Tuesday, October 24, 2017

World Series Baseball (Sega Genesis) Review


Well, the 2017 World Series is underway so I felt that it was a perfect time to pull out World Series Baseball.

World Series Baseball is a game by BlueSky Software and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis in 1994. This is the first baseball game I ever played that had the camera behind home just like how the batter sees the ball. I remember my brother and I would rent it every chance we got because compared to the over the top perspective most other baseball games had at the time World Series Baseball made us feel like we were at-bat and not just playing a video game but does it hold up today?? Click below to find out.

World Series Baseball had a lot going for it besides the great camera angle. First off it contained all of the real player names and stats and also has the correct team names. Today you think so what but back then you'd usually get one or the other and with some games, you'd get neither. World Series Baseball also had San Diego Padres announcer Jerry Coleman as the announcer and he is very easy to understand and sounded pretty good without all that chopped up words you'd get from most others at the time again if they even had voice announcers at all.


Playing the game is pretty easy as far as controls go. When you're pitching you first choose the location you want the ball to go to, then you select the pitch itself, and finally the speed of the pitch.


As the batter, you select if you'll swing for contact, normal, or for power. At this point, you can throw down a bunt or swing away. Both of these were very easy to pick up despite me not playing this game for over two decades.

Fielding is very easy to figure out too. When it's a hit to the infield you move the player to the ball and once the fielder has it you just throw to the base you want the ball to go to. If it's hit to the outfield this game like most others of the time scroll the screen from home plate to where the ball will land. A great feature for this game is that on the bottom left of the screen it shows the diamond and where the runners are on it like in most other baseball games. What's nice is that it also shows you where your outfielders are and an X on the spot the ball will land so all you have to do is get your fielder under the X before the ball lands and he's out. A small little change like this makes the game feel way more ahead of the curve than from other games at that time.


The game has a digitized look to it and everything looks very good. Of course, it looks crude compared to today's games but it actually holds up pretty well. Gameplay is very good too. I was expecting the game to be very stiff and no fun to play but I ripped through a game and actually won my first game 7 to 5 with four home runs. The game took me 45 minutes to complete which I thought was similar to other baseball games.


When you pick up your controllers for some sweet baseball action you can choose from this game to play either an exhibition game, home run derby, batting practice, or create your own league. In creating your own league you choose a team to play as and then the season length. Your choices are from 13, 26, 52, 104, or 162 games. After that, you play your team's games when they come upon the calendar. I didn't go through league mode but I'm sure it works just like other games.


When I started this game up I was waiting for that horrible this game was great when new but now it's terrible to play but I was pleasantly surprised with World Series Baseball. It's a solid baseball game with the innovative batters eye camera view, great sounds including a real announcer, and a lot of fun to play. I always like playing these old games when they include real player's names and stats. You'll always find a player or two that you completely have forgotten about which is always fun. If you like baseball games give this one a try, I think you'll like it. I give World Series Baseball an 8 out of 10.



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