Top Baseball games ever

[The Manimal]

RBI Baseball 3 (Tengen NES version. Haven't played the Geneis version, though I have RBI Baseball '93 for the Gen and it was no fun at all. Here we have the best of the RBI Series. Without a doubt the best of it's time...even better than the overly difficult (at least for me) to hit the ball 'Bases Loaded')


Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball (Great game that got lots of play. Lots of stats, though the version I had didn't show the stats for the season when I was at the plate. Didn't have the MLB license, but the team names you could edit, so no loss there. Realistic than most, as you determined your pitch before you threw the ball, so none of that move the ball as it gets to the batter stuff.)


Tecmo Super Baseball (I think this is very good once you get used to the control of the angle-switching. Lots of stats, which I like. I hated this game when I first picked it up, but gave it the benefit of the doubt at the time, considering their other sport franchises were great, though the Hockey game was pretty average. EA did that best (and later did the NBA games best also.)


Ken Griffey MLB Prototype (for N64. This pre-release game was on exhibit at the All-Star game Fan Fest in the mid/late 90s. I was addicted to it, but the final product did not seem as good. It was still a really good game, but that unfinished early version was much better.)

[chadtower]

Uh, dude, I think nearly anyone here would agree with me when I saY DAMMIT YOU LEFT OUT THE ONLY BASEBALL GAME THAT MATTERS.

Baseball Stars, NES.

[The Manimal]

I got that like 4 years ago and it hasn't been played much, so I don't think I should give an opinion on it LOL

[chadtower]

Dude... best... baseball... game... ever. Doesn't even NEED an MLB license because it's about BASEBALL, not politics and fame. I'd definitely put it in my own top 5 (or any genre) of all time.

[The Manimal]

Haha, I like the simulation aspect a lot also, so that's why I probably didn't own it at the time. The animation is a bit cartoony, but realistic if that makes sense. Diving for catches and stuff. I saw Baseball Stars 2 a few weeks back at a Funcoland. They lowered the price down to like $10. I thought about buying it, but read a review way back that it was virtually identical to the first game. Either way, I kinda wanted it.

But in general....I'm really starting to get into these 3-D sports games. I'm not that big on 3-D games in general (prefer 2-D side scrollers), but in sports games, I think 3-D is a fantastic thing.

[chadtower]

Baseball Stars II is nothing like Baseball Stars. They took out all of the things that make Baseball Stars great, meaning the create a player and tournaments and roster management, etc.

[Mustang93]

Baseball Stars-NES
RBI Baseball-NES
World Series Baseball 95-Gen
Triple Play Baseball 97 & 01-PS1
MVP Baseball-PS2

[gwaine]

Hardball III for the PC...that was fun...easy as hell but fun.

[Ascending Wordsmith]

The Slugger! You all forgot The Slugger. I hereby condemn all of you to gaming hell.

Plus Baseball Simulator 1.000 is pretty good.

[tynstar]

BASEBALL STARS NES!!!

I hate baseball but love that game.

[Trellisaze]

Moving away from the arcade-style baseball games for a minute, I'll give some recognition to the Out of the Park series for the PC.

It's up to Number 5 now, and it's definitely on top of it's "game" now, pardon the pun. It's got a great, clean interface, most of the GM options you'd ever want, enough so-called realism while maintaining a good level of unpredictibility, etc. etc.

There's some suspect parts too, like where you get to playact real-life by bringing your kid up though the system. Haven't explored that stuff enough to tell how much I like it, since I've only really played the game as part of an online league, so far.

[udisi]

well baseball stars for the nes definitly....as for an oldschool nomination...Earl weaver baseball for apple 2e

[Dobie]

Good lord! How could you forget THE baseball game of all time (and the title of the OFFICIAL DP code as stated in the DP guide)????? Have you heard of maybe Bad News Baseball for the NES? Anybody? I command all of you to go to your rooms, and don't come out until you like this game.

Baseball Stars is over-rated. Its a good game. But I can rattle off several better baseball games for Nintendo systems, other than just Bad News Baseball...

