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Baseball Stars(JP) is a 1989 baseball game, developed by SNK. Originally an arcade game, it was later ported for the NES. It received a successor title on the Neo Geo called Baseball Stars Professional.
Gameplay[]
Simple graphics are coupled with repetitive upbeat 8-bit music. The pitching is simple: curve balls, fast balls, off-speed pitches, and sinkers. The batting is a swing on a level plane, thus it is simply a question of timing. The fielding, at the time, was a revolution in arcade baseball; it achieved a level of realism unseen prior to its release. This realism, coupled with ease-of-fielding features contributed to the game's popularity. These ease-of-fielding features are characterized by examples such as off-screen fielders automatically drifting towards fly balls, fielders catching balls anywhere near them, the ability to jump and dive, infielders shifting to prevent extra base hits down the line when men are on base, etc.
It is possible to deliver unhittable pitches that would "drop" as they crossed home plate, the only clue would be a high-pitched squeak as the pitch came towards home plate. However, despite the high sound, sometimes these pitches failed to drop and in fact crossed home plate for strikes.
Development[]
Reception[]
Baseball Stars was a critical success, often referred to as the best baseball game on the NES platform, and as such, has become a franchise series for SNK, spawning five sequels, and its "create player" and "create team" functions have become standard features in sports games.
External links[]
- Baseball Stars at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Baseball Stars at GameFAQs
- Baseball Stars at MobyGames
| SNK Sports Games | |
|---|---|
| Baseball | Little League Baseball • Super Baseball 2020 • Baseball Stars • Stars Professional • Stars 2 |
| Golf | Fighting Golf • Top Player's Golf • Neo Turf Masters |
| Soccer/Football | Soccer Brawl • Super Sidekicks • Super Sidekicks 2 • Super Sidekicks 3 • Tokuten Ō |
| Other games | 3 Count Bout • League Bowling • Touchdown Fever • Street Hoop • WindJammmers |