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3DS

Your Pro Guide to Rusty's Real Deal Baseball

by Daan Koopman - April 3, 2014, 5:50 pm EDT
Total comments: 2

With this guide, you'll be ready to discuss money hats with dogs!

So you have a strong interest in Rusty's Real Deal Baseball on the Nintendo 3DS eShop? We can't blame you, because it's a rather unique specimen in the system's library. With its focus on a selection of smaller baseball games and character interaction, it makes the format of regular judging somewhat difficult here. Instead, we are going to focus on the aspects of the title that deserve attention and the ten games that make this package!

The premise

Meet Rusty Slugger, a washed up baseball star. Luck has certainly not been on his side lately. These days, our new dog friend runs his own little shop called Rusty Slugger's Sports Shack. For the regular consumer, he has sporting gear widely available, but that is not why you are here. He has been heavily investing into a baseball gaming software and you are here to explore what he has on display. Every single piece of software, courtesy of Nintendo, focuses on a single element which makes choosing the right one a bit of a hefty choice.

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When you boot up the game for the first time, you will get a free trial version for Bat & Switch containing a handful of levels. Most of the games in Rusty's Real Deal Baseball have 50 small challenges, which are presented in rows of five. Each row tackles a certain element and you have to complete these rows in order, but you are free to choose the row that you want to start with. Most of the time, you will be presented with a small tutorial and then sent off on your merry way. The difficulty has a nice curve to it as the five level idea always becomes quite a challenge at the end. There is, however, a good reason to complete these and it is where another part of the game comes into play.

By completing levels, you earn stamps that unlock the most important bits throughout the game. For the games itself, it means that you will able to unlock the Hi-Score Derby A and B modes, which are pretty much endless games for your amusement. More importantly however, is that you can earn coupons and items in this very same way. The prices for the titles are initially $4.00, but you can negotiate with Rusty to lower pretty heavily. Certain items will push the plot forward and give Rusty a new spark of hope, while others like donuts just bring him in a better mood. Combining this with the coupons is more tricky though, since you need to find the correct timing to use them. You can only use three at the exact time which could make it extremely attractive, but will make you wonder how much further you could have gone.

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There is more to unlock than just modes and new games though. By scoring golden medals on the endless modes or clearing certain objectives, you will able to snag new costumes for your Mii character to wear in-game. The selection is quite cute overall. Seeing your Mii catch in a proper business suit has a weird charm to it and adds to the abstract nature of it all. The game also supports StreetPass, with which you can exchange scores in the endless games and compare your progress throughout. It's a good way of coming back for some cheap-on-the-go fun!

The games

Bat & Switch - You will get a demo of this when you boot the demo up for the first time. Bat & Switch is all about hitting the balls that are thrown at you with a bat. This starts with quite simple taps of the A-button, but as you move along you will have to deal with more catchers and much trickier angles.

The Aim Game - In The Aim Game, some skill is required as both your hitting and throwing abilities will be tested. When you are throwing, you will have to aim up and down by using the gyroscope of the system. When you are satisfied about your position, you can press the A-button and the ball will be thrown. Challenges for this include hitting round panels to score a certain amount of points and hitting panels to reveal a picture. For the batting half, you will need to hit the ball with precise timing to send the it flying in the right direction. It also gives you a whole bunch of panels, as well as a very small amount of space to hit the ball through.

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Gear Games - This title focuses on the gyroscope and touchscreen for two truly weird sections. The gyroscope is used in challenges where you have to balance a ball on a baseball bat. Sometimes you are asked to hit it by thrusting your 3DS up while twisting and turning until a certain goal is reached. It can be considered one of the more difficult parts of the adventure. In the touchscreen minigame, you are asked to clean baseball gloves as fast as you possibly can.

Volley Bats - The premise is simple. You have a Mii at each side of the playing field and keep swinging stuff back and forth. One side is controlled by pressing a direction on the D-Pad and the other by using the A-button. Personally, I got the hang of this mini-game the quickest out of the bunch, and it proves surprisingly addicting. Challenges for the Volley Bats include juggling balloons and prepping a star for a journey into the galaxy.

Cage Match - Challenge the ball throwing machine and stay on your toes through some challenging affairs. You will only need the A-button for this one. The levels range from sending the ball back a certain direction to scoring points by hitting correctly and hitting objects along the way.

Drop & Pop - Considered to be one of the easier games out of the bunch, Drop & Pop tasks you with hitting a row of blocks. Each has a color and a corresponding face button. Timing is everything in this set of challenges and looking ahead is of absolute importance to get through the final rows.

Bat Master - Make your very own bat and use it during the regular course of action. In this section, you can build your ultimate weapon to victory and tweak it how you see fit. After completion, give it a test run and see if the ball flies extremely far. You could win a gold medal!

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Quick Catch - In Quick Catch, you will have to steer a glove around with the Circle Pad. You are tasked with a catching the ball and if you do that well enough, you can net yourself tons of points. The trick is to catch it when the ball is very close to you. This will get you through the levels quicker. As you progress further, balls will be thrown at specific curves and you will have to deal with multiple batters at once!

Feel the Glove - Feel the Glove offers two games. In the first, you aim with the gyroscope and walk around with the Circle Pad. You try to keep following the ball in a first person perspective and catch it to the best of your abilities. The second game is third person and this time, you have more full control over your character. Low and high balls are switched off at a rapid pace and this makes that one rather tricky.

Make the Call - Be the judge for once and make decisions for the players on the field! You decide if the ball was in, if a strike has occurred, or if a certain opponent is out. You will have to keep track of all the happenings on the playing field. In later challenges, you will need to remember multiple occurrences to pass the fair judge trials with flying colors.

Talkback

necro909April 03, 2014

How low can the price of a game go? I've been unable to get him to go less than $1.90

terribledeliApril 03, 2014

I was able to get progressively cheaper as the game went on. The first game cost me $2.00 then the last haggled game cost me $1.50.

The four discount coupon games go as low as $1.50.

But be forewarned, you only get a finite number of the discount coupons and you can screw up getting them for as cheap as possible. I messed things up and my last game cost me $2.20 and it could have gone lower.

All and all, it cost me less than $20 to unlock everything.

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