Bo Jackson Baseball
System: NES
Release Date: October 1991
Developer: Beam Software
Publisher: Data East
Genre: Sports
There’s only one man that I trust to be a dual sports superstar, so let’s play Bo Jackson Baseball! You came to know and love him in Tecmo Bowl as he ran circles around the competition. Now head into Bo’s first love and take him out to the ball game. Choose to play as your favorite city and take the field for nine innings of pitching, batting, and fielding. Bo knows baseball, do you?
You can do an exhibition game or you can play a four team tournament. Choose one team from each of four divisions and take part in a best of 3, 5, or 7 to find out who is the best! I accidentally chose to control Chicago against my team of Detroit in game 1, but was able to rectify it for the rest of them. The view point on the field is absolutely correct. The camera is behind the batter when batting and behind the pitcher when pitching. You can even set it to always be behind the batter if you prefer. And there’s none of that Bases Loaded 3 upside down fielding view.
Choosing a pitch is as easy as pressing a direction and the A Button. You can choose from the fastball, change up, slider, curve, or knuckleball. After choosing the pitch, you can choose the speed while pressing up, down, or neutral. After release, you can cheat it left or right a bit, as well. Be careful, because it’s really easy to bean the batter and accidentally load the bases. The AI is very aggressive running the base paths to the point where you’ll probably have several run downs in a game. When your pitcher gets tired, you can switch out, but any starting pitchers stay unavailable in later games of the playoffs, so good luck if you go six games!
Batting can be difficult to get a hold of at first. You can hit normal, for power, or for contact. I was only able to hit home runs with the power hit. I did find it easier to hit with contact, but it wasn’t always for a base hit. You can also bunt toward 1st or 3rd. Just don’t bunt with two strikes, because a foul is an out! Putting the ball in play gives you a chance, because errors happen on occasion. But you can recover because of the bad baserunning AI. You can also jump or dive to make a catch. Something I really liked about Bo’s baseball was that I found it viable to work the pitch count. This also tires the pitchers out and makes it easier to get hits.
This isn’t licensed by the MLB or Players Association, so all the names are made up. Check out Tad McPole here. Or Pigpen. Detroit has Tramiel batting second, but I didn’t bother checking any other team for close names. I was low on pitchers and went into extra innings, but was able to score through some 10th inning heroics. I also got a really well placed pinch hit home run when I had to bat with my pitcher. If you want to win easily, make an entire team of overpowered Bo’s by pressing the left, Select, and B Button simultaneously on the player lineup screen.
Graphics: 2.5
I like the big sprites in pitching and batting view. Fielding sprites are all identical.
Sound: 3.0
Music changes through the game and the voice samples are clear.
Gameplay: 3.0
There’s some jankiness, but it mostly works without a hitch.
Difficulty: 3.0
This is a hitters game, but that doesn’t mean the pitching is bad.
Fun Factor: 3.0
I had a good enough time to play 5 games in a row and would have really liked a season mode.
Overall Rating: 2.9
Bo Jackson Baseball earns a B. This is a good baseball game that I had never played before. It’s now a go to on the NES.