Bush League: The Baseball RPG

Without wishing to downplay the seriousness of split personality disorder, here's a game that manages to digitise that illness rather accurately.

This is how I felt the first time it loaded up and I attempted to wrap my head around the rules. Which makes it rather difficult to tell whether Bush League: The Baseball RPG is actually a good game or not.

Combining match-three and RPG gameplay mechanics has been attempted before - Aurora Feint springs to mind as one of the earliest examples on iOS. This game ups the ante by piling on pop culture references, sporting personality spoofs, and baseball rules, leaving your head spinning before you even begin.

As far as I can tell, the RPG aspects are minimal, to the point that you don't really have to think about them beyond taking on your main character's role. You're then sent head-to-head in a match-three round with another baseball player, taking it in turns to line up three or more icons to score points.

Stripped back to its core gameplay, this isn't a particularly smooth match-three game. It's slow to respond, the animation is strained, and the icons are crude, giving it the feel of a mini-game in a more substantial product. Unfortunately, it makes up the bulk of your time with Bush League: The Baseball RPG.

The game tries to mix in elements of TV smash hit Breaking Bad by including performance-enhancing drugs, called PEDs. You can collect these by matching them up during the game, or you can buy them from the dealer as you begin to accumulate cash.

What they do for you is less apparent.

PEDs are "performance enhancing dots," which are employed, apparently, to help you cheat. Making use of them within the game is entirely baffling however, so you're never really inclined to put much emphasis on earning more. It's already confusing enough just trying to suss out how to play baseball via a match-three game - especially when the clearest of the game's instructions read like this:

"If your opponent reaches 0 outs but has more runs than you, your remaining outs count as free turns in which you can try and take back the lead."

Overlook the poorly-built match-three game, the baffling rules, and the trite commentary, and Bush League: The Baseball RPG does actually have something to offer. It's artwork.

The still images of the players are GTA quality (another clear inspiration), and wouldn't look out of place in a new, big budget Japanese anime. According to the official blurb they're also delicious spoofs on real sports personalities, and scandals from the real world of baseball are woven into their backstories.

This stunning artwork can't salvage the game, though it might be enough to help genuine baseball fans to wring some entertainment from the characterisation, if not the core gameplay.