Baseball Stars (NES Game)

Now here's an odd little duck. Baseball Stars is a game unlike any other baseball game for the NES. That may or may not be a good thing (it's probably ok because a lot of baseball games on the NES stink out loud).

Here's how Baseball Stars struck me at first: I noticed that my batter was slouched over the plate like he's got lower back problems. I've seen guys lean into it, but the picture above is a little much, no? His elbow is almost touching his knee. He's crowding the plate. He's begging for one in the ear. After noticing the odd posture, I noticed that the field is HUGE. Seriously, the fields in most baseball games for the NES are small to make up for the fact that the fielders are slow as mud. Baseball Stars brings it with a realistically (or perhaps slightly exaggerated) sized field.

Fielding was a bit of a problem at first, but once you get a few chances to field a pop fly, you'll be all over it. There are still some unrealistic things (third baseman unable to throw out a guy at first, etc.) and a few bugs (CPU caught a few balls it wasn't anywhere near, yet I have to be directly under a ball within a millimeter of accuracy or it won't be a catch) but it's not the worst fielding I've seen in an NES baseball game. It's all relative. If the fielding was this bad on a PS2 baseball game I'd be furious.

The team and player names are a bit silly. I was playing the Japanese team in the picture above, and as you can see I have a player named Toyota. I believe Fuji and Honda are also on the team. The other team is the Ghouls and their pitcher is named Cyclops. They also have Mummy, Jason, and Bela (as in Lugosi) on the team among others. All the other teams and players are equally silly.

The batting is a little difficult. This is one game where the pitcher has a definite advantage. The pitcher can change the direction of the ball after it leaves his hand. This means the pitcher can throw a ball that zig-zags its way to the plate. Even though it will come across the middle of the plate, such pitches are darn near unhittable. As for the batting itself, the timing is a bit wonky. Instead of anticipating a pitch, it's best to wait for the exact millisecond when you think the ball is past you and then you swing. You can't get a hit any other way.

All in all Baseball Stars is a solid yet not stellar baseball game. I can see myself playing it again in the future, but not until I've played Baseball Simulator 1.000 again. I give Baseball Stars...