What is the Best Baseball Video Game?
By Mike Silva ~ August 2nd, 2009. Filed under: Mike Silva.
I haven’t played baseball video games in years (unless you count Strat-O-Matic), but Howard Megdal, Chris Needham, and Stephon Johnson debate their three favorite games of all time: Baseball Stars, Baseball Pro, and MVP Baseball 2005 at the Perpetual Post.
I have to give my vote to Howard, no not because he write for the NYBD blog and co-hosts a Sunday show, but rather the fun memories that I conjure up playing that game. I can still remember the summer of 1990 as I attempted to create newly acquired Mets Tommy Herr, Charlie O’ Brien, and Pat Tabler. How could I abbreviate McReynolds so the name fits? Of course Strawberry was “Straw” and if I did an 86′ Mets team Keith Hernandez was Mex. I would have done the Yankees, but did Baseball Stars really need to waste its time with Andy Hawkins, Clay Parker, and Oscar Azocar?
In order to have full disclosure I never played the other two games, but did play “RBI Baseball” and the original Nintendo “Baseball” which Howard says the players resembled mushrooms. I know there was another baseball game for Nintendo at the time, but name escapes me right now. Games today have awesome graphics and realism, and I think that is important, but I rather have that with my SOM or What If Sports simulators instead of my video games. Why do I need to Wii? The point of the video game is to have the computer do the work!
My vote goes with Baseball Stars. Its twenty years old so I am not sure many of the readers under 27 would remember. Even if it pales in comparison to today’s game it brings back memories of baseball when you didn’t have work, responsibility, sloppy press conferences, or talk about cutting payroll. It was also an era where video games were simple and fun. Today you need a PhD to play some of these games. Take Howard’s advice and get your old Nintendo out and play Baseball Stars!
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:02 am
MVP 05 hands down.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:22 am
Earl Weaver Baseball for the Amiga and the PC was and still is the best game if you want actual results. Players are programmed based upon their stats from the baseball encyclopedia so you won’t get Luis Sojo hitting 25 home runs and Kei Igawa throwing a perfect game. It’s a very old game (1987) but it paved the way for later games like Tony Larussa Baseball. If you are a baseball purist and get lost in the stats and managerial moves, it’s the best I have ever played. It had great, realistic features like players would go into slumps, pitchers would fatigue, players would make errors in judgement and superstars didn’t always hit homeruns. The graphics were poor but the gameplay was so realistic that it didn’t matter.
From Wikipedia: In 1996, Computer Gaming World named Earl Weaver Baseball one of the 25 Best Games of All Time on the PC. Named to the Computer Game Hall of Fame by Computer Gaming World and by GameSpy.