Baseball Stars for the NES

[+cvga]

I know this is a favorite baseball game for lots of people. Just popped this back in the NES after more than a 2 year break. My 11 year old and I love to create new teams, build them up, win the (50 game) pennant and start all over by creating another brand new team.

 

Each time we create a new team, we leave our previous team in the league. It makes it tougher to win since we keep adding high quality teams. Our most recent team is the "Video Gamers" (although we created it over two years ago). We just took over first place in the league and we are 30 games into the season.

 

 

The only two teams in the league that we didn't create are the American Dreams (2nd place) and the Ninja Blacksox (last place and winless).

 

I can't believe how much replay value this cart has held for me over the past 25+ years!

[omegadot]

That sounds pretty incredible. I hope I have something like that at some point with my son. We play games but he's to young yet for a long term involved thing like that.

Edited January 15, 2017 by omegadot

[+cvga]

That sounds pretty incredible. I hope I have something like that at some point with my son. We play games but he's to young yet for a long term involved thing like that.

It is really fun. I asked him why he's never asked for a current video game console and he said that he just likes playing the Atari and Nintendo better. What a kid!

[thadsilverfox]

I have been seriously considering picking this game up. Sounds like a lot of fun.

[Eltigro]

Five stars according to a certain NES guidebook...

[Tanooki]

I think basically are versions of Baseball Stars are highly replayable over time, but that first one was something special. The ones most do not think of are the MVS/AES titles (there's 2 just like on NES) and both using a memory card (in arcade or home) you can save your progress too and the challenge on those being arcade titles are even more stiff. So many talk up the licensed garbage but Baseball Stars is where it's at for style and play, but not being canned by the licensed bs it's timeless.

[0078265317]

Never played baseballstars or baseballstars 2. I have regular baseball and rbi baseball.

[BillyHW]

I liked Baseball Stars on NES and also the two versions on Neo Geo.

[+save2600]

Had a Neo*Geo in the early 90's and played the hell out of both Baseball Stars games - #2 mostly. Somehow though, wasn't even aware of the games for the NES until a newly acquired friend showed one of them to me. Ended up lending him my NG for a while and needless to say, we never played the NES version.

 

Usually prefer more of an arcade experience (quick/no nonsense), but can see the appeal of the customizable NES version; building up teams, playing through seasons, etc. Might be more into that today than yesteryear truth be told.

[Cynicaster]

I haven't played the NES game(s) since they were relatively current, but I do remember having a lot of fun making my own teams using my classmates' names. I do remember the game being really quirky and unrealistic--for example, you'd get players with ridiculous abilities--but it was good cartoonish fun.

 

As for the Neo Geo games, I absolutely love the graphical style and there is so much potential... but, IMO, as baseball videogames, those games are completely broken. When you're playing the field and the opposing team hits a ball to the outfield, you don't know until the very last split second where your fielders are, which leaves you no time to move your fielder to where he needs to be to actually field the ball. This means that plays that should be ridiculously routine outs end up being hits for the offense. For example, there will be towering fly balls to the outfield that should provide enough time for the fielder to camp beneath them and wait, but those often end up dropping in because you can only guess where your fielders are relative to where they need to be, and if you guess wrong, you're not going to have enough time to move into position and make the catch. Unless, of course, you're the computer team and can simply run the calculations needed to properly position your players.

 

I'm sure somebody will chime in and say "you just need to get used to it" but I don't buy that. I've played dozens and dozens of baseball games through the decades from Atari 2600 up through the modern era; in other words, I've seen enough successful implementations of fielding mechanics to know that the inability to catch a flyball due to "blindness" is a conspicuous design flaw.

 

If it seems like I'm ranting a bit, I am, because it's such a missed opportunity. Those games could have been so great, had SNK not <puts on sunglasses> dropped the ball.

[+save2600]

I remember feeling that way more with Baseball Stars Professional, not the sequel though. Fielding *was* improved in the second game by way of perspective as you see more of the field at once and where your players are. Have zero complaints that way and consider fielding in #2 nowhere near "broken". You might want to give that game another try Cynicaster - and if you need to, stick with it until you get used to it.

[CGQuarterly]

Baseball Stars 2 is the best baseball game on the NES, and is not related to Baseball Stars 2 on the Neo-Geo. Check it out.

[Tanooki]

Hmm I preferred BS2 on the MVS and #1 on the NES. They're all fairly different yet not at the same time with the changes.

[Dripfree]

Right when I started collecting I had a friend who I would always play baseball games with. We started with "baseball" and sort of worked our way up. I never did any research but when I found a new one I would scoop it up and we would check it out. For a while we were convinced RBI Baseball was as good as it got on nes. Then I came across baseball stars. I new it was special when I saw the gold sticker on the back. I thought oh cool you can save you can probably do a season or something. I was absolutely blown away when I realized how in depth it got. Not only is it one of the best baseball games on the system, it is one of the best games on the system period. I have not gotten baseball stars 2 yet kinda just waiting to stumble across it, but I have not come close to feeling like I have played out the first one.... Such a great game.

[+cvga]

Baseball Stars 2 is the best baseball game on the NES, and is not related to Baseball Stars 2 on the Neo-Geo. Check it out.

 

Not only is it one of the best baseball games on the system, it is one of the best games on the system period. I have not gotten baseball stars 2 yet kinda just waiting to stumble across it, but I have not come close to feeling like I have played out the first one.... Such a great game.

