It's 2014 and Nintendo still isn't sure what to do about this whole "monetization" thing. Around this time, they had a couple of games out under the term "Free to Start", which were games that only allowed you to play one or two sets of levels before eventually requiring money to buy the rest of the game. It was kind of like how most game demos work now, but at the time Nintendo would claim this was their answer to free-to-play games. Eventually, Nintendo would start making games that were monetized like any other game, mostly in the DLC front, leaving microtransactions to random phone games, but before then, they were pretty quirky with their experiments in free-to-play games, possibly their most quirky being Rusty's Real Deal Baseball.
At its most basic, this is a collection of 10 baseball-themed minigames, all of which have basic and advanced difficulty levels and two endless modes. The thinking was probably to allow users to pick and buy the minigames they wanted, while the base game was free. The "Nintendo-like solution" here is then to introduce HOW the users would buy the games. Enter Rusty: a retired, semi-disgraced baseball player who now runs a struggling sports equipment store. His wife having left under mysterious circumstances, he's now left with taking care of ten identical-looking children while running the store, which despite its declining nature, has a big "I <3 Haggling" sign at the front. And so while every game is listed for $4, haggling can bring them down easily to under $2.
I find this to be an incredibly compelling pitch for a game. There are already a few games centered around the game creator and player having a "dialogue" together throughout the game, or games that revolve around different conversations with different characters and trying to "get" something out of them, so a game centered around the negotiation process between a buyer and seller is rife with potential. Some games have haggling mechanics, but not as the center focus of the game. The problem here is that since this is a Nintendo game for children that uses real-life money, the actual system for "haggling" can only go so far.
For a haggling system to be true to real life, it would have to be pretty tough to get a good deal. There would have to be several fail cases that are easy to step into, and factors outside of and leading up to the transaction to take into consideration. Even if one were trying to make a haggling system that was simpler than real life, there would still have to be some threat of failure. But Nintendo probably doesn't actually want to stop users from getting the lowest possible price on these games, so as long as you play every minigame often enough to get donuts, you have infinite tries and constant guidance for haggling Rusty down to the lowest price. Paying anything other than this is actively discouraged by the game, and in a way that makes sense, because it would probably suck to pay one price for a game and find out someone else paid way less. While it's disappointing that the actual "haggling" aspect of the game is very trivial and only really used as a setup for the game's plot and presentation, I do think it's an effective setup.
It's very easy to become attached to Rusty and his whole weird thing going on, he has the charm of a middle-aged man you just met who's very nice to you. He's like a guy I would love to meet at an Applebee's. He's also very pathetic, so it's fun to help him talk through his problems while also making them worse by constantly tricking him into giving you deep discounts. I know I complained about how incredibly the "haggling" system is, but maybe that's perfect for Rusty, it makes sense for his character to be incredibly bad at this, he's a softy who lets himself get carried away easily. In that case, this game probably isn't the best fit for a real-ass haggling system, Rusty isn't the type to fight back all that hard. And the story is just generally cute and funny, I think that makes up for it.
The mini-games themselves are a bit of a mixed bag. Just so you know, you don't actually have to know a lot about baseball to enjoy them. Each minigame focuses on one aspect of baseball, using simple controls for each one. There are ten available to purchase, and about 6 of them you need to purchase to "complete" the story. The first one you get, "Bat and Switch", honestly made a bad first impression on me. It felt like one of those things where I couldn't figure out the timing consistently, and when I feel like I'm doing the same thing but getting a different result, that really tries my patience. This unfortunately isn't the only mini-game with such a problem, as others use gyro controls, and while they aren't badly implemented, it just feels worse than just controlling it normally. Thankfully, there are enough levels in each minigame that if one doesn't fancy you, you won't feel like you're missing out too much by skipping it. There's also a good variety of what you do in these games, like a game about being an umpire, or one involving that one Japanese toy with the parts you knock out with a hammer. They have simple controls and premises, and at their best, they make for a great little toy to play with while waiting for something or in the middle of some task. I would say I enjoyed most of the minigames, but there are only a few I would vouch for as being stand out.
This leads to a problem I have with the game's structure, in which specific games are required to be purchased to progress the story. Why not just have the first 6 or so games progress the story, and the rest be optional purchases? Because I would much rather just pick and choose the games I want instead of being forced to buy the games that require gyro controls.
So in the end, Rusty's Real Deal Baseball is kind of a strange mess, and its unorthodox payment setup has probably led to a lot of people not bothering with it. But as long as you aren't like, actively making the wrong choice during purchases, you shouldn't end up spending more than $20 for this game. I think it's genuinely fun to interact with Rusty and his family and see the story play out, and doing it through this shop setting is a neat novelty, even if it doesn't reach its full potential. How much you enjoy the minigames will be up to personal preference but consider giving a couple of them a try. Also, fun fact, if the account on your 3DS is the same as the one on your Switch, any funds added to your Switch can be used on the 3DS as well. So it's not impossible to still play this game (don't know if emulators have figured out how to play this game without like, constantly switching in and out of saves or whatever). I genuinely think Nintendo should bring back Rusty, just have a better set of mini-games and we're golden. Now more than ever, I want to talk to this pathetic middle-aged dog.
