Roger Clemens’ MVP Baseball
System: NES
Release Date: October 1991
Developer: Sculptured Software
Publisher: LJN
Genre: Sports
One of the greatest pitchers of all time gets his shot at video game immortality with Roger Clemens’ MVP Baseball! Choose from one of 26 teams in the National or American Divisions complete with proper DH rules. Play an exhibition or finish up a season to find out if you’re the best team in the league. Can you roll over the competition?
I took the Detroit Wheels out for a test drive in the season. You can see the upcoming games are all three game series against the other teams in the league. Alright, everything seems alright so far. Pitching, which I would think would be emphasized here, plays just like the very first baseball games on the system. Position the pitcher and throw it fast or slow. You can curve left or right, but without much control. I threw a lot of balls. And gave up a lot of hits. Like a Base Wars level of hits.
Why did I give up so many hits? Because the fielding is hot garbage. Batting and pitching give a behind the plate view. But when the ball gets put into play, we switch to the fielder’s view. So you see the ball getting hit to the left and when the view changes, you need to press to the right or that thing is getting by you. If you do happen to snag the ball, throwing to the bases is opposite of what your muscle memory is used to. I gave up hits because I accidentally threw to third instead of first. And good luck getting a double play.
Batting isn’t really any better. There’s very little time available for reaction. The pitcher gives no tell, either, so you have to guess fastball or change up. If you’re wrong, it’s a strike. Even if you’re right, you have to be perfect or you’ll either whiff it or hit it foul. I was able to crack a couple homers with my boy Fieldman. Players are not licensed, but have similar names. Take a look at the primary 1991 Tigers lineup compared to the fictional names.
Starting pitchers need to rest three days between games in the season, so you need to manage your bullpen properly. You’ll get tired of the pitching quickly and then the computer will put up tons of runs on you. This is a poor showing on the field, but it’s an LJN published game. Were you expecting quality work? I sure wasn’t.
Graphics: 1.5
The fielding view looks impressive, but that’s the best thing I can say about this game.
Sound: 0.5
Sound effects sound like early NES games.
Gameplay: 0.5
Pitching, batting, and fielding all suck. The trifecta of terrible.
Difficulty: 0.5
Even if you’re on the ball while fielding, it passes through the player more often than not.
Fun Factor: 0.0
I didn’t have a moment of fun with this baseball game.
Overall Rating: 0.6
Roger Clemens’ MVP Baseball earns a D-. It’s fine to try new things, but make sure they work before you send the game out to the market!