Diabolical Pitch puts a baseball glove on the Kinect controller and asks players to swing, throw and run through a season of action sports. Grasshopper Manufacture built it for Xbox Live Arcade, and the result is a game that wants to be a spectacle more than a sport.
Trailer, via IGN.
What The Kinect Does Here
The Kinect controls everything. Players swing bats, pitch, catch and move around the field with full-body motion. That sounds simple on paper. In practice, it asks a lot of the hardware.
The Season And Its Format
Diabolical Pitch is a single-player game only. Players guide a team through a season of games, managing matchups and choosing who plays. Between games, there are sequences built around spectacle rather than strategy, and the game leans on them heavily.
The first-person perspective comes and goes. Some parts of the game ask players to look straight ahead at a batter or a pitcher. Other parts pull back to a wider view of the field.
Where It Falls Short
The spectacle often overruns the sport itself. Diabolical Pitch can feel less like a baseball game and more like a series of set pieces strung together with innings in between. That shift in tone is deliberate, but it means the game spends more time on its own spectacle than on actual play.
Motion tracking also struggles during busy moments. Swinging a bat or throwing a pitch requires precise timing, and the Kinect does not always keep up. Misses happen, and they break the flow of a game.
Numbers Behind The Game
- Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
- Genre: Sport, Action
- Platform: Xbox 360, Kinect
- Release: 2012
- Modes: Single player only
A Look At How The Season Runs
| Stage | Activity |
|---|---|
| 1 | Opening setup |
| 2 | Early games |
| 3 | Mid-season spectacle |
| 4 | Late-season push |
| 5 | Final games |
That structure shows how the game splits its focus between sports and spectacle.
Our Verdict On Diabolical Pitch
Diabolical Pitch is a game trying to balance two ideas that do not fit together easily. The Kinect motion control is present throughout, and the spectacle sequences show ambition. But the baseball itself gets pushed aside in favor of spectacle, and the motion tracking can’t always keep up with the demands placed on it.
Diabolical Pitch is a game worth playing once for its spectacle, but it doesn’t hold up as a lasting sports experience. The Kinect motion control is a strong feature, but it’s not enough to carry the whole game.
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