At its most basic, this is a collection of 10 baseball-themed minigames, all of which have basic and advanced difficulty levels and two endless modes. The thinking was probably to allow users to pick and buy the minigames they wanted, while the base game was free. The "Nintendo-like solution" here is then to introduce HOW the users would buy the games. Enter Rusty: a retired, semi-disgraced baseball player who now runs a struggling sports equipment store. His wife having left under mysterious circumstances, he's now left with taking care of ten identical-looking children while running the store, which despite its declining nature, has a big "I <3 Haggling" sign at the front. And so while every game is listed for $4, haggling can bring them down easily to under $2.
I find this to be an incredibly compelling pitch for a game. There are already a few games centered around the game creator and player having a "dialogue" together throughout the game, or games that revolve around different conversations with different characters and trying to "get" something out of them, so a game centered around the negotiation process between a buyer and seller is rife with potential. Some games have haggling mechanics, but not as the center focus of the game. The problem here is that since this is a Nintendo game for children that uses real-life money, the actual system for "haggling" can only go so far.
For a haggling system to be true to real life, it would have to be pretty tough to get a good deal. There would have to be several fail cases that are easy to step into, and factors outside of and leading up to the transaction to take into consideration. Even if one were trying to make a haggling system that was simpler than real life, there would still have to be some threat of failure. But Nintendo probably doesn't actually want to stop users from getting the lowest possible price on these games, so as long as you play every minigame often enough to get donuts, you have infinite tries and constant guidance for haggling Rusty down to the lowest price. Paying anything other than this is actively discouraged by the game, and in a way that makes sense, because it would probably suck to pay one price for a game and find out someone else paid way less. While it's disappointing that the actual "haggling" aspect of the game is very trivial and only really used as a setup for the game's plot and presentation, I do think it's an effective setup.
It's very easy to become attached to Rusty and his whole weird thing going on, he has the charm of a middle-aged man you just met who's very nice to you. He's like a guy I would love to meet at an Applebee's. He's also very pathetic, so it's fun to help him talk through his problems while also making them worse by constantly tricking him into giving you deep discounts. I know I complained about how incredibly the "haggling" system is, but maybe that's perfect for Rusty, it makes sense for his character to be incredibly bad at this, he's a softy who lets himself get carried away easily. In that case, this game probably isn't the best fit for a real-ass haggling system, Rusty isn't the type to fight back all that hard. And the story is just generally cute and funny, I think that makes up for it.
The mini-games themselves are a bit of a mixed bag. Just so you know, you don't actually have to know a lot about baseball to enjoy them. Each minigame focuses on one aspect of baseball, using simple controls for each one. There are ten available to purchase, and about 6 of them you need to purchase to "complete" the story. The first one you get, "Bat and Switch", honestly made a bad first impression on me. It felt like one of those things where I couldn't figure out the timing consistently, and when I feel like I'm doing the same thing but getting a different result, that really tries my patience. This unfortunately isn't the only mini-game with such a problem, as others use gyro controls, and while they aren't badly implemented, it just feels worse than just controlling it normally. Thankfully, there are enough levels in each minigame that if one doesn't fancy you, you won't feel like you're missing out too much by skipping it. There's also a good variety of what you do in these games, like a game about being an umpire, or one involving that one Japanese toy with the parts you knock out with a hammer. They have simple controls and premises, and at their best, they make for a great little toy to play with while waiting for something or in the middle of some task. I would say I enjoyed most of the minigames, but there are only a few I would vouch for as being stand out.
This leads to a problem I have with the game's structure, in which specific games are required to be purchased to progress the story. Why not just have the first 6 or so games progress the story, and the rest be optional purchases? Because I would much rather just pick and choose the games I want instead of being forced to buy the games that require gyro controls.
So in the end, Rusty's Real Deal Baseball is kind of a strange mess, and its unorthodox payment setup has probably led to a lot of people not bothering with it. But as long as you aren't like, actively making the wrong choice during purchases, you shouldn't end up spending more than $20 for this game. I think it's genuinely fun to interact with Rusty and his family and see the story play out, and doing it through this shop setting is a neat novelty, even if it doesn't reach its full potential. How much you enjoy the minigames will be up to personal preference but consider giving a couple of them a try. Also, fun fact, if the account on your 3DS is the same as the one on your Switch, any funds added to your Switch can be used on the 3DS as well. So it's not impossible to still play this game (don't know if emulators have figured out how to play this game without like, constantly switching in and out of saves or whatever). I genuinely think Nintendo should bring back Rusty, just have a better set of mini-games and we're golden. Now more than ever, I want to talk to this pathetic middle-aged dog.
2 Comments
I love this game
BansheeNeet
1 year ago