Softball Tengoku

Softball Tengoku

Release Date	October 27 1989
Platforms	Famicom
Developer	Tose Co.
Publisher	Tonkin House
Original Price	5800 yen
Team Names	Fictional teams
Player Names	Fictional roster with some celebrity parodies

Softball Tengoku is a softball game developed by Tose Co., a long-running Japanese game development studio that specializes in (often uncredited) contract work for other, larger game studios. It is one of only a few games solely developed by Tose, alongside The Legendary Starfy and Super Bases Loaded. The primary feature is a “schoolyard pick”-style of roster construction similar to Backyard Baseball, with each character having different attributes and special abilities.

The game was released in a modified version in North America as Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball.

Description

Softball Tengoku has two gameplay modes: Two-player exhibition games, and a single-player tournament mode. The tournament requires beating five other teams, one for each park, to earn a fight against the all-girls final boss team, the Amazons.

With the exception of the Amazons, there are no set teams in the game. Instead, there is a draft before play to choose ten of the game’s 60 characters to be on your team. Each player can play any position, but their abilities vary wildly. Some players are brutally slow and should only play catcher or first base. Some have special pitching motions, and a few can even fly in the air, most suitable for robbing home runs in the outfield. None of these abilities are spelled out anywhere in-game, and most of them aren’t even explained in the instruction manual, so trial and error through multiple games is needed to find the best roster.

There are five parks that can be selected normally and a sixth, professional-style park for the final game against the Amazons. Generally, these are neighborhood-style parks with no real outfield walls. Each park has its own quirks and ground rules. For instance, at the school field, a deep fly ball that breaks a window is called an out.

Roster

Each game has a roster of 60 selectable players plus 10 players on the Amazons team that are only playable through passwords (refer to the Cheats and Secrets section below). These characters include animals, celebrities (Mike Tyson, Antonio Inoki), and unlicensed fictional characters (Dracula, Rocky Balboa).

Little Details

• Some players are better at night than during the day, or vice versa. Each game starts during daytime and progresses to night as they go along.
• Several of the players in either version of the game are switch hitters. You can switch sides of the plate by pressing Start then left or right on the D-pad.
• There is a strict mercy rule in effect: Any ten-run lead will immediately end the game and grant the win to the leading team.
• Games can continue in extra innings until the 14th. In the 14th inning, both teams start with one out and two men on base. If the game is still tied after that inning, the game ends in a tie (which is effectively a loss in single-player, since you can’t continue onto the next opponent).

Cheats and Secrets

• To be able to scroll around and see the entire field when the ball is in play, follow these steps: On the player 2 controller, hold up on the D-pad and press A six times. Then hold down on the D-pad and press B four times. Then on the player 1 controller, press Select two times then press Start. Now when playing and the ball is in play, you can hold Start and use the D-pad to control the camera.
• The game has a hidden credits screen. To see it, you have to beat the Amazons then wait for your team to make a V formation on the field. Then, with the player 2 controller, hold up on the D-pad and press A three times, then hold down and press B six times. Then on the player 1 controller, press Select.

Magazine Clippings

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  An ad for Softball Tengoku and Seaside Volleyball from Famitsu, Issue 85.

• 

  A two-page preview for Softball Tengoku from Famitsu, Issue 85.

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  A detail shot on the Softball Tengoku character attributes info from Famitsu, Issue 85.

English Patch

A complete translation patch has been made for Softball Tengoku, available from ROMhacking.net here. This will allow you to play with the original roster with translated menus and player names.