ESPN Baseball Tonight is an average baseball game that won't hold your interest for too long.

User Rating: 5 | ESPN Baseball Tonight SNES
ESPN Baseball Tonight on the SNES is a dull experience. Everything about it is extremely basic. There's the basic one-player and exhibition modes, a playoff mode, a practice mode to help perfect your pitching and hitting skills, as well as a home run derby which gives you a ranking once completed. You can also play a nine-inning game against a friend in two-player mode. Before every game, ESPN's own Chris Berman will repeat the same few sentences... every time. He'll also say his trademark "back, back, back, back, back, GONE!" before each and every home run. The effect is actually pulled off quite well. You even get to see the SportsCenter studio!

The game features all of the MLB teams, and there are player stats, but no player names, unfortunately. There is only one stadium, which has some team logos on the outfield wall, as well as some ads for Little Caeser's Pizza Pizza, which is kind of cool.

However, the main problem with the game is the lack of variety. There is only a very small amount of plays that can be made in the game, meaning that you'll be seeing the same plays over, and over, and over again. This is what makes the game feel tedious and boring. Every game feels exactly the same as the last because of this, and it'll stop most people from playing the game a lot. That's not to say it isn't fun, but this feature is what kills the experience for the most part.

As far as gameplay goes, again, it's very basic. You can choose the speed and location of your pitch, but only during the actual throw. You can also move the pitcher or hitter on the mound or in the batter's box, respectively. For hitting, you can either swing high, low or at an average height. Baserunning is handled well, it's easy to steal bases and advance runners. Fielding is probably the most fun, as you can dive to try to catch balls, but since there are so little plays, even it gets boring. You really get to know every play off by heart. The game is also very easy, so you'll be seeing some crazy scores. Overall, the gameplay is not bad, but definitely isn't all that fun, either.

The graphics are all right. The players lack faces, but the stadium looks good. The players sometimes animate strangely, but overall it's not too bad. However, there is no variety at all.

ESPN Baseball Tonight doesn't sound all that great. You get the traditional Sunday Night Baseball theme for ESPN broadcasts, but that's the only song you'll hear, and it only plays in the main menu. During the game, you'll hear some lackluster crowd sounds and not much else, really.

Overall, ESPN Baseball Tonight lacks any sort of replay value, and thus I cannot recommend it, even being a die-hard baseball fan myself. The game is fun at first, but quickly loses its appeal. Even multiplayer isn't enough to save this one. Do yourself a favor and don't buy it for your SNES.