Happy Monday, everyone. Today I’m going to talk about two games instead of one, and unlike the rest of the games in my import collection, these two did get North American releases. But since I have the Japanese versions and not the North American ones, I’ll talk about them anyway.
Baseball
Developed and published by Nintendo, Baseball was first released as a launch title for the Famicom in 1984, as well as the NES in North America in 1985. It was also ported to the Famicom Disk System in 1986, alongside many other of Nintendo’s sports titles. This was Nintendo’s first foray into the sport. How did they do?
When the game boots up, you are given a selection of teams, indicated by letters of the alphabet. These letters are supposed to represent teams in Japanese and North American baseball leagues at the time, depending on the version you’re playing. But it doesn’t matter, because it does not affect the gameplay. Every player controls the same and there are no stats to be found.
The gameplay in Baseball is everything you would expect. When you are batting, you have to hit “A” at the correct time to hit the ball. Depending on how early you hit it, the faster the ball will travel and, therefore, the farther it will go. When you’re on the pitching side, the batter will run to each base. But you have limited control over the fielders. The ones closest to the ball will run towards it while the others stay still, and the only time you can control them is when they pick it up and have to throw it. You decide which base to throw it to. This makes the D-pad control almost completely useless in this game.
The other rules in this game are self-explanatory if you know anything about baseball. Not hitting the ball results in a Ball, with four of them allowing a run to one base. Miss the ball three times and it’s an out, and sides change after three outs. There are nine innings and it’s game over when they’re all done.
While Baseball is not a terrible first attempt at the sport for the Famicom, it’s very bare-bones. Because the gameplay never changes in the slightest each time due to the lack of player stats, it may not be a game you’ll find yourself playing for long. I would recommend only picking it up if you’re bored and want to kill a few minutes.
Rating: 5/10
Soccer
Published by Nintendo, Soccer was released for the Famicom in 1984 and was a launch title for the NES in the following year. It was also released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986. Unlike Baseball, Soccer was not developed in-house by Nintendo, but rather Intelligent Systems, who would go on to create Famicom Wars, Paper Mario, and Fire Emblem. In fact, Fire Emblem went on to being one of Nintendo’s most successful franchises.
When the game boots up, you’re given customizable options: team nation, opponent’s skill level, and minutes until halftime. Such teams include the USA, Brazil, France, England, and of course, Japan. Like Baseball, however, the team you select does not affect the gameplay at all.
When the game starts, the opposing side kicks off. I’m pretty sure I don’t have to explain the rules of soccer to you, but here goes: you have to kick the ball into the opponent’s goal net. You automatically kick the ball when you touch it, and of course, it will move in the direction you did. You use the D-pad to move around and pressing “A” will result in a much stronger kick, sending the ball flying farther. Once you do that, you can press “B” to shift the control over to the player that is closest to the ball.
There’s a little bit more challenge to Soccer than Baseball since you have to keep your eyes on the screen the entire time, all the while making sure you press the right buttons to score a goal as quickly as possible and making sure your opponents don’t steal the ball from you. When trying to score a goal, you have to make sure you hit the D-pad in the right direction and make your move before an opponent steals the ball, which is pretty difficult as the goalie is very maneuverable. When your opponent tries to score a goal, you better hit B to take control of the goalie, because if you don’t the game is pretty much theirs.
And that’s Soccer. I will say it was much more fun than Baseball due to the higher interactivity factor, and therefore also a greater challenge. However, again, it’s very bare-bones. You can only play one game at a time and there’s no tournament feature. The players have no stats, so it’s pretty much just your basic soccer game. I would also only pick this up if you need some time to kill or if you have a friend over and are looking for something to play on the NES.
Rating: 7/10
To simplify my verdict, Soccer is worth more of your time than Baseball.