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It's a good, wholesome sport, is baseball. Fast, sporting, fun and as American as Mom's home-made apple pie. But because the English actually invented it (and called it rounders), it's come back to haunt us in the shape of RBI 2.

RBI stands for Runs Batted In (the 2 doesn't stand for anything) and what it's all about is getting as many of your men around the diamond-shaped pitch as you can manage, then getting the opponent's team out as he tries to do the same to you.

Luckily there's very little management-sim nonsense. Pick your team from the biggest in the USA, select the best pitchers and batters and you're away. Well, you'd better read the manual first to learn the rules, but once you're au fait you can get stuck in. Batting simply requires you to move your bloke left, right, up and down, then hit Fire when the ball comes whizzing towards him. He then runs automatically to the first base.

Pitching is more complex. You can select the speed and curve of the ball, with the idea being to make the batter miss (what's known, strangely, as a strike). Three strikes and he's out. If he hits, though, your control switches to the outfielders who try and catch the ball, then throw it to any base with a batter dashing madly towards it. If it gets there, he's out too.

Like rounders, it's all incredibly exciting, and the graphics are great too. There's a pitching/battling view (from behind the batter) and there's a view of the diamond, which scrolls in any direction to follow the ball into the outfield. It's clear, fast and enjoyable to look at. Scoreboard graphics are an extra bonus, adding a marvellous stadium atmosphere. This is enhanced by the sound effects. They're slightly comic hitting, running and falling over noises, with crowd cheers whenever anything cheer-worthy occurs.

Only one thing lets RBI 2 down slightly: there isn't quite enough player participation in the game. When you're batting all you can do is waggle a bit on the spot, then hit Fire at the right time - it's down to luck where the ball goes. Everything else is done for you. Pitching and fielding is more interactive (and more fun) but the batting is too simple. Overall, though, RBI 2 is excellent fun if you like baseball, and highly exciting in the two-player mode where you can see your opponent grimace with every lucky shot. And with a free cap in every box, it makes you glad us Brits invented the game.

1. The only baseball game on the market at the moment, so it's certainly original
2. The effective, graphically pleasing twin view system is unique among sports sims. The scoreboard is far more entertaining than the one used in Kick Off
3. Not as interactive as other sports games such as Kick Off 2 - and therefore not quite as exciting