Interesting, hadn't heard of this one. The sports RPG is an idea with a lot of potential. There's an inherent grind to sports games anyway, a lot of repetition, so why not make the grind pay off more? And why not introduce some story to break up the repetition and introduce some stakes?
But obviously not all games executed on that potential. Seems Yui wasn't it; took a while before we got some better golf RPGs.
Now I think the sports game landscape is dominated by RPG-like mechanics, in the form of these dubious pay-to-win modes that EA has introduced into its games and that seem to sucker in a lot of teenage boys. Maybe we were better off with Golf on NES.
I agree, the sports RPG concept does have a lot of potential. I've heard Golf Story on Switch is a good example of the subgenre, but I have yet to play it.
Yeah, it's a shame that EA essentially has a monopoly on the sports genre as a whole. A lot of their practices are truly despicable.
I didn't complete Golf Story, but I did pick it up and played through a good chunk. I thought it was pretty good, though also the kind of game that could be sharpened with a sequel. Unfortunately when they did make a sequel, Sports Story, it was apparently a failure. I think something went wrong in the development process -- overambition, Covid, and a rushed deadline? Not sure.
As for EA's dominance, one thing I especially miss about the 8/16-bit era is the variety of baseball games. It probably helped that baseball is popular in Japan, led to more Japanese developers dipping their toe in the water. These were the only games that my dad would play with me, so I think I rented every single baseball game on NES, and we played them all. Except games like BaseWars, he wasn't touching that. Overlooking the bunny umpires in Bad News Baseball took some pleading, but fortunately the game was solid. He complained about every single inaccuracy in every single game, but still, good memories.
Yeah, Sports Story really came and went, didn't it? I've heard very little about it, which usually isn't a good sign.
That's incredible that you and your dad played all the NES baseball games! Any particular favorites?
I still can't believe the Bases Loaded series got four entries on the NES, then even more on the SNES! Baseball Simulator, Bad News Baseball, and Baseball Stars are all great, although I have a bizarre affinity for Nintendo's Baseball. Probably because it's just so broken.
The original Baseball was the only one we owned, so it also has a special place in my heart. I really like your review for it. I can still picture my dad cursing his fielders as they're doing whatever it is they're doing vis-a-vis the highly fieldable ball in play. If that game scored errors, they might be in in the triple digits by game's end, and he was prepared to bemoan every single one of them.
Thinking more clearly on it, I don't know that we played every baseball game in the NES collection -- only all the ones in our local Blockbuster's collection. I have to think we only played 2-3 Bases Loaded games, for example, and I think 2 RBI games. I know I rented Quattro Sports. Maybe conservatively call it half the total collection.
I do remember Bad News Baseball and Baseball Stars as my favorites. I can't recall dad's favorite, but I have to think he would have preferred a game like Bases Loaded with more realistic-looking players. I thought the Baseball Simulator games were cool concepts, but dad wasn't going to go for any of those super-moves.
For the record, my dad was one of those guys that you start describing his love for baseball stats, and people these days say, "Sounds like he was on the spectrum." I try to say no, he would just go to the bookstore all the time and buy 500-page tomes of baseball stats and data entry them into DOS database software for fun, while simultaneously memorizing them -- but in a neurotypical way. They don't always buy it.
Lol, those fielders definitely have minds of their own. Doesn't matter what team you play either, although some teams always seemed slightly better than others (like the As).
Your dad sounds awesome. I get why people would say that, I guess, but modern society's need to label everything and everyone with this or that gets annoying. Sometimes a guy just really likes baseball.
I just replayed an NES shoot-em-up today called Stinger, where you shoot down coat hangers and old busted shoes among the pyramids in Egypt. Bosses include a piece of watermelon and a boombox. The gameplay's pretty basic, but the bonkers atmosphere really elevates the whole game.
