| | | Developed by smallish? Japanese developer Pixel. Released--only in the US--by Romstar, SNK's US distributor, in July 1992. Doesn't bear any particular resemblance to SNK's NEOGEO game Baseball Stars 2 (see entry 1880); plays similarly to Tose / Bandai's "Legends of the Diamond" (Jan 1992, also US-only) but with better screen layout, better colors, better music, more stadiums, more reliable and controllable--if slower--fielding, and easier batting.
Basically it's the one baseball game I've found that I feel like I can kind of actually play. Wikipedia has some gameplay info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_Stars_2#NES_version . There are a couple FAQs on GameFAQs: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/587112-baseball-stars-ii/faqs ; this one by https://www.youtube.com/@nschnabel1974 (instructional videos https://www.youtube.com/@nschnabel1974/search?query=nes ) is incredibly detailed: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/587112-baseball-stars-ii/faqs/78946
Is fairly similar to SNK's NES prequel but I find the fielding control/camera much better and the graphics are less flickery. But it's apparently missing that game's team edit mode (team and player renaming), its wacky "Monsters" team, and female team, which are noteworthy omissions. And while you can apparently hire players in season or whatever mode, you apparently can't rename them so you can end up with multiple identically named generic players, or something. So this one was kind of hated on but I seem to be much better with the actual gameplay. |
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In Mesen.
Maybe it's just me being really bad at pitching--that's certainly part of it!--but pitchers seem to tire after just a couple innings; I had a CPU manager go through I think 5 pitchers in one exhibition!
Think I figured out something near the end, that you can get a lot of use out of just moving to one side or the other on the pitching mound. Like, throw a curve ball toward the batter to make them back off the plate, then position yourself on the opposite side of the mound and throw a straight fastball; they won't be in position to hit it, so it's an easy strike.
I had what I guess is just called a sidearm pitcher at one point! I still prefer my dumb term "snakeballer." ; D Cramer on the Nebraska Jets. That was pretty cool. Pretty quickly ended up having trouble controlling his aim. = o
Oh! He was an "RS" pitcher. The classifications on the Relief Pitcher screens seem to go L/R plus "O" or "S"--lefty righty is obvious; ah yeah the manual https://www.digitpress.com/library/manuals/nes/Baseball%20Stars%20II.pdf says "O" is "overhand" and "S" is "side-arm."
Referred to the two FAQs a number of times: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/587112-baseball-stars-ii/faqs
HUH what the longer FAQ (by @nschnabel1974 , who has lots of tips videos: https://www.youtube.com/@nschnabel1974/search?query=Baseball%20Stars%202 ) says "Colorado Fireballs" but my game says "Chicago Fireballs." = o
Oh, the longer FAQ says the weakest team is the Denver Dragons, so I suppose I should make them my new go-to exhibition opponent rather than the LA Superstars (3rd weakest). Strongest team by a good way is supposedly the Colorado Fireballs.
Two things in particular spring to my jelly-like mind as things I'm still not even approaching comprehending:
- Where the heck are the left and right fielders? They don't seem to be, like, in the middle of that area of the field when a fly ball is hit out there--or ANYWHERE in there; nearest I can tell, they move in from sort of the center-field region? Or is that just the center fielder and the L/R fielders are...at the top of the infield or something? Don't get it. I finally replaced the seemingly absentee LF in my first game. : P Don't know that it helped. Tried shifting the outfielders "Back" in the third game...that didn't seem to make their position more obvious, but I've now read later in the shorter FAQ that the shift may only last for a single batter.
(Hm according to the manual you can shift formation just w/ A button & control pad "before pitch": A button = normal fielding, up,up = deep, up = shift right, down = shift left, down,down = forward. : P)
- I guess you can't--or often can't?--move freely with an infielder; so you can like use L/R plus B to dive at a ball (or up plus B to jump for it?), OR fixed-base-direction plus A to run to a base. For some reason I always seem to tell it to run home. ; { Anyway, it's kinda nuts, I haven't been able to get used to it and I wish they just had free movement, sheesh!
High (low) light moment may have been the first-baseman standing in their usual no-runner-on position off the base, fielding a grounder ball right to them, then me panicking at not being able to move, forgetting to hit B, and instead hitting A and throwing to nobody at the base next to me. = PP
It's amazing how bad I am at getting the two buttons straight in team sports games. = ooo
Still, I'm even more useless at fielding (and pitching, and batting, and base-running (note to self: remember you gotta do A plus fixed-base-direction to try to keep runners from running on pop flies!! can almost never remember this argh) in every other baseball game I tried, so Baseball Stars II seems to be my best hope! = oo Also the music and graphics are pretty much just what I think I probably wanted.
Manual notes:
- "If you press the Control Pad and the A Button at exactly the same time you can throw the ball faster."
- "As the batter is hitting the ball, moving the batter forward will cause him to swing upwards. Moving backwards will cause him to swing downwards."
- "Stopping a runner between bases: While a player is running towards a base, push the Control Pad down and Press the A button." |
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