We’re only a week away from the 2022 World Series, and as the final four teams duke it out for a coveted spot you can enjoy a brand-new baseball game on Steam—provided you’re willing to put up with some small rule changes. Like, instead of human players the teams are completely made up of wild animals. You’re cool with that, right?
In Yerr Out, which is free on Steam, there are all sorts of different animals to choose from. Each game begins with you drafting the animals you want onto your team, and you can pick between a bear, moose, racoon, crow, mouse, giraffe, snake, hippo, and plenty more. There are 30 different animals to pick from, with a dozen more unlockable as you play. Even the tiniest of creatures are represented, like the ant, spider, and dragonfly. You’ve heard of Wade Boggs? Meet Wade Bugs.
Each creature has stats that affect how well they play. A hippo is slow but has a lot of strength, a crow is weaker but is very quick, a frog is both slow and weak but has plenty of agility to compensate. A panther, meanwhile, is strong, fast, and agile, making it the Ken Griffey, Jr. of your wildlife team. There’s only one of each animal available, so you can’t field a team of just bears or wolves, as dope as that would be.
Some more minor rule changes in Yerr Out: Since we’re playing in the woods with wild animals, foul lines haven’t been established. You can just sorta hit the ball wherever and it’ll be in play, which is nice. In keeping with the theme of letting animals be animals, you can go ahead and smash into other players while running the bases in hopes of them dropping the ball, something mostly frowned upon in the major leagues.
If this all sounds like a joke, it’s not. I mean, mostly it’s not. You can watch a raccoon pitching to an ant. You can see a snake hit a triple to drive in a cat and a boar. A rooster can ground into a 6-4-3 double play. It is silly.
But it’s also a real baseball game, with all the controls you’d expect from a game with human players. You can advance and retreat runners, you can charge your swings, throws, and pitches for power, you can dive, slide, jump, and even pick off baserunners. It’s a real baseball game! It just happens to be filled with wolves, foxes, beetles, and crocodiles.Â
Those critters are all nicely animated, too. Before an at-bat the cat will groom itself for a moment, the wolf will scratch its ear with a back paw, and the ant will clean its antennas with its forelegs. While most animals swipe at a pitch with their paws or claws, the horse will stand facing backwards and kick the ball into play with its hind hooves. There are nice little details for each creature.
As Yerr Out continues being developed in early access, the plan is to add even more animals and include online play (currently only local splitscreen is available). There may also be a home run derby and other minigames added in the future, according to developer Green Valley Games. And when it leaves early access, it’ll probably also get a price tag. For now, it’s completely free, so go ahead and step up to the plate.