#baseball simulation

Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball feels unfinished in a way no other Super Nintendo baseball game has so far.

Most of that comes down to nitpicking the presentation. In baseball games, there’s usually an indication on-screen when something of note happens. Foul ball. Strike. Whatever it is, having that information is useful for the player if only so he or she can immediately process what happened. Not having that stuff in Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball isn’t crippling, but it’s strange enough to stand out over and over while playing it. Sure, the game has voice samples for these things, but they’re low quality and annoying. The lack of an MLB license also makes the game feel cheap.

Otherwise, Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball is adequate. It plays just like every other baseball game I’ve covered so far on SNES A Day. The throwing animation of the pitcher is pretty good, as are the graphics in general. Fielding is still an unresolved problem, with the game not giving control of the player nearest to where the ball will end up.

That’s the biggest problem with Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball. The most interesting facet of the game is that it doesn’t say “STRIKE” on the screen. I keep writing it in every review, but the baseball (and, to be fair, sports in general) situation on the SNES at this time is dire because there aren’t any new ideas. Developers weren’t willing to take risks and just seem to be photocopying each other. Just pay a baseball player some moolah, slap his likeness on the cover, and you’ve got yourself a brand new game!

I’m still waiting for the definitive SNES baseball game. Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 has been the closest so far, and I have serious doubts about whether anything will surpass it. Developers seemed more interested in regurgitating the same low-effort game over and over instead of trying something new. Don’t play Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball.

Tomorrow: I love good puns in video game titles, and The Duel: Test Drive II delivers.

Super Batter Up is dumbed down Super Nintendo baseball.

I like it. I’m never going to enjoy baseball games that come from a realistic and technical angle, so having one that is either nuts like Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 or basic like Super Batter Up is the only way I’ll have any degree of fun with the genre. Realistic 16-bit sports simulations are a personal nightmare of mine.

So when I say that Super Batter Up is dumbed down, I mostly mean that it’s pretty easy. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of finesse involved. I could be missing something, but I doubt it. This is baseball game for beginners, so there’s only two buttons and the D-pad being used for both pitching and hitting. I’m not any good at these kinds of games, but while doing prep for this post I held my own.

But sometimes Super Batter Up just goes and kicks my butt. It’s like it knew I was recording.

I would have liked to see it go further in an arcade-focused direction. As it is, Super Batter Up feels like any other baseball game just set to easy. The AI seems to be rather dumb and unskilled, the pitching and hitting is very generous, and it uses the same camera angles that the other games use. Doing something different and interesting is something that baseball games from this era don’t want to do and I really don’t know why.

I wish Namco had done anything to make Super Batter Up stand out. I had more fun with this game than most other baseball games. The lack of depth and simplicity that I enjoy are probably what will make people who know and care about baseball to not enjoy this game, though. I hope there is a baseball game for the SNES that can bridge what I want with what sports games fans want as well.

Tomorrow: Grab some headphones for Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, because I remember the music being great.

It has been a while since SNES A Day covered a baseball game. Roger Clemens’ MVP Baseball wasn’t worth the wait.

As I’ve said before, I’m not a baseball fan. I’m also not a baseball video game fan. So when I say that the computer in Roger Clemens’ MVP Baseball is overly difficult and unforgiving, it could be that I’m not grasping certain aspects of the gameplay properly. It very well could be that the pitching is more technical than I’m used to. The timing for batting might be tighter than other baseball games.

But I do know that I’m not enjoying the game at all. Difficulty is a part of it, and the lack of real MLB teams is disappointing. The game feels off in general, though. Something is really wrong with the baseball physics. When an outfielder throws the ball to a base, the ball just goes in a straight line and seems really slow while flying through the air. Part of that might be that fielding is done from an almost behind-the-back perspective, but I can’t shake the feeling that baseballs don’t act how baseballs should in Roger Clemens’ MVP Baseball. Is the stadium on Pluto? Have the baseballs been swapped out for Wiffle Balls?

Hopefully some of my readers have played this game and can let me know if I’m missing something here. From my perspective, Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 or Super Bases Loaded are better and more accessible than Roger Clemens’ MVP Baseball.

Tomorrow: I’m surprised by how late Axelay came out. I always associated it with the Super Nintendo’s launch. How wrong I was!

American Division East

American Division West

Throwing heat

Starting lineup

Pre-game screen

SAFE!

Title screen

Main menu

Foul

That inning did not go well for me.

National Division East

Pitching

Fielding has a different perspective than most SNES baseball games.

Was this options menu really necessary?

I threw a strike! This was a very rare occurrence.

National Division West

Pitching roster

Extra Innings‘ distinguishing feature is that it’s the best looking baseball game so far on the Super Nintendo.

That’s it.

I know it probably gets tiring reading the sports games review on SNES A Day and seeing the same complaints. That’s partly from my own ignorance about this era in sports video games, and also from playing these games so close to each other. In the ’90s, people would get a baseball game and that would be their only baseball game for the foreseeable future. How similar these games are didn’t really matter back then.

But I got major Nolan Ryan’s Baseball vibes from Extra Innings. These games were released less than a month apart, so I’m not saying there was any developmental theft going on or anything. It just shows how two unrelated games can draw from the same well of ideas and end up feeling so similar, and implies how little effort was being put into getting these games out into store shelves.

