Baseball Stars
System: NES
Release Date: July 1989
Developer: SNK
Publisher: SNK
Genre: Sports
SNK comes out with a very innovative sports title with Baseball Stars. There isn’t a license attached or real players, but this is the first title where you can create your own. I would say the hook here is creating and improving your own teams. There are six slots that you can create your own teams of 18 players. You can choose to create a team that has a specific strength, or go random. You then get a really, really overall crappy team. I didn’t realize this right away and was subsequently shellacked by the CPU.
I created the Destiny Stars and renamed everyone to wrestlers on the Capital Pro Wrestling roster, then went to war with the Japan Robins. We got massacred, but then the computer let me come back, but not enough to overcome the 10 run mercy rule. You’re supposed to earn money at the end of games in order to upgrade your team, but you have to win, so I earned nothing.
Batting and pitching are dumbed down in comparison to some of the other baseball games I’ve played. I feel like you have very little control of your pitches. You can throw a fastball, left curve, right curve, or sink ball. Maybe mound position is important, but I just gave up hit after hit after hit. Your rookie players are super slow and super weak at throwing, so you give up a million hits. Even with a good team, you’re going to give up double digits. And don’t lead off, you’ll get picked off a lot.
When it comes to fielding, it’s difficult to catch popups to the outfield, because you aren’t exactly sure where your fielders are, or which one you’re controlling! When you think you’re controlling one outfielder, you magically switch to another, but don’t realize it until your guy is running slowly and it’s too late. You can dive to catch the ball with infielders and jump to catch the ball with outfielders. That’s a nice addition, but ultimately if your team sucks, it doesn’t help very much.
You can create a league with up to six teams and play a season of up to 25 games. Through this time, I expect you would upgrade your team and try to make a powerhouse. The eight default teams are all playable from the start and you can have competitive games as them. I feel like perhaps creating multiple new teams and running a league with them is the only way to grow. I remember some of my buddies playing Baseball Stars in college. That’s probably what they were doing.
Graphics: 2.5
Sprites are big, but not very detailed. Animations are pretty good, but not spectacular.
Sound: 1.0
The music and sounds are poor and there isn’t any digitized voice!
Gameplay: 1.5
The actual batting and pitching aren’t very good. The fielding is bad, too. The create a team and player is where this title shines.
Difficulty: 2.5
Baseball Stars is relatively difficult, but can be overcome with higher stats. Sometimes fielding is a big pain in the butt.
Fun Factor: 1.5
I wouldn’t put this up against the other baseball titles on the system.
Overall Grade: 1.8
Baseball Stars earns a C. I wasn’t really impressed by the game mechanics, but the sequel releases in three years, so maybe that will be amazing.