What's a system launch without a few sports games to go with it? The Game Boy Advance is set for release this June 11th, and there are at least 15 games scheduled to ship with the system on the first day – 3DO's getting a huge jump on everyone by releasing the first baseball title for the handheld. Get ready for High Heat Baseball 2002 for the GBA.

The same development team responsible for the Game Boy Color version of High Heat Baseball 2002 is working on the Game Boy Advance version simultaneously. The title looks to borrow several of the same design aspects of the 8-bit edition, but it ups the graphic quality considerably. When the game's ready to ship in early June, it will have many of the features you come to expect from a decent stickball game – licensed players, teams, and stadiums, as well as gameplay options such as batting practice, exhibition games, full season, and the good ol' Homerun Derby.

The only real thing that concerns us is the fact that High Heat Baseball 2002 lacks any multiplayer options – we've heard from several development sources that US-developed GBA launch titles won't feature link cable support due to Nintendo failing to offer the proper code in time. And, it looks like this baseball game is a victim of this unfortunate circumstance…High Heat Baseball 2002 is a sports game for the solo gamer.

We haven't seen the game in action yet, but we have played the Game Boy Color version – and if that's a foundation for this edition, the Game Boy Advance title should be a hot one.

-IGN.com