“It’s okay, Rickey, you’re still the greatest.” -Rickey Henderson
Sega Genesis
Released in 1995 by EA Sports
Grade: D
EA’s knack for 16-bit sports games, unfortunately, doesn’t translate to baseball. Even Hall of Famers strike out sometimes.
This game has cute presentation and decent action in the field, but the pitching-batting interface is a swing and a miss.
Where it falls in the series
On Genesis, EA started out with Tony La Russa Baseball, MLBPA Baseball, the futuristic-themed Super Baseball 2020, La Russa Baseball 95, Triple Play 96, and Triple Play Gold Edition. The series continued into the next generation, changed its name to MVP Baseball, hit a home run with MVP Baseball 2005 on PS2 and Xbox, then lost its MLB license, and put out two college baseball games before calling it quits.
Praises and gripes
The game uses a catcher’s eye view of at-bats (good) and gives you an arsenal of real pitches (good), but limits your choice of pitch location (bad) and has an awkward swing animation that’s hard to time (very bad).
You choose a pitch type and fire away. You can direct it with the D-pad, which sends the pitch out of the strike zone 100% of the time, and the CPU never swings out of the strike zone. Lame!
Batting is a chore. You’re trying to pick up the movement of a white clump of pixels and adjusting for the odd timing of the swing. There’s even a pitch that moves nothing like anything you’ll see in a baseball game, swooping hard to the pitcher’s arm side.
It’s a shame because the play in the field looks and feels good. There’s some helpful AI assistance in tracking down fly balls, throwing feels quick and intuitive, and the whole thing has a nice look to it. The pace from pitch to pitch is slowish but not painfully slow. And the crowd sounds and organ music are nice too.