Baseball Review

Here is an old one. Baseball is an original-run titles for the NES when it was released in the West, and one of the earliest titles for the Famicom, stretching back to the system’s infancy. And boy does it show. There are so many baseball titles on the NES it can be difficult to choose one or the other. Choose this one only if you have a deep sense of nostalgia, like only the most basic of games, or want to get your ass kicked.

Baseball doesn’t have the most exciting graphics. They’re basically just a few steps above the Atari 2600. Teams differ only in jersey colors and the field is cut down to simple forms. You will not find a single bell or whistle in this game, you’ll be hard pressed to even find anything really. For it’s time, it could have probably been better, but this was more of an experience in programming a working baseball title that played like the real thing. The goal was not to make it look spectacular. Most of the character animations, however, are impressive for their time.

Don’t expect much out of the sound either. Older NES titles have charm, but Baseball doesn’t do much to make itself stand out. The only music you hear occurs at the title screen, start of a game, and end, that’s it. There’s no in-game music to speak of, and few effects. The sound focus has been reduced to the pattering of the players’ feet, hitting the ball, the bouncing ball, a noise gate for the crowd, and then the classic ‘out’ wallop, along with a few tweets and bleats. Some of these were reused in later titles and became classics, so we have to give Baseball a bit of credit. It does retain a bit of that old school charm of first-run NES titles, but it doesn’t have nearly the lovable factor going for it like Ice Climber.

Baseball is exactly what you think it is. This was really the first true baseball title. All the standard rules are followed. Three strikes, four balls, runs not counting if a fly is caught, and so forth. Play is surprisingly sophisticated and well-programmed for this early of a game. It switches from outfield to infield depending on the action, you can select a number of batting positions and there are a few tricks you can use while pitching. All of these things would eventually become staples of video game baseball. Here’s a bit of it:

Baseball, however, has a number of problems hindering it from standing as a true classic. Teams only differ in color. There is no difference in actual playing abilities. Plus, Baseball only boasts two options, single or two-player. There’s no tournament mode or anything, it’s just a single, bare-minimum game each time. The two-player option can be fun, but be prepared for pure hell if you choose to play the computer. It’s completely unforgiving. It knows exactly where to hit and when to hit, when to run, it’s programmed to totally destroy you. There is no way to change it, either, you’re good enough, or you’re done. Playing better than the computer is nearly impossible at first. Took me several games to even score a single run, and that was with the computer downing me by about twelve. Another huge problem is you have no control of your fielders other than throwing. It’s completely AI-controlled and slow as piss. Every time the computer hits the ball directly in-between your players you’ll cringe as you watch their pathetically slow movements, hearing the pitter-patter of feet as they painfully move towards the ball. Pitching can be done with some skill, but only batting will really get you anywhere, provided you can figure out how to hit properly, which the computer already knows quite well…

Baseball isn’t a very creative game. I don’t think there’s anything even here you could call creative. It was really the world’s first glimpse at a true baseball video game, nothing more. It was programmed quite well, other than the relentless computer, so for that you have to give a little credit. It wasn’t like something like this wouldn’t have come around eventually, but it was the first, so props for that. Don’t expect much more out of it.

In spite of its hideous difficulty level, Baseball has this certain charm to it that might make older gamers come back for more. There’s always that ‘can I beat it’ factor going on, and this alone made me come back several times. It’s maddeningly frustrating at first, but then you fall into this meditative state. The sparse sound effects and ease of play, in spite of difficulty, give it this relaxing quality that I’ve only seen in a few games. Don’t expect to be wowed, but you might come back to it from time to time, just to see if you can give it what’s eventually coming or maybe if you just feel like playing a simple game with no hang-ups.

Baseball isn’t the first baseball game I’d pick up for the NES, there are plenty of better ones. The amount of time it takes to actually get good enough to make the computer game even moderately fair is sickening, and you might not feel too good about existence if you force yourself onward. It’s not exactly a milestone in one’s life to say you’ve conquered Baseball, but it would be damn impressive to some people. I won’t say stay away from it, but read the above carefully so you know what you’re in for. I was happy I was able to finally give it one in the stomach, but it took a lot of practice. I guess that can make a good game for some people, but be warned.