what makes a baseball game "good?"

[Edmond Dantes]

So its something I've wondered all my life.

I've played dozens of baseball video games and to be honest, they're all the same... or at least all have the same problem: they feel like they come down to pure luck. How are you supposed to know when to throw a curveball, or when to swing the bat high or low... it often feels like all you can do is go for it and pray.

And I've never seen a baseball video game that changed my mind.

And yet apparently some are highly regarded. For example I hear people talk about Baseball Stars as if its the awesomest thing ever, and yet.... well, I tried it and I didn't see a damn thing that made it better than Bases Loaded or whatever.

To me the only Baseball games that make sense are those ones where you swing an actual bat or a wiimote.

But I dunno. Am I just playing these wrong, or maybe I really am just playing the wrong ones? Got any thoughts on this?

[Greg2600]

Baseball Stars was cool because of the variety of teams/players and being able to create your own, something that it pioneered years before its time. Being that it was an arcade port, it had more of an arcade feel, and allowed for more home runs and stuff like that. Once you got used to them, most of those old baseball games were fun to play. Others were terrible, like Pete Rose or Tommy Lasorda.

[YoshiM]

That is a very good question. I'm wondering if the early baseball games like on Atari 2600 were like a variation of "Pong"-where your batter is, the position of the bat at the time the ball connects along with the speed of the ball equals which direction it goes.

[gbpxl]

Baseball Simulator 1.000 for NES was fun because it had a lot of fantasy elements to it. difficulty wasnt too bad. i could actually hit the ball. and there werent home runs after home runs like some of them. camera angle was good. controls were good and user friendly.

[Gameguy]

I remember the RBI Baseball games on NES being good, though no baseball games are among my favourite games as I consider various hockey or tennis games much better. They're basically tied with football games, with most golf games being worse as a whole.

I do remember playing a baseball game on Camerica's Quattro Sports cartridge which was still fun, but I remember quitting a game when I was getting a score around 36 - 6 as it was just too easy.

Most of the challenge with baseball games is timing when to swing your bat during a pitch, and catching a ball when the computer is at plate. There's not really much else with choosing what types of pitches besides trying to confuse the AI by not choosing the same thing all the time. I do remember one Genesis game where I would try to step into the pitch every time so I would just get hit and walked to first base, that basically worked as a strategy with that title. Most baseball games just aren't that great to me.

[Tron 2.0]

I'm no expert but long as it's likes baseball stars 2 then to me that's a good baseball game that and 2020 super baseball.

BBS2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMpDn_g5uMM&t=293s

2020 SBB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d2fxVEMHVM&t=195s

[Bighab]

I get what you're saying most modern sports games seem luck based. But Baseball stars is awesome! There is a lot of strategy involved in creating your team. Putting your best defensive players in key spots. Knowing when to pull your pitcher when he is fatigued.With pitching you select what type of pitch but as the ball is traveling across the plate you and control it's path. For example making the ball "curve" on a fastball. IMO Baseball Stars for the Nes is the best baseball game ever. I own multiple copies and have created leagues with friends over the years.

[YoshiM]

I think it boils down to how much you are into baseball, how much you KNOW about baseball and then how good the game is on top of that. While I mentioned baseball games on the VCS-"Realsports Baseball" was pretty fun when you played against a human. I think after that the most I played a baseball video game was a Ken Griffey Jr. game for SNES, if I'm not mistaken. It was ok...my friend who had a lot of disposable cash at the time would buy up games for the group and we'd give them a whirl. I don't think he had it long as he was more a football guy (and thus moved to Tecmo Super Bowl III-which we played the snot out of).

I think a Wii based baseball game would have been a great idea but I don't think that really panned out. The baseball on Wii Sports was ok but hardly ever got played.