Baseball Stars on Baseball Stars
John Smoltz joined the Bally Sports broadcast for the Braves on Wednesday night. After discussing Ronald Acuña’s huge steals count, after a moment’s pause he brought up Baseball Stars for the NES:
Just a nice moment. It’s a killer game, and both Smoltz and Gaudin have clearly played it and describe in good detail why it was special at the time. You felt ownership over creating your team in your own way, gaining resources as you play games and using them to improve your roster.
It is a little funny though that Smoltz describes this as happening while he was “growing up in Michigan.” The game came out in July 1989, right in the middle of Smoltz’s breakout year in the big leagues in Atlanta. Smoltz almost certainly pitched in an All-Star Game before he ever saw Baseball Stars.
Based on the amount of MLB The Show that gets played in big league clubhouses now, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a league of guys playing the game on those Braves teams. And who knows, maybe Smoltz really did go back home in the Michigan winters and play with old friends there in the offseason, keeping a journal to document a league.
Clearly he has played and loved the game, because his description was totally right. But I wonder if he combined a few memories in his head or just decided to pretend he didn’t play kid games while operating at baseball’s highest level.
The world-famous bunt home run
Moero!! Pro Yakyuu, Jaleco’s breakout hit that became Bases Loaded in North America, was infamous for bugs. The most prominent of all is the bunt home run, which I finally managed to record for myself in the above video.
The game’s best ten or so power hitters can do it, and it’s not too hard to reproduce if you’re on a system with savestate capabilities. Just square up for the bunt and cross your fingers, and eventually one will explode off the bat.
I saw about five other glitches while recording for this one, which I’m going to put into a baseball game glitch compilation in future.
YouTube Viewing Guide
- Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2019 (PS4) Star Player Gameplay – If you want to see what an alternate universe Road to the Show would look like, look no further. Earning money to buy stuff for your house. Little dialogue scenes as you make relationships with players, coaches, and regular folks. Specific statistical goals to reach in order to get promoted? Lots of nice design decisions here.
- Necchuu! Pro Yakyuu 2004 (PS2) Gameplay – Namco’s out of the realistic baseball video game world now, but back in the PS2 era, they were worthy competitors to Prospi. This game’s got an interesting left-right only batting cursor mechanic and just runs smooth.
- Baseball (Game Boy) Gameplay – I had never played Nintendo’s Baseball for Game Boy until this recording. I expected it to be a port of the NES game, but it’s much, much more like R.B.I. Baseball than that. The US and JPN Mode selection on the main menu is a funny quirk, with different names, pitch velocity measurements, and even different music between the two.