I have Baseball Stars 2 but we're waiting until we're tired of the original game to play it again. It may take awhile lol.

 

The only complaint I have about Baseball Stars is that I wish I could see my team's stats at the end of the season. They're obviously in there since you can see the Top 10 for several categories.

[LionHearted78]

I'm not even a huge fan of baseball, but this game is certainly among my favorites for Retro Baseball titles. (probably a tie with Ken Griffey for SNES)

 

I've played the NES versions as well as the NEO Geo Versions. Both are solid, but I have more experience with the NES title.

 

It really is crazy how much content they put into that cart. Making your own team, being able to FULLY customize the team by hiring and firing players, and leveling them up. Then being able to save it all...which was all just crazy for those days. Great gameplay too! Really awesome how playable it still is after all these years!

[Tanooki]

I may not be in the popular support with this comment but I've had both and felt that Baseball Stars 2 which a bit more graphically prettier is the inferior experience. MIght want to go read some faqs and compare the two before you bite as it's far more expensive than the first (just like on Neo Geo MVS too except the sequel on Neo-Geo is notably better.)

[Cynicaster]

I played a game of NES Baseball Stars 1 last night. Lost 8-2 but it is definitely a fun game. My usual go-to baseball game on NES is Tecmo Baseball, but I'll probably be playing Baseball Stars more now instead.

[thadsilverfox]

I played a game of NES Baseball Stars 1 last night. Lost 8-2 but it is definitely a fun game. My usual go-to baseball game on NES is Tecmo Baseball, but I'll probably be playing Baseball Stars more now instead.

Is Tecmo Baseball any good?

[Cynicaster]

Is Tecmo Baseball any good?

 

It’s pretty typical of baseball games of its day—batter/pitcher view, switch to overhead field view when the ball is hit, hit button at the last second to attempt diving catch, umpire that says one-syllable words (strike! Ball! Out!), cheesy scoreboard animation when a homerun is hit, etc.

 

But all in all it’s got a very quick pace to it (the main reason I prefer old baseball games to modern simulations) and is “tuned” quite well. Some baseball games from those days would have stupid things happen like a ground ball to the shortstop gets fielded cleanly yet the runner still makes it to first safely, or the runner gets thrown out at first on a ball hit to the outfield, etc. Tecmo handles that stuff quite well, and although the fielders are kind of small in the overhead view, what you lose in graphical wow-factor, you gain in practicality (you get a great, clear view of where all your fielders are right away).

 

It doesn’t have any fancy “make your own team” features or real teams or anything like that, but I like it a lot. I must admit though, for me, there might be a bit of a nostalgic element to liking the game, because I had it in the 80s and played it a lot back then.

[+cvga]

We finished our season and are already 20 games into a new season. I am using the same team (Video Gamers) that we created and strengthened last season. There's a good chance we'll go 50-0. Once we finish this season, we'll build another team from scratch. Since brand new teams are so weak at the beginning and we will be playing in a league of all superstar teams, it will be really difficult to get enough wins to make the team competitive. My son won't like it as much but building new teams is my favorite part of the game.

 

Our current batting order is...

1. Mario

2. Pacman

3. DigDug

4. Q-bert

5. Luigi

6. Wario

7. Bowser

8. D.Kong

 

Our bench consists of

1. Sonic

2. Link

3. Zelda

4. Bonk

5. E.Otto

 

Our pitching staff

1. Yoshi

2. Nester

3. Froger (limited to 6 letters)

4. Harry

5. Kirby

 

We are thinking about building a team of cartoon characters next

[Joe C.]

We finished our season and are already 20 games into a new season. I am using the same team (Video Gamers) that we created and strengthened last season. There's a good chance we'll go 50-0. Once we finish this season, we'll build another team from scratch. Since brand new teams are so weak at the beginning and we will be playing in a league of all superstar teams, it will be really difficult to get enough wins to make the team competitive. My son won't like it as much but building new teams is my favorite part of the game.

 

Our current batting order is...

1. Mario

2. Pacman

3. DigDug

4. Q-bert

5. Luigi

6. Wario

7. Bowser

8. D.Kong

 

Our bench consists of

1. Sonic

2. Link

3. Zelda

4. Bonk

5. E.Otto

 

Our pitching staff

1. Yoshi

2. Nester

3. Froger (limited to 6 letters)

4. Harry

5. Kirby

 

We are thinking about building a team of cartoon characters next

I'm requesting you find a way to let Zelda into your starting lineup for a couple games!

[+cvga]

I'm requesting you find a way to let Zelda into your starting lineup for a couple games!

We've been powering Zelda up. She's one of our two best pinch hitters. I think we can let her start a few games lol

[Joe C.]

We've been powering Zelda up. She's one of our two best pinch hitters. I think we can let her start a few games lol

Haha. Love it!

 

I used to do pretty much the same thing as the two of you are doing with BB Stars. Love this game.

 

Also, I did this with Baseball Simulator 1.000 for the SNES.

[Punisher5.0]

I may not be in the popular support with this comment but I've had both and felt that Baseball Stars 2 which a bit more graphically prettier is the inferior experience. MIght want to go read some faqs and compare the two before you bite as it's far more expensive than the first (just like on Neo Geo MVS too except the sequel on Neo-Geo is notably better.)

On the Neo Geo I thought one was boring compared to the second. I ended up getting it super cheap on Steam. Every once in a while a friend and I will play it together and have an absolute blast.