Baseball Stars II Review

Hey, want to to try to ride on the popularity of an earlier title? Want to hope the name is enough to sell? Then come on, it’s time to check out Baseball Stars II! This game is an utter disappointment. It’s not bad necessarily, but it’s a repackaged title, perhaps an example of corporate greed, or well, just stupidity.

Wait, is this Baseball Stars II or just Baseball Stars? This game is shockingly similar to the original. Baseball Stars II looks exactly like Baseball Stars, with only minor graphical changes, particularly colors. The options screen looks almost the damn same, the players look basically the same, even most of the field is the same! What in the hell were you thinking?!!!! Only the event screens are different. You get essentially the same game otherwise. The only thing that’s noticeable in Baseball Stars II involves the option of choosing different stadiums. Now, that’s a cool idea! Too bad it doesn’t freaking matter where you play except for the color scheme. What?!!!!!! Baseball Stars II doesn’t look bad, but it’s just a repackaging of Baseball Stars.

Thankfully, Baseball Stars II does have a new soundtrack and effects. The music is rather catchy and fitting throughout, but the sound effect programming is strange. They chose these annoying tweet-type effects for strikes, hits, and such. Really sounds odd, and for that let’s take this score down a bit.

Baseball Stars II is a baseball game. As in Baseball Stars, the same controls apply. I won’t complain, because it’s basically the same as any other baseball game from this era. Batting, pitching, and fielding are done in the same fashion as Baseball Stars. Batting, however, is now much easier with the removal of the ‘batter view’ and the addition of a ‘base view’ so you can see first and third. Good change. So, they kept what made Baseball Stars good and tweaked it the right way, other than the stupid AI. Wait a minute… Damn it, so the AI is still as stupid as it was before? It’s actually worse. Now it has a tendency to bean your batter if you move them close to the plate, which I was able to use a number of times to consistently score walked runs. How in the hell is that possible? Before I complain some more, check it out:

Baseball Stars II is nearly identical to Baseball Stars. Some interesting changes have been added, like adjusting your fielding positions and new bunting controls, but in general it all boils down to graphics, though admittingly they’re better looking. One thing you will notice, however, is Romstar’s stupid decision to change the ‘create team’ option. Now you are unable to name your team or players and have to go with stock options. Huh? So my players are stuck with names like VETE-4? What in the hell is that? Everything else is essentially the same, so if you like the gameplay in Baseball Stars, well I guess Baseball Stars II won’t let you down, but you don’t really have a reason to play it in the first place.

There is absolutely no way to call Baseball Stars II creative. The only important change to Baseball Stars is the new batting view, which is only minor, otherwise you get color changes. Everything else is too basic too note. Useful, maybe, but you won’t find play that different. It’s totally superficial when it comes down to it, there’s nothing new, nothing to the point of being a total travesty. I can’t even believe they were legally allowed to release this.

I guess I unfortunately can’t complain about the game length and replay value, though, because Baseball Stars II has the same amount as Baseball Stars since it’s nearly the same game. If you’re looking to do exactly the same thing, here you go. I mean, I guess if you found this one first, grab it. Other way around too, however, so Baseball Stars II is at a disadvantage.

Baseball Stars II is a perfect example of reused coding. Very rarely will you find a company daring enough to reuse code to the extent that it is nearly the same game as something released prior. Romstar wasn’t the best company, but they had some good games. Baseball Stars II, is not one of them because of its reliance on other peoples’ hard work. It’s a repackaged version of Baseball Stars with only minor alterations. Otherwise, it’s the same game, but it fails because of this, as the creativity score indicates. Still, I mean, you can’t avoid the fact that it’s just as good in many ways as Baseball Stars, but again, that’s because it is Baseball Stars.