Sega Genesis
Released in 1989 by Sega
Grade: D
It’s just like so many other old-school baseball games, but worse.
Where it falls in the series
This is one of six Genesis launch titles and has the distinction of being the first 16-bit baseball game. Sega improved their baseball offering with Sports Talk Baseball in 1992, then changed their approach completely for four World Series Baseball titles.
Praises and gripes
These graphics must have seemed downright dapper in 1989. The batting view shows off some nice detail and animation. Once the ball is hit, you’ve got a bird’s eye view that’s a bit limiting, but if you’re charmed by retro nonsense you’ll like it.
In classic old-school fashion, pitchers steer the ball in any physics-defying way they want. Left, right, fast, slow, left then right, fast then slow, left then fast then right then slow… whatever you want, which is reason #1 that I don’t like this game.
Batting can seem impossible against an opponent who won’t just throw you a strike every now and then. When pitchers can manipulate the ball with unlimited freedom, it really takes its toll on the fun.
After this test of patience, the ball is almost always difficult to field. It’s hard to react and there’s no CPU assistance. You’ll even miss routine fly balls because it’s not clear where you need to stand to be under the ball.
On top of that, fielders don’t throw nearly fast enough in relation to the runners’ speed. Groundouts become singles, singles become doubles, and doubles become triples.
The presentation is cute, I’ll give this game that. There are city names and colors but no MLB license. The gentle, peaceful music during gameplay is hilariously out of place, making me think a gaggle of elves will suddenly march out of the dugout.
I’m hard on retro baseball games, especially the far-fetched pitching mechanics that are commonly used in them. For an arcade baseball game on Genesis, Sports Talk Baseball is probably your best bet. If you have an SNES, that’s much better because Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball is friggin’ awesome.