Sega Saturn
Released in 1997 by Sega
Grade: B
World Series Baseball ’98 is an impressive baseball simulation from a time when every baseball game sucked. Seriously, between 1994 and 2002, this is the one game that stands out. The gameplay is ahead of its time, but rough around the edges.
Where it falls in the series
It’s the third of three on Saturn, the first one that’s truly 3D. The series didn’t pick back up until World Series Baseball 2K1 on Dreamcast.
Praises and gripes
The original World Series Baseball on Sega Genesis broke ground with a new behind-the-batter viewpoint, and this game has innovative batting mechanics that influenced later baseball games. At the plate, you select from four quadrants of the strike zone. Guess right, and just time your swing for solid contact. Guess wrong, and you move a circular icon into position, following a smaller circular icon that shows you where the ball is going.
I was never a fan of icon-based hitting, but it’s a decent solution here as a backup to the guessing game. Unfortunately, moving the icon with the Saturn’s D-pad doesn’t feel smooth. And breaking pitches are especially hard to hit. Pitching is much like in the old versions. Choose a pitch and move an icon.
Games move along at a good pace, especially if you turn the batter introductions off. Visually, it’s somehow a lot prettier than most 32-bit sports games, but still plagued by a minor case of robotic animations and primitive ball physics.
The game shows its flaws once the ball is in the field. Fielding and baserunning both give you absolutely no CPU assistance. You’ll definitely blow some easy catches and throws in the field, and it’s maddening trying to avoid careless outs on the basepaths. You’ll want to set both to “auto.”
In 1997, this game was a baseball purist’s dream come true, an ambitious attempt at deep, strategic, realistic baseball. But is it fun today? It’s okay. There’s no aspect of it that’s any better than the baseball sims that came around in the PS2/Xbox days.