Interesting, hadn't heard of this one. The sports RPG is an idea with a lot of potential. There's an inherent grind to sports games anyway, a lot of repetition, so why not make the grind pay off more? And why not introduce some story to break up the repetition and introduce some stakes?
But obviously not all games executed on that potential. Seems Yui wasn't it; took a while before we got some better golf RPGs.
Now I think the sports game landscape is dominated by RPG-like mechanics, in the form of these dubious pay-to-win modes that EA has introduced into its games and that seem to sucker in a lot of teenage boys. Maybe we were better off with Golf on NES.
I agree, the sports RPG concept does have a lot of potential. I've heard Golf Story on Switch is a good example of the subgenre, but I have yet to play it.
Yeah, it's a shame that EA essentially has a monopoly on the sports genre as a whole. A lot of their practices are truly despicable.
I didn't complete Golf Story, but I did pick it up and played through a good chunk. I thought it was pretty good, though also the kind of game that could be sharpened with a sequel. Unfortunately when they did make a sequel, Sports Story, it was apparently a failure. I think something went wrong in the development process -- overambition, Covid, and a rushed deadline? Not sure.
As for EA's dominance, one thing I especially miss about the 8/16-bit era is the variety of baseball games. It probably helped that baseball is popular in Japan, led to more Japanese developers dipping their toe in the water. These were the only games that my dad would play with me, so I think I rented every single baseball game on NES, and we played them all. Except games like BaseWars, he wasn't touching that. Overlooking the bunny umpires in Bad News Baseball took some pleading, but fortunately the game was solid. He complained about every single inaccuracy in every single game, but still, good memories.
Yeah, Sports Story really came and went, didn't it? I've heard very little about it, which usually isn't a good sign.
That's incredible that you and your dad played all the NES baseball games! Any particular favorites?
I still can't believe the Bases Loaded series got four entries on the NES, then even more on the SNES! Baseball Simulator, Bad News Baseball, and Baseball Stars are all great, although I have a bizarre affinity for Nintendo's Baseball. Probably because it's just so broken.
The original Baseball was the only one we owned, so it also has a special place in my heart. I really like your review for it. I can still picture my dad cursing his fielders as they're doing whatever it is they're doing vis-a-vis the highly fieldable ball in play. If that game scored errors, they might be in in the triple digits by game's end, and he was prepared to bemoan every single one of them.
Thinking more clearly on it, I don't know that we played every baseball game in the NES collection -- only all the ones in our local Blockbuster's collection. I have to think we only played 2-3 Bases Loaded games, for example, and I think 2 RBI games. I know I rented Quattro Sports. Maybe conservatively call it half the total collection.
I do remember Bad News Baseball and Baseball Stars as my favorites. I can't recall dad's favorite, but I have to think he would have preferred a game like Bases Loaded with more realistic-looking players. I thought the Baseball Simulator games were cool concepts, but dad wasn't going to go for any of those super-moves.
For the record, my dad was one of those guys that you start describing his love for baseball stats, and people these days say, "Sounds like he was on the spectrum." I try to say no, he would just go to the bookstore all the time and buy 500-page tomes of baseball stats and data entry them into DOS database software for fun, while simultaneously memorizing them -- but in a neurotypical way. They don't always buy it.
Lol, those fielders definitely have minds of their own. Doesn't matter what team you play either, although some teams always seemed slightly better than others (like the As).
Your dad sounds awesome. I get why people would say that, I guess, but modern society's need to label everything and everyone with this or that gets annoying. Sometimes a guy just really likes baseball.
Story based sports games seemed to be mostly a Japan thing. Although the version NES of Hit the Ice almost bucked that trend, but went unreleased….
Video games used to be so crazy.
I just replayed an NES shoot-em-up today called Stinger, where you shoot down coat hangers and old busted shoes among the pyramids in Egypt. Bosses include a piece of watermelon and a boombox. The gameplay's pretty basic, but the bonkers atmosphere really elevates the whole game.