 Hi there, with the 2016 baseball season coming up, I thought I'd look at every single Super Nintendo and Super Famicom baseball game. Or almost every game, there are a few Super Famicom games that are just too tough to navigate because they are not English friendly, sorry. Anyway, just a quick glance at each game and I'll be looking at four major factors, pitching, hitting, fielding, and pace of play. A game has to get all four aspects right to be a decent baseball game. For example, if pitching and hitting are fine but the fielding sucks, well then it's just not gonna be worth playing. We'll go alphabetically here and start with Cal Ripken Jr. baseball. No MLB license here, so it's all made up teams and players except for Cal Ripken Jr. This game is just okay. The pitching is functional, the fielding is actually well done, but I played through two entire 9-inning games and managed only two hits, and it's not a matter of making contact. It's that every single time I hit the ball, it was right to someone, I do not understand that. Cal Ripken Jr. baseball isn't bad, but you can do better. Dōlaki no Kasa Yaki-yu is Japan exclusive as you might guess. It had a North American release scheduled under the name Zubal, but it was canceled. And yeah, you can see how the name Zubal came about. You play as bears, cats, cows, whatever. And this game is not easy. Pitching is pretty good, fielding is fine, but it takes a lot of practice to get the timing down for hitting. Dynamic Stadium is another Japan-only game that's very good. Fielding pitching and fielding are all well done and easy to get the hang of, and I especially like how after the ball is hit, you can get a head start at the ball before the viewpoint switches to a wider perspective. Dynamic Stadium is a good pick-up-and-play arcade-style baseball game. ESPN Baseball Tonight is no different than any other ESPN game of the time. The big selling point is the ESPN presentation with the TV graphics and Chris Berman. The game itself sucks. Fielding is just about impossible, since the game's sense of depth is so off-kilter, and the computer AI is idiotic. Avoid this game. Extra Innings is very good. There's quite a few different game modes, like multiplayer, custom teams, an all-star game, and a pennant race. No MLB license here, but the team names are fantastic. It's the bees versus the winds. Pitching and fielding are intuitive, but hitting may take a little while to get right. But still, the pace of play here is outstanding. There's no wasted time, and the game zips right along. Extra Innings is worth playing for sure. It's one of the most accessible games on this list. There's a Super Famicom sequel as well, Hakunetsu Pro Yaku Ganba League, and it plays the exact same way while updating the visuals a bit. Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball, right away with this intro. Wow, that looks freaking amazing, but that feeling does not last long. It is really hard to hit, mostly because of the lower camera angle, and the long pause between when you hit and when it flips to fielding mode really makes the game clunky and slows down the pace of play way, way down. You can pick from a menu to pitch, so it's more of a simulation game from that aspect. As good as this game looks, I'd avoid this one. Hardball 3, the third game in the Hardball series for PC, is a classic case of a game that was probably pretty good in its time, but it just hasn't aged all that well. The graphics and the use of the MLB player license, with a headshot of each player, that would have gone over really well in 1994. But now the game just moves too slowly and trying to pitch is ridiculous. In each game I played, I got absolutely pummeled, I don't know if that's just me or what. Hattiyama Hachinopro Yaku News Jutsume Han This is an example of an unbalanced game. The speed the ball travels, whether from a hit or a throw, is way, way too fast compared to how fast the players move. So as a result, you get a hit to the outfield and get thrown out at first by 20 feet. Avoid this game. Human Baseball, as opposed to a grizzly bear baseball I guess. Here's the opposite problem from the last game. He can throw. And you have no choice but to sit there as the ball rolls and rolls in from the outfield on any base hit. Avoid this game too. Next there's Jikku Powerful Pro Yaku Series, which has 6 games in total. This series is made by Konami, and early 90s Konami is always well made. Everything certainly looks great, but these games are just way too hard. I don't doubt that with enough practice you can get good, but the hitting system here where you look up to see where the pitch is going and then move your cursor over to it and then swing all within nano seconds, that's really hard to pull off consistently. So while these games are good, they are really tough. Onto the crown jewel of baseball games for the Super Nintendo, Ken Griffey Jr. presents Major League Baseball. This game gets everything right. Speed, pacing, balance, the unique art style, real teams, real stadiums, a home run derby, a full season, season stats, pitching, hitting, and fielding are all more than manageable. I did a full video on this a long time ago if you want to check it out. For more details on this game, but for now I'll just say you can't do any better for a baseball game on the SNES than Griffey presents Major League Baseball. And that includes the next game, Ken Griffey Jr.'s winning run. Don't think of this game as a sequel because it isn't. It's made and developed by Rare. Winning run is fine. The presentation and amount of game modes here are great. It's certainly playable, but hitting and pitching feel pretty stiff. Fielding is very good and the balance of speed here is well done, but I was expecting more. It's better than most of the other baseball games on this list, but it does not touch Griffey presents Major League Baseball. The Koshien series has three games on the Super Famicom, and it's kind of inaccessible because the teams here are selected by region. And I don't really know what I'm doing here. The gameplay itself once you get to it is fine. Hitting and pitching are definitely manageable, but the fielding is lousy because you're so slow. These games are all right, but you can find better. MLBPA Baseball is EA's one and only baseball game