Tecmo Super Baseball

"A good solid baseball game."

Intro: Despite the popularity of its cousins, The Tecmo Super Bowl series, Tecmo Super Baseball was released to little hype in 1994. My friend and I rented it because of our love for the football games on NES and SNES and found it to be the best baseball game out there for the SNES. It's not a fancy game, but a solid one nonetheless. Its fun factor makes up for it's lame soundtrack and dull graphics.

The Game: Pros & Cons:

Pros:

Includes complete rosters for all 28 teams at the time (No Devil Rays or Diamondbacks) with MLBPA license.

You can do a season mode with any number of teams. An option sorely missed in most games of this generation. You and 27 friends could have a league if you wanted.

Excellent stat keeping. Individual records are kept as are league leaders for both pitching and batting. The game never messes up in this department. My only gripe is there are no batting records for pitchers but they aren't that great anyways now are they.

Home Runs are refreshingly uncommon and can only be hit consistently with your big sluggers.

Cons:

No MLB license so no real team names or logos.

The game is pretty easy to master. Pitching is easy and so is batting. The AI is retarded.

I find myself getting almost as many doubles as I do singles.

Graphics: The animation of the players is pretty good. It's smooth when the run and throw. There is only one type of batting stance, which gets boring. The players aren't detailed nor is the field. Verdict: 5/10

Sound: This game suffers from the "no music during the game" syndrome like most baseball games. The menu music is a little boring after hearing it a lot. The game does have voices during the game like "Home Run", "Grand Slam", and "Strike" but that's about it. Verdict: 6/10

Control: The control is very simple and baserunning is easy to master if you can memorize the controls. You can move all or one baserunner with ease. Verdict: 8/10

Presentation: This is where the game shines. Easy-to-use menus to access league leaders in a variety of stats, team info including roster changing and individual stats for any player on any team. You can edit the all-star team lineup by putting your favorite players on each team. The stat tracking is first rate in this game as it is in all Tecmo sport games. It never messes up your records like it has in newer games I've noticed. 10/10

To sum it up, Tecmo Super Baseball is a quality baseball that you should check out if you still have that SNES. I got mine at Kay-Bee for $30 new a couple years ago and I don't regret it. Every year when baseball season rolls around, I find myself busting out that old SNES and playing it for a long time. It's a good value for your money so go pick it up from an online store or auction house or at your used game dealer.

Overall: 9/10 (Not an average).

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99