--Ken Griffey Jr. Presents (SNES) Play a whole 162 game season if you want. Sweeeet. I'm an M's fan, so I'm a bit biased here.
--Dusty Diamond's All-Star softball (NES) It counts in my book, and its a dang fun game. Where else can you have Satan or a Witch on your team?
--Extra Innings (SNES) All the fun and charm of RBI, but better graphics and play control.
--Legends of the Diamond (NES) Is there ANY other NES game that lets you be Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth?

I play any one of these more than Baseball Stars. Baseball Stars just isn't that great once you've played through it. It doesn't have the pick-up-and-play fun that the rest of these games has.

[Kid Fenris]

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that my favorite baseball title is 2020 Super Baseball for the Neo-Geo. It's never as deep as some of the games named in this thread, but I dig the robots, the power-ups, and the near-future atmosphere.

Base Wars on the NES is another one that I enjoyed, but I'm not even sure if it counts as a real baseball game.

[oesiii]

Baseball games are my favorite sports genre but I have some weird picks for the best ones. I like the big head type of baseball the best.

RBI Baseball - NES (had real MLB players with big heads :D )
World Series Baseball 98- Genny + Saturn (more realistic)
Baseball Stars Color- Neo Geo Pocket Color (great quick fun)
World Series Baseball - Arcade by Centronics (my fave arcade game)
Powerful Pro Baseball 3,4,&5- Gameboy Advance (great imports, heard these were great on Gamecube, PS2 versions but I never got a chance to try them, there have been versions on SNES, PSX, Saturn, DC too. Must be really popular in Japan ;) )

Right now I'm trying out High Heat Baseball 2004 for the PC, not an alltime great but pretty interesting enough to keep me playing a whole season
:-D

[jaybird]

While Baseball Stars for the NES is by far my favorite, I also like All-Star Baseball 2001 for N64. It has a really good balance of hitting vs. pitching and great gameplay.

This was the last game before the move to PS2, Xbox, & GC & it's been all downhill since then for the franchise, IMHO.

[devilman]

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that my favorite baseball title is 2020 Super Baseball for the Neo-Geo. It's never as deep as some of the games named in this thread, but I dig the robots, the power-ups, and the near-future atmosphere.
.

Another Super Baseball 2020 fan here too. The MD version is excellent too. Baseball Stars 2 is very good too.

I generally don't like Baseball games (maybe it's because I'm a Brit) but those two are worth playing. :)

[Darth Vader]

Baseball Stars by a landslide! #2 NES game of all time on my list (Right below Tecmo Super Bowl) Any list without Baseball Stars is an incomplete list!

Danny

[scooterb23]

If I were to do a top 10 list...Baseball Stars for he NES takes up spots 1-4...I love it that much.

Other games I really like are Relief Pitcher for the SNES (for those who like just the exciting parts of baseball games)

World Series Baseball - 95 (GEN) 98 (Saturn) and the first release on the XBox great realism...

Dusty Diamond Softball - I always pick the fat and slow players...I never win :(

Hardball C64 - Next to Baseball Stars, I logged the most games on this one...amazing considering there were only two teams available, and no stats were kept (I actually hand kept my own stats for a 32 game season once...)

[Anthony1]

I'm a hardcore sports game nut, so you can take my rankings to the bank

here they are


1. Power League Baseball 4 - PC Engine - This game was way, way before it's time when it came out in 1990. You could play 5 people with a Turbo Tap and the graphics were amazing at the time. They had different stadiums, indoors and outdoors, and this was just an amazing game playability wise. If this game was brought to the U.S. with the full major league baseball license, it could have been a huge factor in changing the fate of the TurboGrafx-16.

2. Triple Play Baseball '97 - Sony Playstation - This was the first time that a baseball game had been made with a serious effort at presentation and tv style broadcast. It played great, sounded really good, and had great graphics. The total package.

