Baseball Ninja: cartoon baseball game with pitching and team building online free

Yes. Baseball Ninja is completely free to play online, with no sign-up, no download and no in-app purchases. It runs in your browser on computers, tablets and phones, and the single-player game keeps working without a connection once the page has loaded. The coins in the game are earned by playing, never bought. Your team, stars, stats and badges are saved on your device.

Yes, Baseball Ninja is a Baseball 9-style game: a cartoon baseball game with big-headed players, a view from behind the pitcher, pitch types, collectable players and tournaments. It has its own players, stadiums, art, music and rules. Baseball 9 is a trademark of its owner; Baseball Ninja is an independent game and is not affiliated with or endorsed by it.

When your team is at bat you see the field from behind home plate and the pitcher throws toward the strike zone box. Drag on the screen (or move the mouse) to place the bat circle where the ball will cross the box, then tap SWING (or click, or press Space) so that the bat meets the ball just as it reaches you. A swing that is too early pulls the ball and may go foul, a late swing goes the other way, and a swing that is far from the ball misses.

When your team is in the field you see the batter from behind the pitcher. Choose a pitch with the buttons (or the number keys 1 to 5), aim the target ring in or around the strike zone and press PITCH when the outer ring is small and green: the smaller the ring, the more accurate the throw. A pitch that ends inside the box is a strike unless the batter hits it, and one outside the box is a ball unless the batter swings at it.

Baseball Ninja has five pitches. The fastball is the fastest and straight, the sinker drops and runs in, the curveball drops a lot and is slow, the slider breaks sideways and the change-up is slow to fool the batter. Throwing the same pitch again and again makes the batter ready for it, so mix them up, and use the corners of the zone with two strikes. A pitcher with a higher break rating makes sharper curves.

A batter gets three strikes before he is out and four balls before he walks to first base. Fouls count as strikes until you have two. Three outs end a half-inning: your team bats in the top half and pitches in the bottom half. Quick games last 3, 5 or 9 innings, the Season and the Ninja Cup use 3. If the score is tied at the end, extra innings begin with a runner on second base, and the home team skips its last turn when it already leads. A lead of 15 runs at the end of a half-inning ends the game early (the mercy rule).

You earn coins after every game. Open the team button to spend them: a Scout pack gives you a random new player, from common to legend, and an upgrade adds 4 to every rating of a player, up to level 5. Your batting order and your starting pitcher are chosen in the same screen. Power makes hits fly farther, contact widens your timing window, speed helps on the bases, eye is how well a batter sees pitches, and for pitchers velocity, control and break change the pitches.

The Season is 8 teams from the Rookie Rockets to the Ninja Stars; beat one to unlock the next and earn up to three stars for each. The Ninja Cup is a knockout with 8 teams: win the quarter-final, the semi-final and the final to lift the trophy, lose once and you are out. The Daily game is against the same team and stadium for everyone on the same day, with a free leaderboard. The Home Run Derby gives you 10 swings to hit as far as you can.

Yes. Quick games, Daily games and the Home Run Derby all send your score to one free leaderboard with two panels, This month and All time. The game sends your score together with a summary of the game, such as runs, hits, home runs and strikeouts, and the server checks that they add up, so only real games count. The Season and the Ninja Cup are saved on your device only.

Yes. Baseball Ninja works on phones and tablets in portrait and landscape. Drag one thumb on the field to aim, and use the big round SWING or PITCH button with the other. On a computer you can use the mouse, or the arrow keys and Space. You can pause with the pause button or the Esc key.