The Little League Baseball World Series’ regional tournaments, including the United States championship, are underway and on TV, and next week an arcade-style baseball game will celebrate youth baseball on consoles and PC for the first time in 12 years.
Little League World Series Baseball 2022, developed by IguanaBee and published by GameMill Entertainment, will be available Aug. 17 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Players will take one of 20 fictional teams in a championship mode that includes a representation of Howard J. Lamade Stadium in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the site of Little League’s United States and World Series championship games.
The game will feature other, fictional stadiums based on the international regions that send teams to Williamsport. In gameplay, Little League World Series Baseball 2022 looks to be an arcade-style game, with power-ups and bullet-time slides and defensive plays emphasizing the action. Players may customize their team’s look, equipment and batting style.
The Little League World Series, begun in 1947, will take place Aug. 17-28; it has become a staple of ESPN’s late summer programming, headlining a month when North America’s major sports aren’t staging any championship events of their own.
The event last featured in three video games, Little League World Series Baseball 2008 through 2010published in those years by Activision for Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It was also an arcade sports video game, with gameplay compared to Wii Sports duck Mario Super Sluggers.