A full review of Triband’s very unserious baseball bats-for-hands game What The Bat? on PSVR2! Including latest update for seated play and enhanced eyebrow-waggling (?!?).
What the Bat? from developer Triband poses the not so seriously profound question of what you would do if you had baseball bats for hands, but does it hit a home run or strike out? Let’s take a look.
First up thanks to the developer for providing me with a review key for the game but as always the opinions presented here are entirely my own.
If you thought What The Bat? was in any way a serious baseball simulation, then I’ve got two things to say to you. Firstly, it’s not a serious baseball simulation/you’ll be disappointed, and secondly, how did you even remotely get the impression that it was???
Presented in a basic but nicely stylised cartoon world, What the Bat? tasks you with playing through a variety of levels consisting of short scenes where your aim is to use your bat hands to obtain a trophy by completing specific challenges. Much of the fun is in figuring out exactly what you have to do in each scene as aside from the occasional hint there’s no explanation or instruction given. Some of them are obvious, especially at the start where it eases you into the game with some basic challenges to get you into the swing of things (pun intended), but things eventually become a bit more involved in the latter half of the game although apart from maybe one or two scenes you’re never likely to be left scratching your head over what to do. To give some examples you might be simply hitting a ball at a trophy in one level, haphazardly pouring a bowl of cereal or brushing your teeth in another, then the next thing you know you’re carrying out an art gallery heist in the style of Mission Impossible, albeit with a horse suspended from the ceiling, naturally. Yep, What The Bat? rarely makes sense and never takes itself seriously, which is the great thing about it. The physics based nature of the game makes it charmingly infuriating at times with often hilarious results when trying to do anything requiring any degree of accuracy.
All in all there are over 100 of these levels, divided up across several different environments which take you from your baby years through to your teen years and beyond, but some are as short as a few seconds and most can be completed within a minute. As a result the game takes around 2-3 hrs to play through entirely, perhaps 4 if you take time to interact with the levels in a bit more detail, and sadly once you’re done there’s little motivation to play through again as the initial enjoyment of working out what to do is all but gone. The end credits hint that there may be more levels coming in the future, but I’d also love to see some additional gameplay features or modes added in. Something as simple as a timer, where you could see how quickly you finish each scene or level, would at least let you try and beat your best times. Some of the scenes, such as the bowling, pinball or space invaders, could even be self-contained mini games with their own high score tables. And hey, hear me out for a moment, semi-contrary to what I said at the start about this not being a serious baseball sim, perhaps they could even include a really (really really) basic baseball mode? Due to its simplicity it is however another one of those ideal games to introduce yourself or others to VR, as there’s little movement and it’s super easy to understand the controls and gameplay, similar to how Job Simulator was a great introduction to the original PSVR.
Although it is a short game I do have to say there’s a fantastic amount of creativity on display in the sheer range of challenges and interactions you’ll face along the way and I never found myself getting bored at any time.
One minor issue is that in some scenes you can mess things up to the point where you need to restart the scene to try again. This fail state is indicated by a buzzer sound, and to restart the level you just need to tap a button on the end of your in-game bat, but it’s sometimes easy to miss the fact you messed up and you’re then left hanging wondering why nothing is happening.
As mentioned, the graphics are basic looking, and it’s no graphical showcase of the PSVR2’s capabilities, but it’s easy on the eye and has a bold, colourful design style applied throughout the whole game. You’ll meet a range of cute characters along the way, one of which is your possibly imaginary elephant friend who accompanies you at all times. I say friend, but sometimes it seems like they’re subtly spying on you almost as if they’re an observer and this is all one giant sociological experiment, who knows?
Sound effects are fairly limited and functional but there’s some fantastic music accompanying the levels, and you may well find yourself humming and singing the main What The Bat refrain hours after you’ve finished playing.
I also really enjoyed the little attention to detail things dotted throughout, such as when you look at your elephant friend and hear an extra layer of tuba in the soundtrack, or the way the artwork you create and the photos you take at the end of each level start making appearances in the scenery of other levels. This is clearly a game that was made with love by everyone involved.
Controls are simple, you literally just need to wave your arms around, and options are minimal with the usual volume controls, height adjustment and so on. A recent update did add some extra controls for a new feature, but in keeping with the general madness of the game, by new feature we’re talking the ability to raise your character’s eyebrows using the triggers, mainly useful for pulling faces in the mirror or when taking your end of stage photos. The update also makes the game playable in seated mode, whereas it initially required standing and room scale, so this should help those with limited space to be able to properly enjoy the game. Sadly there’s only a handful of trophies to rack up, mainly for completing the stages, and trophy hunters may be disappointed that there’s no platinum available.
Overall the game is a big chunk of bite-sized fun which can be dipped in and out of or played through in one extended session. Although it’s a well presented package, the asking price of £20 is possibly a bit on the high-side for what it offers, particularly considering the current lack of replayability, and it’s probably better suited to the £15 it was offered for during the launch window so you may want to wait until a sale to pick it up. However, if you’re just starting off with VR, looking to demo it to others or just in the mood for some straight-up bonkers fun, then look no further.
