Baseball

The Short


Pros
- First baseball simulator on the NES
- Two players

Cons
- Only control the batter and the pitcher; outfielders are all automated
- Actually, like 90% of this whole game is automated
- Graphics and sound are dull and uninteresting
- Considering how many other baseball games are on the NES, you can do much better

Going back to the bare-bones NES launch sports games

The Long

I'll get this out upfront: I regard Baseball in the same category as Golf and 10-Yard Fight. So you can probably guess what the score for this game will be, and you can know to not go out and buy it. So yay! Review over! Good thing we don't have anything in this review format that abbreviates the review before this paragraph. Something that would say a thing along like lines of "The Short" and point out Pros and Cons...

Anyway, Baseball isn't very good, and here is why you should buy any other baseball game ever. 

THRILLS

Baseball is exactly as advertised: a baseball game. It's a baseball game. You can bat, pitch, and throw the ball to a base. And...that's it. Just like real baseball. You know, minus the outfielding, base stealing, having players with different stats, or pretty much anything that would add variation. Gee, this really is sounding like the other black box sports games. 

So let's get on to something actually interesting: what is wrong with Baseball. Since that would be much more fun for me to write about, and that I've pretty much covered all the good things in two sentences.

CHILLS

As stated you have very little control over the game. You can pitch, bat, and inch towards stealing (though I don't know if you can steal). The only other thing you can do is when your outfielders catch a ball (by themselves) you can direct them where to throw it. However, everybody throws perfectly, so every throw no matter what the distance will make it. So expect some difficult runs.

There isn't even a set of randomness. You can pick teams, but it's little more than different colors. There are no character stats to offer variety, no tricks, nothing. Just perfect throws, hits, and boring runs. Dull.

The epic team choice: "A" or "P"?!

The sound effects and lack of music only further add to the tedium, this whole game about as exciting as an hour long infomercial. While the graphics overall are tolerable, the small characters batting aren't great to look at. Pretty much everything is trumped by future baseball games.

Blech.

I'm really just mincing words here. There are a trillion other baseball games on the NES, and most of them are better than this one. If you have a baseball itch, Baseball Stars is my personal favorite, and the first Bases Loaded as well as R.B.I. Baseball are also enjoyable. This one, while having an accurate name, is not at the top of it's game. You could say it's a pretty base-ic game, and it doesn't really hit this one out of the park!

One out of five stars. 

MPH. Features.