Posted by Mike Chicago on November 17, 2015 at 07:05:13 EST in reply to There's a copy of Neo Poke Pro Yakyuu on eBay for $35.99 and free shipping (link inside). I can't remember the differences between this and Dynamite Sluggaer anymore other than the real player names, teams and maybe some fielding controls. It's been ages since I've played either. I recall stating that I preferred this over DS in some ways (but that DS improved in other ways). Anyway, I remember there being some licensing issue in the game that meant this got somewhat harder to attain in the last days of the NGPC. Not that this was necessarily something like Faselei in English to nab, more an interesting footnote. from NeoGutsman.
More from the archives...
Posted by NeoGutsman on June 07, 2002 at 02:53:23 EST.
A comparison: Dynamite Slugger VS. Neo Poke Pro Yakyuu:
***As always, I'm typing this up rather late...
I've had some time to sit down with both of these games, so I thought I'd give you all some better impressions of how each comepares to one another.
Let's get the preliminaries out of the way. The graphics, for the most part, are almost exactly the same:
Dynamite Slugger:
-Cut scenes for calling a time out, relief pitcher animation, "HOMERUN" letter splash and scoreboard animation, etc.
Neo Poke Pro Yakyuu:
-No cut scenes whatsoever.
-Calling a time out shows a tiny little picture of your coach on the main game screen calling "time". When you select your pitcher or when you switch batters, the coach will pop up again and say "pitcher relief" and such.
-When the relief pitcher is selected, you see him walk out onto the mound and throw three practice pitches to the catcher before resuming the game. This is done in the overhead field view.
-Getting a home run results in the words "home run" appearing on screen with the screen scrolling to the top of the stadium. The screen then zooms in on the final person running in to home who meets a special teammate that hands him a stuffed toy. The screen goes back to normal, and the runner tosses the stuffed toy into the crowd.
-Cheerleaders in between innings. They line up on the first and third baseline and do a little dance in the overhead mode.
The stadiums are the same.
The controls are pretty much the same, with the exception some of the fielding and hitting:
Dynamite Slugger:
-Fielding lunges and jumps are accomplished by tapping B, and running a bit faster is done by tapping A I believe.
-Bunting requires that you press down & Option.
Neo Poke Pro Yakyuu:
-Pressing A in the field when going after the ball is pretty much like pressing B in DS - you jump up or leap for the ball.
-Bunting is accomplished by quickly tapping A (batting).
-Batting seems different, too. Pressing Up & A in DS seemed to hit the ball higher. Doing the same in NPPY seemed to glop the ball only a few feet in front of home plate.
Also, there are no stat bars for batters unlike DS! When you try to select a replacement batter or change the lineup, there's only their batting average and I think their home runs for the year. That's it. Pressing Option gets you nowhere, unlike in DS, where you can see their power, speed, etc. in stat bars like in DS. The same goes for pitchers - pressing Option did not reveal any kind of "special pitch" menu like in DS. Heck, pressing Option didn't do much of anything in the roster screen during a game.
The menus in the game are similar, though there are a few significant changes:
Dynamite Slugger:
-After selecting Exhibition mode, you are able to choose some of the game parameters such as how many innings, called game parameters, errors, designated hitter, and if 1P gets to bat first.
-Option in the main menu only lets you reset the settings, change the ball marking (the indicator of where the ball will land on the field), and Exit.
Neo Poke Pro Yakyuu:
-"Full" options on main menu, unlike limited DS menu.
-You don't get the option to change the game parameters before playing an exhibition game. You can, however, change these parameters in the option menu on the main screen. The only thing you aren't given an option for is for
1P batting first. Oh, and I couldn't find a ball mark option anywhere
-There is also a COOL team database under "Option" in the main menu!!! Not only does it give you a large amount of stats for each Japanese team's '98 stats, it also gives you the stats of their coaches! I'm checking out Ichiro right now ;)
-Tournament is not available in NPPY, only Exhibition and Pennant Race for playing games.
-Also on the main menu is a Team "something", which is under "Edit". I'm not sure what it is exactly, since there's an empty menu with ten blank slots. I have a feeling this is some sort of unlockable team menu or something. It most likely is, because under "Edit" in the main menu you are able to edit each team, as well as hop into the "Team 'something'" menu to edit whatever's in there... interesting!
