Major League Baseball

The first official MLB game! Too bad it borders on being unplayable.

User Rating: 1.4 | Major League Baseball NES

By Mugen76 | Review Date: March 10, 2007

Let's face it, LJN's games SUCKED in the early days of the NES. They would make a game out of anything they could, and it would always turn into a pile of crap. However, I never played any of LJN's games before I played Major League Baseball for the NES, so I was completely blindsided by how terrible this game was when I first played it. How bad is it? Read on, my peeps.

The first thing you'll notice is that all 26 of the franchises in Major League Baseball are here. That's right, I said 26. Since this game was made in 1988, there are no Florida Marlins, no Colorado Rockies, no Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and no Arizona Diamondbacks. That's all well and good, because it was a better time back then, I think. Now since this game didn't have the blessing of the MLBPA, that means unless you're a baseball buff like I am, then you won't know who the hell half these players are just by their uniform numbers.

One of the few redeeming qualities of this game is that you can select your own lineup. However, people who follow Sabremetrics stats like OBP and OPS will be disappointed that none of those stats are in the game. You have to go by a player's average, home run totals, and very few other things. The game also doesn't allow you to put any more players in a certain part of the field (for example, you can't have 5 infielders), so it makes deciding who should be in the field crucial. And if you have to sacrifice somebody, at least you can use a pinch hitter.

OK, now that the good stuff is out of the way, it's on to the very, VERY, BAD. From the first pitch to the final out, this game fails in the field on every conceivable level. The game is just flat out broken. While pitching, it's impossible to throw anything by your opponent because he'll make contact with pretty much everything unless he doesn't swing. If you do throw something by your opponent, then you have to keep on throwing these 100 MPH fastballs, or else you'll get torched in the field. And you know what throwing with max effort every time does? It wears down you pitcher to the point where you can't throw anything above Little League speed.

And what if the batter does make contact? Well, better hope you catch it on the fly or it's a grounder to 1st base because the batter moves like Ichiro on the basepaths, and when you throw the ball, the ball's speed is inexplicably erratic. Literally, one second the ball is like it came out of Vladimir Guerrero's cannon arm, and the next the ball's moving like it's in Matrix time! This makes grounders to 3rd and even shortstop a chore, and you probably won't throw your runner out 90% of the time.

Batting is the only part of the gameplay that doesn't suck, but it's not without its flaws. If you get fooled by a changeup, well, just swing again! It's far too easy to score runs, too, since the AI always takes the longest possible path to the ball, and it's nowhere near smart enough to double you off on a fly out where you forget to tag up.

There are 3 modes of play, Exhibition, All-Star Game, and the World Series, but they're not even worth mentioning. Not when all this game's potential to be a genuine MLB version of Baseball Stars was frittered away by shoddy developers just looking to make a quick nickel or two. There are no redeeming qualities to this game. No matter what price you see it for, it's gonna be a waste of money. Major League Baseball gets a 1 out of 5.

Thanks LJN Toys. Thanks a lot. You guys suck.