Rusty's Real Deal Baseball

Rusty's Real Deal Baseball
Oh, this free-to-play baseball game is a real good deal alright!
Protagonist(s): Rusty Slugger (story) The player's Mii (minigames) Genre(s): Sports Simulator Platform(s): Nintendo 3DS Release Date: JP: August 8, 2013 NA: April3, 2014 KOR: May 28, 2014 Discontinuation: March 27, 2023 Developer(s): Nintendo SPD Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan

Rusty's Real Deal Baseball, known as Darumeshi Sports Shop in Japan, was a free-to-play baseball simulation game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It was Nintendo's first-ever attempt at a free-to-play game model.

Why It's a Real Good Deal

1. There are ten fun baseball minigames to purchase and play, each with a set of 25 challenges.
   • Bat-and-Switch: Practice your batting skills against pitching machine men, from trick shots to hitting alien ships out of the sky.
   • Cage Match: Similar to Bat-and-Switch, but takes place in a stadium so you can practice more advanced tenchniques.
   • Drop & Pop: Press the +Control Pad and face buttons to knock down each tire one-by-one, ending with a face/daruma doll.
   • Volley Bats: Hit the baseball back and forth between a partner, using a second player or the left button on the +Control Pad. This game has some similarities to Rhythm Rally from Rhythm Heaven on DS and Air Rally from Rhythm Heaven Fever.
   • Quick Catch: This series of catching minigames will require that you catch baseballs by sticking your glove out at the last minute.
   • Feel the Glove: Catch fly balls and grounders in these catching games, the former using the 3DS' gyroscope and tilt controls to catch fliers and the latter utilizing button controls to catch grounders.
   • The Aim Game: Aim your pitches and hits at targets in these games, the former by using the 3DS' gyroscope to aim.
   • Make the Call: Test your umpire skills against the opposite team, calling based on their strike zone.
   • Gear Games: Clean off your gear using your stylus, or juggle a baseball with your bat using the 3DS' gyro controls.
   • Bat Master: Craft your own bat to use in other minigames! This game has some similarities to Weapon Shop de Omasse, but without the rhythm aspect.
2. The way you play the games themselves is interesting: Rusty has invested in a Nontendo 4DS, which allows the user to actually experience the games firsthand.
3. Each time you complete one of the challenges in a game, you get a set number of stamps for your Stamp Cards; how many you get depends on the skill level of each challenge.
   • If you get enough stamps, you will unlock a variety of prizes, including Donuts (Boiled Eggs in Japan), items required to progress the story, Discount Tickets, etc.
4. Rusty Slugger (known as Inuji Darumeshi in Japan), his wife Mitzi, all ten of his pups, and his mentor Pappy Van Poodle are all likable characters.
5. The story, while simple, is a good way to portray a dysfunctional family: Rusty's wife Mitzi is away to visit her sister (possibly), so the former must watch his sports shack and care for his ten pups while she is away. Once he decides to retire, Mitzi purchases the shop to turn it into a snack shop while Rusty sells the player the last few minigames.
6. To avoid paying a full $4 price, the game has a Haggling system where you can trade Rusty various items, especially donuts (boiled eggs in Japan), and make good dialogue choices, to get him to lower his prices to rock-bottom.
   • If you do pay full price for a game, Pappy Van Poodle (Rusty's mentor) will give him the items you didn't use to haggle the game's price down.
7. Good soundtrack composed by Kenji Yamamoto that fits a baseball game very well, with many action-packed and relaxing tracks to listen to.
8. Once you obtain enough stamps, you unlock two Hi-Score Derby modes (Types A and B), where your skills with each set of games are put to the test. If you score an A-rank on these, you can unlock new outfits for your Mii to wear.
   • In addition, Advanced Challenges will be unlocked once you beat the first three levels of the original set of challenges.

Real Bad Deal Qualities

1. This is the first Nintendo game to include microtransactions in it; while they are reasonable here compared to many other F2P games (only $4 per game, with a total of $40 altogether) and can be haggled to save about $14, they still make the game pay-to-win.
2. Once the 3DS eShop shut down, this game (much like all other digital exclusives on the handheld) can't be legally purchased anymore.
   • Even if you did buy it before the eShop closed, you still can't purchase the minigames themselves due to the microtransactions requiring the eShop to be functional, unless you purchased each one prior to the closure.
     • If you obtained the DLC content via outside sources, Pretendo Network won't recognize your purchases, thus requiring you to switch to Nintendo Network just to obtain them.
3. The games that require gyro controls are tricky to master, and are easy to mess up on your first try. In particular, the game in Feel the Glove where you have to catch the ball dead-center is extremely difficult because it has to be perfectly in the center of the screen or you'll instantly fail.
4. There isn't much to do once you complete all the challenges and unlock every outfit, other than playing advanced challenges.

Reception

Rusty's Real Deal Baseball received mostly positive reviews from critics and users (scoring 74/100 and 7.8/10, respectively, on Metacritic), with reviwers praising the characterizations, gameplay, humorous writing, and for correctly making a free-to-play game, while criticizing the use of microtransactions.

Trivia

• In Japan, Rusty Slugger is named Inuji Darumeshi and has a radically different design, being more stereotypically Asian. He also enjoys eating boiled eggs rather than donuts, with a unique animation for peeling off the eggshells.
• Rusty makes a clever reference to the Nintendo 3DS with the Nontendo 4DS, and mentions Mario and Luigi as well, calling them Romeo and Squeegee.

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