We got a look at Acclaim's upcoming baseball game for the GameCube, All-Star Baseball 2002, at Nintendo's Gamer's Summit yesterday. The acclaimed baseball series looks to extend its successful run on Nintendo hardware with this latest entry, but this isn't the game's first appearance on a video game console. All-Star Baseball 2002 was released earlier this year on the PlayStation 2, marking the first time the game has appeared on non-Nintendo hardware. Fortunately, fans of the series who have followed it since All-Star Baseball '99 on the N64 will still be able to play it on Nintendo hardware with All-Star Baseball 2002's release for the GC.

　　Visually, All-Star Baseball 2002 offers a solid visual presentation that equals that of the PlayStation 2 incarnation of the game. The game's generous polygon budget allows for a good amount of detail in the 30 MLB teams and stadiums on display. Like Acclaim's other PS2-to-GC conversion, Dave Mirra 2, All-Star Baseball 2002's visuals don't offer dramatic improvements on the PS2 version's visuals. The color and texture work appear to be a bit tighter, and overall detail was crisp. In addition, the game had a high frame rate that was mostly stable and featured a solid amount of animation. The game's graphical clarity was also helped, in part, by component cables that connected the GameCube to the television.

　　In terms of gameplay, All-Star Baseball 2002 for the GC features the polishes and tweaks the game's engine underwent for the PS2. The GC controller works well with the game's control scheme and shouldn't require veterans of the series to spend much time fiddling with it to familiarize themselves. The control feels roughly the same as the previous All-Star Baseball games thanks to the game's responsiveness. The GC controller layout manages to work well with the game.

　　So far, All-Star Baseball 2002 is shaping up to be a solid sports title for the GameCube. Gamers eager to be up to bat can look for All-Star Baseball 2002 this fall.