Basically, Inside the Park Baseball is a role-playing game: You create a character, choose attributes and skills, then try to turn him into the best player in the league. Attributes can't be changed later on, so be careful how you allocate points. You can train your character to improve his skills and buy items that contribute positively to his career (such as a bat that gives his hitting more power). Maintain his fitness and mood levels at the gym and local bar, respectively.

This is a terrific idea that falls a little short on implementation. The truncated descriptions of plays as they occur make games pretty boring; all you can really do with your character is train and buy better equipment. And if he gets injured or benched, you might have to watch a whole season pass by. Still, we enjoyed developing different types of players to see which skills were rewarded with high-paying contracts.