Desktop Baseball
From 30-30.club - Baseball Video Game Encyclopedia
Desktop Baseball
| JP Title | 机で野球 (Tsukue de Yakyuu, "Desk Baseball") |
|---|---|
| Release Date | Japan: March 28 2019, North America: May 31 2019 |
| Platforms | Nintendo Switch, iOS (Japan-only), Android (Japan-only) |
| Developer | SAT-BOX |
| Publisher | SAT-BOX |
| Original Price | US: $7.29 Japan: 740 yen |
| Team Names | Fictional, based on high school teams |
| Player Names | Fictional |
Desktop Baseball is part of a series of budget/mobile-focused "Desktop" sports games by SAT-BOX, such as Desktop Ping Pong. Desktop Baseball's title is surprisingly literal: This game is about baseball games being played on school desks, like a very elaborate version of paper football.
The game is available in Japanese on the Nintendo Switch, iOS App Store, and Google Play Store under the name 机で野球. It is available in English on the Nintendo Switch only as Desktop Baseball.
A sequel, Desktop Baseball 2, was released on February 29, 2024.
Gameplay Video
Description
The gameplay is simple, modeled after a baseball pinball game: When hitting, you only control the timing of your swing and the position of your bat within the batter's box. Baserunning is automatic, in the "ghost runner" style (a runner on first will always go to third on a double, for example). When pitching, you can aim your pitch horizontally and choose from one of four (renamable) pitches: A fast pitch, one that bends left, one that bends right, and one that moves unpredictably.
When the ball is put in play, it either lands on one of the static fielders for an out, or rolls to the edge of the field, where there are markers for the play's result (like out, single, home run, etc.), or stops dead inside the field of play. In the latter case, a spinner appears to choose a random result (like out, single, sacrifice fly, etc.).
Hitters are represented only as a writing utensil, with a pen or pencil representing their bat. The fielders and pitcher look like erasers with baseball uniforms on. Each playing field is a long rectangular school desk, and if you look up over the center field wall you can see a whiteboard and school chairs. Each game ends with the Westminster Chimes, the melody used in Japanese school bells.
Playing games earns coins, and these coins can be used to get random new writing utensils/bats and uniforms, a gacha mechanic. The "Mini Game" available from the Mode Select menu is a five-pitch home run derby, where outs earn 10 coins and home runs earn 200 coins. This Mini Game can only be played once every few hours, a feature that's more common in the game's original home on iOS and Android than on the Switch.
The Tournament mode enters you into a single-elimination tournament like Koushien, the Japanese high school baseball tournament. You have to first win the tournament for a Japanese prefecture, then you are entered into the national tournament. Placing well in the tournament earns you unique pens.
Roster
The game comes with a default roster of eight fictional teams, whose team and player names are a total mystery to me. If they're references to real high school teams or the developers or something else, I don't know. (If you know more, let me know at my email.)
There is a Team Edit feature that allows you to change the names of these default teams and their players, and select the team's uniform and which writing instrument each player uses for their bat. The bats are limited by the game's gacha mechanic, so if you get a really good pen in a gacha drop, you can only give it to one player (on any roster, not even one player per edited team).
Little Details
- The game has a few Google Translate-like minor localization errors. Instead of "walks," we get "fourballs." One of the four default pitches is called "Shoot," an overly direct translation of shuuto, a Japan-only term for a certain kind of two-seamer with reverse cutter action.
- Related to the example above, since the game's pitchers all happen to be left-handed, the pitch names "shoot" and curve are used incorrectly. The pitch that bends to the right from the pitcher's perspective should be a curveball and the pitch that bends to the left should be a shuuto/screwball/sinker/etc. The same mistake appears in the Japanese version of the game, so this isn't a translation issue.