for the Super Nintendo, and you can see why because it's not all that great. Pitching is actually very good. Hitting is functional, but fielding is a big problem. You're given very little screen real estate to work with as the camera viewpoint zooms way in as the ball travels. Yeah, this does not work. Real players here, but no real teams. All the traditional game modes are here, but if you're going to play MLBPA Baseball, switch auto-fielding on. Nolan Ryan Baseball is not at all what you'd expect. You'd think this would be your typical player-licensed game, but instead it's an extra innings rip-off with anime-styled players. It's not bad, but the fielding is lousy, and none of these guys can throw more than 10 feet. I'd rather play extra innings. ProYakuStar is the rare game on this list that's almost too easy. Each game I played, I scored at least four or five runs in the first couple innings. Not much behind the pitching and fielding. It's easy enough. This is a decent game. Relief Pitcher appears to be the cheap generic baseball version of stuff like Pro Quarterback. It has some impressive aspects like Jack Buck doing the play by play, but this game is just not good. The animation is terrible. So bad to the point that you have to start your swing while the ball is still in the pitcher's hand. Avoid this game. Roger Clemens MVP Baseball is a pretty good game with one fatal flaw. You can't get anybody out. Facing the computer is just one hit after another. I swear, the computer got at least three or four hits every single inning I played. It's a little ridiculous. Hitting and fielding are both pretty well done, and the game goes by fast. But it's kind of hard to get into a game if you can't get anybody out. Next is Sporting News Power Baseball, a pretty funny title considering that it's freaking impossible to hit in this game. The pitches are either lightning quick or incredibly slow with no in between, and the AI mixes it up constantly. The base runners are also comically fast, beating out every ground ball. Avoid this game. Worth mentioning real quick, though, that this is a localization of Super Power League, a series in Japan that got four games, and are all pretty much the same. Not that good. Next we have Super Baseball 2020, one of those strange futuristic sports games where you play as men, women, and robots, all with varying strengths and weaknesses. Players earn money depending on how well you play so you can buy upgrades later. The field is also totally reimagined to have less foul territory. There's a lot of good ideas here, and this is a great two-player game for sure. Fielding can be a bit problematic as the map doesn't tell you where you are relative to the location of the ball. But Super Baseball 2020 is still pretty good, and definitely something different in a genre that needed it. Next we have the Super Baseball Simulator series, starting with Super Baseball Simulator 1000. This is an early Super Nintendo title, and it shows. The graphics and sound are very dated, but the game plays surprisingly well. Hitting, pitching, and fielding are all very accessible, and the game goes by in 10 minutes or so. There's a few sequels on Super Famicom, two of which are just clones of the first game with Japanese teams, and two others, Ultra Baseball Jutsu Maven, two and three, are slight upgrades. In terms of visuals and sound, but I think the original is the best of the bunch. Super Baseball Simulator 1000 is a pretty good pickup if you're looking for something basic. Super Base is loaded, has three games for the Super Nintendo. The first is almost exactly like the NES games. With the same viewpoints, and same pitching and hitting gameplay, which is perfectly fine, it works well enough. The fielding angle, however, is switched to behind the outfield wall. The second game is totally different, and I think it's the best of the three games. The fielding here is really cleverly done. The camera stays fixed on the ball as it leaves the bat. Yeah, it's slow, but it works well. The third game is back to the familiar bases-loaded viewpoint and gameplay. It's another pretty good game, typical of the series going back to the NES games, but the second game is the best, in my opinion. Super Batter Up was made by the same people who made RBI Baseball for NES, and this might as well be an SNES sequel, because this game pretty much is RBI Baseball for Super Nintendo, and it's every bit is good, too. The same familiar gameplay, good balance, and you can get a nine-inning game done in 10 minutes. Super Batter Up had four sequels in Japan, otherwise known as the Super Famista series. They're all pretty much the same, until the fourth and fifth games that had a graphical overhaul. But yeah, Super Batter Up is quality. Super Kyukyoku Harakiri Stadium is an oddity because it's the only Super Famicom game that features some American teams in addition to the usual Japanese teams. It's even got real players, too. Not their names, but their likenesses. This is a very good game that cuts a good pace. Hitting is fun, and fielding is easy. Prepare to give up a lot of runs, though. Next is Super RBI Baseball, and I don't understand this because Super Batter Up is way more like an SNES version of RBI Baseball than this game. It's fine on its own, nothing spectacular, although it's pretty hard to get people out. There's real players and real teams and all that, but if you want a Super Nintendo version of RBI Baseball, go with Super Batter Up. Last we have Tecmo Super Baseball, which is a mixed bag. I like the traditional Tecmo mechanic here of matching the other player's choice just like in Tecmo Super Bowl, but the execution of certain things here is just terrible. Like on defense, the ball is hit, and suddenly I'm in the middle of nowhere. Wait, what the hell is going on? It's really jarring. This game could have been good, but that kind of ruins it for me. Alright, there we go, that's it. If I were to pick my five best from this group of games, number five would be Super Baseball 2020, number four would be Dynamic Stadium for Super Famicom, number three would be Extra Innings, number two would be Super Batter Up, and number one, of course, would be Ken Griffey Jr. presents Major League Baseball. And hey, thanks for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.