3. Bases Loaded - NES - The original Bases Loaded, will be a game that will be forever burned into my brain. I was in a league with this game, from other guys in my High School and we would play this puppy all day and all night. It took some time to get used to the reverse perspective, but once you did, it was a true joy of a game. Anybody remember that hitter with the last name Bass? He was my main man!

4. World Series Baseball II - Sega Saturn - This game came out relatively late in the Saturns lifespan, when the system was starting to die, but it can't be overlooked as a extremely solid Baseball game.

5. World Class Baseball - TurboGrafx-16 - This game gets virtually no respect, and it's a shame, because it is a great playing game. The pure playability of the game is outstanding. All of the players had very different abilities in terms of their speed, power, range, etc, etc. It didn't have real times, and it was kinda cartoony, but the play was outstanding.

6. Baseball Stars - NES - This was an awesome game in terms of the Role Playing aspect with having salarys and money and stuff. The game was a very good playing game too, but it was a little on the arcadey style for me. I'm more into sim style sports games, and it was a little on the arcadish side.

7. World Series Baseball - Genesis - This game was one of the first to have such a huge batter in the batter/pitcher screen. It seemed really amazing at the time. It was a very solid playing baseball game.

8. Baseball - Atari 2600 - This was my very first baseball game, and even though I think there was only 4 players on defense, I played the S out of this game when I was a wee 8 years old! It holds a special place in my heart.

9. Super Baseball 2020 - Neo-Geo - I had a Neo-Geo for a very short period of time, but I did have this game, and it was a blast! It wasn't a true baseball sim of course, but it was still a very good game with a pure fun factor.

10. Tecmo Super Baseball - SNES - Although this game wasn't all that great to be honest, it did feature a unique concept at the time. It used the SNES mode 7 to do the fielding from the fielders perspective. It was very cool at the time that it came out. However the actual real gameplay wasn't all that great.

[DDCecil]

Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 for the SNES. My favorite sports game of all time.

[Daniel Thomas]

What about Home Run on the 2600? I thought that was a classic. Ha.

Seriously, baseball games don't really do it for me. If anyone would try something, anything, different, then I'd notice. But it seems that videogame baseball has been stagnating forever.

That said, I think the best baseball game ever made was Sega's World Series Baseball '98 for the Saturn. What really makes it work is the pitcher/batter battles. This is 90% of baseball, so it makes sense to capture that tension between the two. It's just a lot smarter than the simple-minded "Aim the ball in this direction" thing that's been around since Home Run. Why Sega hasn't continued this feature in its later installments of WSB is a real mystery to me.

[adaml]

The absolute WORST baseball game I have ever played is Baseball Pros on the Quattro Sports cart. I can't even begin to explain what is wrong with this thing. For starters, I believe one of the infielders is missing.

[scooterb23]

Also, didn't the game go 10 innings, regardless of whether the score was tied after 9?? I think the term that best describes that game is "befuckled"

I played one game of that...after 9 innings I was winning 22-6...I lost 30-28!!!

[Oobgarm]

NES: Baseball Stars
NES: Baseball Simulator 1.000
SNES: Super Bases Loaded
SNES: Ken Griffey, Jr. Presents MLB (Even though the real life Griffey sucks major ass)
XBOX: World Series Baseball (both releases)

[chadtower]

--Legends of the Diamond (NES) Is there ANY other NES game that lets you be Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth?

Uh, yes. Baseball Stars has them on the Legends team. You could also easily create them.

[boatofcar]

Little League Baseball (NES)- Most underrated baseball game ever. Great pick up and play title, plus the charm of little league guys.

Bad News Baseball (NES)

All Star Baseball 2004 (PS2)

[adaml]

Also, didn't the game go 10 innings, regardless of whether the score was tied after 9?? I think the term that best describes that game is "befuckled"

I played one game of that...after 9 innings I was winning 22-6...I lost 30-28!!!

Yeah, there is some insane cheating going on by the computer in the later levels. Good luck catching a fly ball too.

[scooterb23]

If that cart didn't have BMX Simulator on it...it wouldn't be worth the plastic.