PlayStation 1
Released in 1996 by Sony Computer Entertainment
Grade: C+
This game has a nice look and strikes a balance between simplicity and realism. If only it didn’t take forever to play nine innings.
Where it falls in the series
It’s Sony’s first baseball game in the MLB/MLB The Show series, and the first of eight on PS1.
Praises and gripes
It’s easy on the eyes. They didn’t go overboard with 3D models this early in the PS1 cycle, so you’ve got simple sprites in a 3D environment. The players move fluidly and the extra large baseball is easy to track.
To pitch, you select a pitch type, select a speed, move the cursor, and fire away. No meters or timing tricks.
Hitting is easy on the easy setting (imagine that) where you simply press X to swing. One setting up, you’ve got to move a circle over the ball, and there’s a little marker to help you see where it’s going, but it’s more distracting then helpful. What do you try to watch, the ball or the stupid marker? Moving the circle isn’t much fun on the old D-pad either.
The rest of the action is quick and crisp and simple to control. The default settings have fielders go after the ball and you just throw. It feels like there’s a realistic mix of liners, groundouts, pop-ups, fouls and home runs.
But the game really loses me with the wait times between batters. You stare at the hitter’s stats and wait for the boring announcer to say his name. Even between pitches, it takes an extra annoying millisecond for the interface to pop up. Nine innings is a time investment.
There’s a wacky arcade setting with physics-defying pitches and much faster wait times, but unfortunately you can’t speed up the game when playing simulation.