I’m struggling to come up with anything of note to differentiate Extra Innings from the earlier baseball games. Fielding is still the worst part about baseball games, as you control everyone at once. It would be nice if there were some kind of AI to position players in places that makes sense or have them start moving toward where the ball is going.

There aren’t licensed team names, so there are pretty awful fake teams to choose from. I chose the Bees as my go-to team, but I also think the idea of a team being called the Triplets is funny as well. And like all baseball games, there’s a create-a-team option as well.

So yeah.

Just play Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 instead, okay?

Tomorrow: It has been almost two weeks since a scrolling shooter. It’s time for Raiden Trad!

Main menu

Team select. Go Bees!

Doesn’t this look like every baseball game?

There are three stadiums to choose from.

A swing and a miss.

Scoreboard

Title screen

Pop fly

There’s probably no reason for anyone to play Nolan Ryan’s Baseball in 2014.

I’m about the furthest thing from an expert in baseball or baseball video games, as previous write ups here have shown. But I’m not sure what Nolan Ryan’s Baseball offer to a modern video game player.

My immediate impression of the game is that most aspects of the gameplay seem more difficult than other Super Nintendo baseball games. But people who want a technical, realistic baseball game today aren’t going to be interested in a game in 1992 which lacks real MLB teams and players from the era. And people who want arcade-style baseball games like Super Bases Loaded or Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 won’t be happy either.

Unless you played this game “way back when” or are such a connoisseur of the baseball simulation genre that what little I’ve written here is appealing, you should probably try a different game. I can’t say this is a bad or poorly made game, just an uninteresting one.

Tomorrow: You’ll have a blast with Super Scope 6 and Nintendo’s Super Scope accessory!

Pitching is more fun than batting.

The scoreboard

Team select

Batting is difficult.

Title screen

A cutscene plays when you make a good catch.

Play ball!

Ball is in play.

Main menu

As someone who doesn’t like baseball, it’s almost as if Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 was made for me.

For some people, baseball games are all about realism. But baseball is boring in real life. So Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 offers a mode that adds power-ups to America’s pastime. Do you want fastballs which hit almost 200 miles per hour? Guaranteed home runs? Baseballs that stop in mid-air or turn into a bird? I loved trying out all the different power-ups, because some are dumb and goofy in the best way.

There’s also regular baseball and leagues and all that boring nonsense. Why would you play that?

Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 looks great, too. There’s a good variety of player sprites, and each stadium looks slightly different. The pitchers in particular have really good throwing animations. It lacks MLB licensing, as most games from this era do, so Cubs fans can’t recreate their favorite tragic seasons here. The fake teams are all named after cities, but otherwise have no character. Luckily, there’s a robust Team Edit mode, so if you’re spectacularly crazy you could put the actual teams and players into the game.

But the game controls well, and every action is intuitive and responsive. I was able to catch pop balls with no trouble, and I didn’t often feel like the game was working against me like in a lot of baseball games. There’s no way to choose what player to control while fielding, but rarely was I controlling a different player than I wanted. Both batting and pitching perform exactly how you would want them to, and both are enjoyable.

The best praise I can give Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 is that it’s dumb fun. I had a blast with it. Super Bases Loaded has been dethroned as the Super Nintendo’s best baseball game.

Tomorrow: Let’s get muddy with Super Off Road.

This special power turns the field into space I guess!

You heard him!

I think he’s going to be safe

The pitch is thrown

Home run!

Safe!

The post-game newscast

Stadium select

Close one

Team select

A throw from deep outfield

Title screen

Out!

Super Bases Loaded has, hands down, the best pre-game matchup screen in video game sports history.

I mean, look at how awesome this is.

I would believe it if I were told that was ripped straight from a bad Mortal Kombat ripoff.

But sadly, Super Bases Loaded is a baseball game. One player throws the ball with one of four different types of pitches, and the other player can hit the ball or bunt. Baseball. The game looks nice and cartooney, with bright colors and scoreboard animations when home runs and other big baseball stuff happens.

The goal of Super Bases Loaded isn’t just to beat your opponent; you have to beat them well. Once a game ends and you’re victorious, the game grades you on your performance out of 100. If you achieve a perfect score – which I will never come close to doing – you play again on a harder difficulty.

I have only two problems with Super Bases Loaded. First off, the fielding isn’t great. There’s no way to manually switch players as far as I can tell; the game just gives you control of the player closest to the ball. But often, the player closest to an in-play ball isn’t the one who will end up with it. And it’s really easy to lose yourself in the grass when tracking big hits in the outfield.

Secondly, and probably most importantly, these fake team names are awful. I can’t figure out which has the worst one. The Atlanta Amoebas? Boston Buzzards? Chicago Cyclops? New York Mercs? Washington Weasels? I get that alliteration is a thing, yet these are nonsensical. But in the interests of fair play, I was going to heap praise upon the sole legitimately good team name in the game, the Hawaii Islanders. But then I discovered it’s a real team name!

Super Bases Loaded 2 better step it up when it comes to fake baseball teams.

Tomorrow: Why Bandai decided to bring Ultraman: Towards the Future game to the United States will always be a mystery.

Scoreboard

Team select

Home runs reward the player with goofy little cutscenes

Winding up

Title screen

Got him!

The flames are amazing

The ball is somewhere in that throng of people

It’s easy to get lost in the field

Waiting for the pitch