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 For all you statisticians and customization freaks out there, here is the NES baseball game for you. Baseball Stars is the first NES baseball game where you could be the general manager of a team. You can hire and fire players on your own customized team which specializes in the skill of your choice like speed, pitching, or hitting. 
You can use money to juice up your players in a variety of categories and change their names to whatever you want. You may also design your own custom leagues where you can choose what leagues are in it and how many games the teams will play. This game has more of a simulation feel than Bad News or Dusty Diamond yet it still manages to stay away from the ultra-realism and boringism of modern day baseball video games. 
| | Baseball Stars | Graphics: 4
The players are more into proportion than the deformed cartoony players in Bad News Baseball. The screens when you are hiring and firing players are pretty cool, but overall the graphics aren�t anything special. Plus there aren�t any rabbit umpires or cinemas for close plays. Overall, however, I�d give it a slight edge over Bad News and a huge advantage over Nintendo�s Baseball in the graphics department.
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Playability: 4
This game has the same controls as Bad News, but the gameplay in the field is far weaker. Diving and jumping for balls is jerky and more difficult to execute then it should be. Climbing the fence to steal homeruns was an innovative addition yet it is nearly impossible to do. I think out of the 200 games of Baseball Stars I�ve played in the last 2 years, I have stolen one homerun. Come on, the odds should be better than that. The other thing I don�t like about the playability is the slowness of the pitcher�s delivery. I don�t have patience for that. I know a pitcher�s delivery in real baseball isn�t that fast but things like that are why nobody likes watching baseball. It makes this game all the more annoying to play. Another example of the speed problem in this game is the five or six times per game when you hit the ball straight up in the air. I could read a passage out of proverbs and still have time to run my catcher up to the ball�s shadow to make the catch. It is ridiculous. Despite the gameplay flaws, this game is still very playable, just don�t play Bad News right before playing this game�for sanity�s sake. |
Fun Factor: 6
The managerial and statistical functions of the game are what provide 75% of the fun. I honestly can�t give the actual gameplay much props because it is so ridiculously inferior to Bad News. Even though all the options and customization are nice, I would have liked to see what this game would�ve looked like if they had spent more of their time on the game part of it. To conclude, here is my advice for the run-of-the-mill baseball fanatic. Play Baseball Stars for one player mode and play Bad News Baseball for two player mode. |
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