between the two versions. Unfortunately the result is, for all intents and purposes, a mobile game being offered on consoles for $20.
Three years in now and nothing has really changed. A few more basic features that should have already been in have finally been added. That's the best that can be said about R.B.I. Baseball 16 which looks and plays like a mobile game. There's no ambition or innovation in play with this series and it's unfortunate because there is a void in the sports gaming genre for fun arcade-style games.
R.B.I. Baseball 16 features only the most basic of ways to play. There's a Season Mode (162, 81, or 52 games), Postseason Mode, Exhibition, and Online.
Season Mode is just that -— a single season — so there is no building of a franchise taking place. In fact there are no transactions at all during a season. No free agency, no trades, and no call-ups being made from the minors. The teams have their rosters and that's what they'll be stuck with for good. There's also that only one Season can be ongoing at a given time. For a new Season to be started the one in progress must be overwritten.
Meanwhile Postseason mode can't be set up with specific teams as they're filled out seemingly at random by the CPU. There is no special flare to the postseason games — they look and sound just like the exhibition games.
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Online is where R.B.I. 16 would potentially offer its longevity if the circumstances were ideal. Games are difficult to come by however, due both to a low ownership base and connection errors. When an opponent is actually found the performance is exceedingly poor as the games are plagued by heavy lag. There's also inexplicably no ability to change the 'Ball Height Indicator' setting for online games from the default which leads to a ton of unnecessary errors being committed.
It's notable the way in which the R.B.I. Baseball series is promoted by MLBAM. There's very little of it in a traditional sense, and they don't push the actual product in the form of videos and feature information. It's a very "mobile" type of promotion where the game is just dropped on the market and there's very little in the way of improvement from year-to-year.
What you're paying for here instead is the MLB license. The real teams, players, and stadiums. There wasn't a single compelling new feature added with R.B.I. Baseball 16. Rather the work that was done comes down to small incremental improvements to AI which should be expected with every release of a sports game and not treated as though they represent some sort of achievement. Even with them there are still a bevy of issues including the CPU running into third outs at third base before the lead runner crosses home plate.
The sim engine in R.B.I. Baseball 16 does a competent job, though home run numbers and batting averages are way too low. In a full season sim Paul Goldschmidt led the league in hitting but at only .280 while Steven Souza Jr. topped the league in home runs with just 25. Pitchers come in more as expected. Jake Arrieta had 22 wins while Chris Heston had a 1.79 ERA on his way to 20.
The lack of a real identity for the series is an ongoing problem. It has elements of arcade games such as a very simple control scheme, being able to move pitchers and batters around on the mound and in the batter's box, affecting the pitch on the way to the plate, and trying to offer a fast-paced experience. However it produces results closer to a simulation game, it is difficult to hit, and there are no tutorials. The result is that neither side, arcade or sim, are ultimately at all satisfying.
The most disappointing thing about R.B.I. Baseball is the complete lack of joy that comes with playing which, had it been present, could have made up for some of its built-in deficiencies. It's not fun, it's completely dry, and evokes essentially no emotion. The lack of commentary and replays are a big factor, as is a screenwipe that gets stuck for nearly five seconds between innings, but it goes beyond just features and surface issues and into the foundation of the game itself.
Three years into the reboot of the R.B.I. Baseball series and it's still a completely uninspired mobile-quality game being sold for four times as much on consoles. It's a shame that Xbox owners have now gone several years without a having a legitimate MLB game but it's been even longer since a quality one was released for a Microsoft system.
RBI Baseball 16 was reviewed on Xbox One and is also available on PS4. The game can be found on mobile devices too for $5 on iOS or Android. They are practically identical to the console versions except they lack online functionality.
Bryan Wiedey posts sports gaming news and analysis daily at Pastapadre.com, has co-founded the new site HitThePass.com, hosts the Press Row Podcast, and be reached on Twitter @Pastapadre.