bery, bery good to me
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Baseball. In the real world this game was what America's "pass-time" used to be. Back before videogames.
Like Odyssey's Football, this game is asking you to pretend that you are playing a simulation of the game of baseball, however, this game takes one step towards being cooler than the Odyssey's attempt at a football sim: This game introduces Player Stats. Ooooo! It's probably the first example of persistent player stats in a home video game.
When selecting your team, a roll of the dice assigns a set of stats to each of your players (represented by Line-up cards). Batting Average is one of them. A team member's Batting Average can rise or fall depending on your success with them at bat. The higher a Batting Average is, the closer to home plate your batter gets to start his swing, increasing your likelihood of hitting the ball. If a batter makes a hit, his batting average goes up a few points and if he doesn't, it goes down.
The ball is pitched by the PITCHER/FIELDER and, using his ENGLISH control, he must maneuver the ball over the pitcher's mound on the overlay before it trajects into the batting area, otherwise, it's considered a balk. If the batter deflects it, the batter can use his ENGLISH control to wiggle the ball into the outfield, past the FIELDER and into a number of zones as it exits the left side of the uberlay. These zones determine if it's a single, double or something else entirely when it determines that a card needs to be drawn. The ball can also be "caught" by the FIELDER and deflected back. The batter is "out" when the ball is caught but a runner on base can still advance. (sacrifice fly?)
To cut down on the amount of gametime, every "at bat" starts with two strikes and two balls. This brings up another team member stat: Handedness. If a batter faces an opposite handed pitcher, they get to walk to first base on one ball, instead of two. There's a separate stat for throwing handedness, but on all the line-up cards it is the same as batting handedness, so no switch hitting seems to happen in this league.
Finally, each team member has a speed level, (fast, medium or slow) which is represented on the off-screen playing board by a certain color of mini-poker chip-token thing. The team member's speed plays a role in how far a player on first base may advance if a batter hits a single. This is determined by a die roll and a chart on the playing board.
I think the designers of Baseball did a nice job of capturing all the little events that can happen in a game of baseball. There are cards you can draw under certain conditions to indicate that an error, wild pitch, or pick-off has occurred. The pick-off is neat because if a batter draws it he can save it until later when he's pitching and use it when he sees fit. A batter can also choose to bunt, or to make a sacrifice fly. You can even have pinch hitters and relief pitchers. If I were the least bit interested in baseball, I actually think this would be a fun game!
From a videogaming standpoint, the action on the screen is very similar to what we've seen before. Player One tries to wiggle the ball spot past Player Two. Player Two then tries to wiggle the ball past Player One. However, depending on where the wiggled ball exits the screen determines a complicated variety of results which, in my opinion, might have made this game worthwhile, or, at the very least, interesting enough to read its instructions.
Under favorable conditions, ie, the dead of winter/summer, poor TV reception, barren wasteland of a boardgame selection, addiction to baseball etc, this is a game that two baseball nerds might look forward to playing! Provided the year is 1974 or sooner.
Unfortunately, I'm not a baseball fan, I just know enough about it to find its translation into a semi-video game to be interesting enough to think about. My son is also not a baseball fan, so dragging him through this was a bit traumatic. We did make it through four innings before he actually started crying, (which usually means it's time to stop.). As much as I wanted to like this game based on its innovations, we didn't like playing it and that's how I'm trying to award points (consistently? hell, no. Please don't ask me to be consistent).
The Score: Ultraman: 7, Odyssey: 11
The Odyssey is still way ahead. I'm shocked, really I am. Either, I'm being very generous to the Odyssey or I just don't have as many fond memories of Ultraman as thought I did.
EDIT: April, 2021 -- I just want to note that whenever I mention making my children cry with these games, I'm totally kidding. They were always wonderful and patient with their weird dad.
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