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Ah, the sound of leather on willow. The polite applause of the appreciative crowd. The hot sun in the blue sky. Sounds like a perfect afternoon at a cricket pitch, doesn't it? Well not this time, dudes. The willow has been replaced with an oddly shaped prime grade, precision manufactured, aluminium baseball bat.

RBI stands for "runs batted in" and is one of many confusing terms those blimmin' yanks use to throw us. Baseball is derived, of course (although the Americans deny this fervently) from the old British game of Rounders...

The rules are simple, the pace hectic. The game draws huge crowds in the States and Domark intends to do the same thing here in old Blighty with its own version of the game. The game starts with a comprehensive, but extraordinarily confusing, options screen. Once you have chosen your control method, opponents and players, you finally move onto the game itself.

Or do you? Actually, you have to choose your control method again. This is a royal pain and it takes about five goes to realise why your pitcher won't move.

The pitcher is on the fielding team and throws the ball at a batter directly in front of him. Pitching is simple; press the button followed immediately by a direction to decide how much spin to put on the ball. This will make the ball travel faster or slower, depending on how you wish to fool the batter.

If the batter connects, the screen view changes, showing the fielders as they slowly bimble around the field trying to catch the ball. They do move very sluggishly, and it is nearly impossible to catch a well-struck ball.

If you pitch well enough, the batter will miss three times. When this happens he is out. Get three batters out and you swap over - your team goes in to bat. Batting itself is incredibly easy. Timing your swing as the ball approaches (slowly) couldn't be simpler.

When you do hit the ball, your batter automatically runs to the first base (three o'clock on the baseball 'diamond'). The next batter comes up to bat and it's more of the same.

The first batter back to home base scores a run. This is the only way to score in the game of baseball - and it takes some doing in real life.

Not in this version, though. Because batting is so ridiculously easy, the game becomes very one-sided. Usually, no matter how skilled you are at the game, the first team called up to bat will win.

The graphics are at times appalling - very chunky and incredibly confused. The sound is OK, but hardly makes up for the tragic presentation of this title. It all gets very boring and extremely repetitive and, with few saving graces, this has to be one of the worst sports games ever on the Amstrad.

Despite the novel split-screen display, the poor implementation and blocky graphics make for a poor game. It gets a strike out rather than a home run.

Graphics 52%
Some nice touches, like scrolling windows, but awfully chunky and cluttered.

Sonics 87%
Very good tunes, but some iffy in-game FX.

Grab Factor 66%
Once past the stupidly awkward options screen, it's easy to get into.

Staying Power 45%
You'll soon learn to hate this game, it really is that aggravating!

Overall 50%
A good idea and a promising licence, spoiled by poor implementation.