Indoor Baseball Review (Xbox Series X|S & PC)

Indoor Kickball developer Snow Day Software has come up with yet another way to infuriate parents and dismantle prestigious households, only this time, with a baseball bat. The question is, does the so-called Indoor Baseball knock it out of the park, or does it make for a swing and a miss? Let’s talk.

Take everything you know about modern baseball—the ballpark, the eighteen players, and the standard rules and regulations. Take that, and squash it into a room-sized ballgame with just two people. There are no base plates (not in the traditional sense, anyway) and there are no referees to judge poor sportsmanship or bad performance. Rather, you have a room, a bat, and a lot of breakable objects. Need we say more? It’s baseball for the mischievous and the reckless. And no, mom doesn’t approve. Go figure.

Indoor Baseball is everything you think it is: quick, chaotic, and totally absurd. Like Indoor Kickball and just about any other pocket-sized bat-and-ball game, it doesn’t dare bat an eyelid at conventional ball play, but rather, opts to take the route less traveled. Don’t get me wrong, the concept is still the same—to strike out or to secure a home run and what have you. That said, Indoor Baseball isn’t just about scoring; it’s about destroying household objects and doing things that would make your parents crimson red with rage, like smashing the living daylights out of the windows, or bowling the ball directly at your brother’s forehead before passing the blame on to an imaginary friend.

Forget about home runs or blissfully “hitting it out of the park” — all of that ceases to exist here. To earn your stripes and, more importantly, to accrue points, you don’t swing for the horizon; you swing for the windows. If you break a precious heirloom, then chances are you have done something right. In other words, if you vandalize your home with a well-placed shot, then you’re probably on the right track to obtaining eternal glory and bragging rights over your peers. A strange collection of rules, but stick with us.

As a 1v1 game at its core, Indoor Baseball doesn’t make an effort to cater to lofty rosters or the all-important big leagues. Instead, it keeps to the bare minimum, with just two adolescent players, and a small collection of locations, all of which have their own treasure trove of breakable items and general rules of play. Oh, it’s still baseball, only with a little more violence and a few more cuts and bruises. And, not to mention, a lot of mess. But that’s sort of what the point is here. If you’re not being reckless, then you’re not, you know, playing it properly.

While we’re on the subject of playing the game, it is worth mentioning that Indoor Baseball isn’t a difficult game. Frankly, it’s as simple as observing your foe, timing your swings, and rolling with the punches as the room gradually crumbles around you. Things may go wrong, and objects may alter the tide of the game. However, the rules are straightforward: swing, pitch, and smash. Or at least, smash.

While I wouldn’t turn a blind eye to a couple of extra game modes, or even a team-based system that could foster more teams, I have to admit that, for what it does bring to the field, Indoor Baseball doesn’t strike out and mishandle the fun factor. Sure, it’s ridiculous, but it’s also joy on a silver plate. What’s more, because it doesn’t ever aim to take itself too seriously, it makes a habit of feeding you comical fodder as often as possible, if not through its breakable biomes, then through its animations and quirky aesthetic. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a small budget indie with a few missing teeth, and it isn’t ever going to hold a candle against the likes of MLB: The Show, for that matter. But, if you can learn to appreciate the little things, then you’ll probably find yourself pitching, swinging, and ruthlessly obliterating items for a lot longer than you would in most modern baseball games. A tall order I’ll admit, but one that feels fitting, nonetheless.

With all of the above said, Indoor Baseball is still a game with a gimmick—a novelty that, after several hours of testing the field, can begin to feel a little too familiar. Once you’ve smashed enough windows, shed a few swings, and dealt with a number of roomy issues and wildcard curveballs, the experience can begin to grate ever so slightly. What essentially begins as a laughing matter soon becomes a predictable slump with a lot of the same challenges and peek-a-boo events, and so on and so forth.

If there were additional gameplay modes to tackle, or even an option to wrangle more players to the field to engage in some classic team-based bedroom warfare, then Indoor Baseball would certainly swing into its own realm of greatness. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a ton of fun to play. But, like most things, once that novelty begins to wear thin, it leaves a huge hole in the soul of the vessel. And of course, that begs the question: is it worth the asking price?

Verdict

Indoor Baseball knocks it out of the park (or directly through a window) with a stupidly fast-paced pitch that feels both satisfying to watch and even better to act out as a mischievous jerk with a god complex. Like Indoor Kickball, it dares to be a little different, not to reinvent the wheel, but to give tiresome bat-and-ball games a well-needed facelift. It might not be the best baseball game on the field, but it’s certainly a far cry from a swing and a miss, and that’s all that I’m willing to take away from this whole bedroom escapade. It’s silly, nonsensical, and yet, above all, a lot of fun. Tell me, what more could you want?

If you’re a fan of Snow Day Software’s earlier works and pocket-sized ballgame antics, then it’s highly likely that you’ll enjoy swinging for the stars in Indoor Baseball, too. While it might leave a fair amount to be desired—a handful of extra game modes and a wider variety of arenas, for instance—there is a brilliant indie baseball game with a solid backbone here. The question is, how can Snow Day Software improve on that formula in future installments?