Dun dun da dun....suprisingly addictive
Surprisingly addictive. The game plays exactly the way you would expect a NES baseball game to play. The controls are very solid and straight-forward; B to advance the runners, A to swing, A to throw, B to run to the base on on defense, and the D-pad takes you where you want to go. Simple right? Well, not actually. There are not many faults in the gameplay, but some were made too noticeable. For one, the players on defense move WAY to slow. It seems like it takes you forever to run to the ball. Also, the umpires will make some horrible calls. It seems like they can't tell if a ball is fair of foul, often taking a sure triple away. You get to choose between 10 teams making up the Tengen league. They are; California, Boston, Detroit, Houston, New York, St. Louis, San Francisco, the AL All-Stars, and the NL All-Stars, which means you won't play the same team all the time. The game will start off hard, but as you learn the controls, it gets to be very easy. The fun factor is through-the-roof if you play with a friend. Its very entertaining watching little midgets running after balls, and swinging like a 2 year old. Overall, you won't be let down with the gameplay.
Story
Baseball games don't have stories. It's just like you see on TV. Play a nine inning game of baseball, and score more runs than your opponent. That's it.
Sound
Well, I can't completely put down the sound department. There is no menu music. There's basically only three other songs that play. A very aggravating tune the plays when a man's on base that repeats itself about every five seconds is the only complaint that I have. It gets very annoying. Other than that, there's that ''ping'' sound when you hit a ball and if a homerun is hit(which happens way too often) there is a somewhat cheesy fireworks show with sounds that seems to get mixed into each other. The tune that plays between innings gets you ready for the next one in a positive way, and the before game music is, well, OK. It's just your basic NES sounds...
Graphics
Seems like Tengen could have done a little better job here. The batters are very plain, and behind the fence there is a big blue wall, which I guess is supposed to be sky. The scoreboard is very basic. You can see the ball spinning in the air, which is a nice touch. When a man slides, you can actually tell he's sliding. There is no difference between the players at all, which makes them look like clones. The graphics are the only bad part about this game.
Replay Value
After you play all the CPU teams, it will get a little boring, but with a friend this game rocks. To be able to play with the All-Stars teams gives this game a little more depth, and it never seems to get old. All in all, this game is worth playing again and again.
Buy or Rent
If you don't have it, get it. It's a nice addition to any NES collection, and can be bought dirt cheap. If you like baseball, and want to play with some of the retired greats, this game is for you. Why not give it a try?Read full review
