Baseball Stars Review

Of course, getting to ‘baseball’ in the list here, I have a ton of games to review. Interesting that this one comes up next, because I was always curious to play what is usually called the “best” baseball title for the NES. Though I haven’t played the rest enough, it’s definitely got my attention, though saying “best” is a bit premature.

Graphically, Baseball Stars pulls it out of the bit swamp that the original Baseball and Bases Loaded were stuck in and creates a more full, cartoon-style atmosphere that works better with the system’s capabilities. But, it avoids the overly cartoony feeling of R.B.I. Baseball as well. There are a number of vibrant colors, great animations, and event screens. The fielders tend to be pretty generic, with the woman’s team actually looking totally male, but other than little issues like this, Baseball Stars definitely delivers in the graphics department.

Another strong point for Baseball Stars is the sound. The music is catchy and unique and the sound effects fit the action. Really, there’s nothing else to say, it carries with it the cartoon-style of the graphics and creates a fuller picture. Of particular interest is the ball in-flight, which allows you to determine (roughly) when it’s going to hit the ground.

Baseball Stars is easy to figure out, it’s a baseball title for crying out loud. What made this game shine in its day I’ll get to, but in general you have the basic controls that apply to pitching, hitting, and fielding. Pitching allows you to move your pitcher to a variety of positions and adjust the ball’s curve while it’s in flight. While batting, you can choose a number of positions, but only swing in a single area. Fielding is automatic to a point. Baseball Stars seems to have found that difficult line where some of it is done for you, and the rest is up to you, but it’s not difficult. The players are damn fast, which enables play to move smoothly and leaves room for errors. If a pop fly is a little further over than you first anticipated, just run in the right direction to get it. Check some of it out:

Where Baseball Stars really shines, however, is it’s kitchen sink approach to 8-Bit baseball. You can pretty much do everything in this game. The options are incredible. You can adjust tournaments to include as few as three teams with one game each or upwards of six teams and twenty-five games, create your own team, adjust your rosters, hire new players, collect money to upgrade the ones you have, you’ll be surprised how much they fit in here, and it’s all backed up with battery-powered memory! Awesome. There are still some complaints.

First, the batting. Though it’s easy to hit, the programmers created a box around the batter like looking through a magnifying glass. When the pitcher throws the ball, it doesn’t simply come where you think it will; it may be slightly to the side, since you’re given you a closer view of the batter than the pitcher. This took a little while to adjust to. Next, the AI, it’s stupid as hell. All you have to do about 98% of the time is throw a wild ball way to the opposite side of the batter. The computer will move over, but won’t swing. However, it then keeps the batter in position. Move to the other side, throw it straight, and they can’t move over fast enough to swing and you’ll get a strike each time. Repeat until out. Very stupid. I was surprised how pathetic the AI was, it almost ruins everything this game has to offer because it becomes so damn easy. Definitely not Bases Loaded caliber for the difficulty.

Baseball Stars did a hell of a lot with the baseball video game for its time. The ability to create teams, players, trade, you name it, it’s here. You don’t need to write down passwords because it’s all automatically saved, there are plenty of play options and no glitches, it’s an all around great game and really broke new ground in several important areas. Plus, they threw in a bit of goofiness that gives it some charm, like a team named entirely off of movie monsters, and another off of famous figures in American history.

I have played Baseball Stars a number of times. The difficulty is well below what advanced gamers require, and the AI is embarrassing. Really, is it programmed to be that damn stupid? Still, the ability to adjust the length of play is awesome, you can run through an entire tournament in half of an hour or a whole damn year depending on how you set the play. Pretty much perfect in this category, you’ll probably come back to it quite a bit if you’re interested in NES baseball. The ‘create team’ option is really cool too, since you can take the time to create a max team with the best players imaginable.

Baseball Stars isn’t as perfect as people seem to think, but it’s definitely one of the better baseball titles for the NES, easily one of the top three. But the small issues I had leave it standing on rocky ground at the moment. It’s hard to beat it’s level of options and playability, however, so there’s no doubt it’s a solid title deserving of at least some credit. A good one to check out, but if you’re looking for a game with challenge, go with Bases Loaded.