Rusty's Real Deal Baseball for the 3DS is some serious good shit.
It follows a microtransaction model. Downloading it to your SD card for free, you get a single demo with about 8 levels, which is only the first of many 'games within the game' that are available. However, while starting rather blatantly overpriced, the game encourages you (or holds you to) haggle the price down to the more reasonable 1.50-2.00$ range.
It's hard to explain, the baseball minigames are marvelous fun, combined with the charming aesthetic, combined with Rusty himself who plays the role of lovable loser very straight with his own storyline, it's not painful at all to drop the 2~ bucks to get first game.
The baseball game is actually so well-made, I had no problem getting the others too, which are all unique and well-made as well. There is wonder in how simple and minimalist these games are, in that each one focuses around a simple task that only takes a few sentences to teach you, and then goes "Ok, now we're ramping it up, do this simple things REALLY WELL now!" and it surprises me with it's challenge, and amazes me with how creative that challenge is pulled off with just simple changes.
My favorite so far is in Cage Match, where it has an extra hard challenge where you face off against three pitching machines to score 150 points. It's bog standard pitching up until you hit point 50, then a fourth human pitcher shows up outta nowhere. It's really surprising, cause it's obvious what he's gonna do, but by this time you've gotten used to the rhythm of heaing the 'Ktchhhhunk' of the mechanical pitching machines, that his silent pitches catch you completely off-guard. It's the ultimate 'keep your eye on the ball, not the sound' challenge. Oh yeah, and the mechanical pitchers throw standard-speed fast balls 95% of the time, but then sometimes throw you literal curveballs, sliders, sinkers, fork balls, and 'lightning balls' which zigzag rapidly across the screen. Gotta pay attention no matter what!
The only minigame I'm afraid of is the "Brutal Pitch Read - Score a Walk!" Challenge, which is simple: all you have to do is score a Walk (four balls outside your strike zone, would normally send you to 1st base), and the only thing you have to do to do that is read pitches. Just correctly assess if he's throwing in or out of your strike zone, and don't let him strike you out! Hit it if he's trying to strike you out, let it pass if it's a ball. It's so simple it's maddening, but the game is SUPER SNEAKY and it's very hard, especially when you get nervous and you just get jumpy! I adore it and hate it at the same time.
I just wanted to gush about this little game. Off to bed now.
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