The only other difference I can think of is that NPPY might not have the "spin the d-pad" action bit like in DS. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling I haven't seen it yet because it's just not in there.
I know there may be a few other things I'm missing, but these are the main differences between both games. The similarities actually far outnumber these differences, though.
Personally, I enjoy both games. DS has got a bit more polish to it, though I feel it is a bit easier than NPPY. NPPY seemed to have more line drives, balls that were hit into gaps on the field (I'm talking normal gaps here - not bugs), and just felt a bit tougher overall. This is a good thing though :)
The bottom line? If you already have Dynamite Slugger/Sluggaer, then stick with it. Not to say that NPPY is a bad game (it's still great), but it's obviously not as tight as DS. Considering that NPPY preceded DS, that's no big surprise. Still, if you're a fan of Japanese baseball, or just want to play more NGPC baseball with some different stats, then NPPY is a nice addition to your NGPC library.
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Posted by NeoGutsman on June 12, 2002 at 02:51:03 EST.
More Neo Poke Pro Yakyuu thoughts:
Hoo boy!
At first I thought NPPY was a tad harder because I hadn't played enough Dynamite Slugger.
Nope.
I know that DS is unabashedly easy with the USA team, and a better challenge with less developed teams. That said, NPPY seems to give me a run for the money in terms of just about everything...
Batting is much more challenging. Pressing Up + A usually hits grounders in DS, but in NPPY I seemed to hit a TON of balls that seemed to flop right in front of home plate! I'm guessing that getting in a full swing (as well as making proper contact with the correct part of the bat) seems to come into play much more in NPPY. I also noticed that the CPU's pitching is downright brilliant at times, and quite tricky other times. It seems to pitch a lot more sinkers and sliders - a LOT more sliders!
Further, when I do hit the ball, it zaps out as a line drive, and rarely as grounders through gaps. Or long flies to the outfield for that matter. The computer seems to have no problem hitting balls *just* out of reach of my infielders and outfielders, particularly grounders.
Speaking of fielding, it seems like only the shortstop, pitcher and outfielders move on a play. It's terribly frustrating when a ball hits one of the baselines near first or third, and your basemen won't even lift a finger to catch it. I just checked with DS, and my shortstop covered third as my third baseman went to cover an infield pop to his side. This does NOT happen in NPPY.
Oh, and the foul lines are much more forgiving in NPPY. Whereas you'd nearly always get a "Foul" when the ball would simply graze the foul lines in DS, NPPY lets the roll onward as good balls. This actually isn't such a bad thing in theory, but if you add the factor of the basemen not moving an inch on a play then you have one heck of a frustrating "feature".
I also noticed that many, if not all of the pitchers I used in the game really don't have special pitches. I'll keep trying them out as I try out teams, but it's generally sinkers, sliders, etc., with nothing too fancy. Perhaps the lack of a license allowed DS to get more creative with the gameplay in that respect. This isn't detrimental to the game overall, but it certainly would add spice to it.
Oh, and one definitely neat feature in NPPY is the homerun animation. It's not spectacular, but if you hit a homer in the dome, the screen scrolls up, you see "HomeRun" written in katakana, and you see fireworks go off! Then you see whatever last couple of baserunners run into home (in the overhead view), with the final slugger getting a stuffed toy from a girl in a cap (in a zoomed view - pixilated as if it were "scaled") - then you see the guy toss it into the crowd. Cool! Longtime baseball fans might recognize the indoor fireworks display as a hallmark of Seattle's old Kingdome - there's nothing like it, and it's really the only thing I miss about the old place ;) I'm not sure if this is tradition anywhere else, but I'll assume so.
I've kinda given up on my Orix Blue Wave. Aside from Ichiro, I can't seem to find anything too compelling about the team at the moment. I've resigned myself to the Hanshin Tigers, who seem to do very well in this game. I was hitting much better with them, and pitching somewhat better too.
Like in my early impressions below, let me reiterate that this game is still cool to me. It's clearly now not as well polished as DS, but I'm still glad I got it. However, unless you gotta have every Neo Poke game ever made, and unless you KNOW you're gonna play this game with any regularity, then it's best to save your dough for now and enjoy some other NGPC games. This game cost me more than I would have liked, but considering I've gotten swell deals on every other NGPC game I've bought, well, it evens out in the end.
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