Peanuts and Cracker Jack

[Jon Schnaars]

Peanuts and Cracker Jack

"'It's nice to see blades of grass whirring in the wind, and it's nice to see [an in-game player] that's taken from a bodysuit that has little nodes attached to it,' Passan tells me, describing his experience with some of the newer baseball games. Sill, he has a soft spot for Tengen's classic.'The idea that every guy was a little fat guy that looked like a weevil, and you could hit a homerun that went off the screen, and the fireworkse exploded. There are so many little things to RBI Baseball that make it great. There's just a fondness.'"

Jon Schnaars takes us out to the best ballgame on any platform, RBI Baseball.


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[elang0 [deprecated]]

You failed to mention a major issue with today?s baseball games: licensing.
The problem with the baseball games out today is that they simply are terrible. 2k sports and the rest of them can't seem to get it right. In 2005, EA made MVP baseball and in my opinion, as well as those of my friends, it was the greatest thing since RBI Baseball. Then EA lost the license and MVP was no longer made. I've tried to play 2k and it is simply the sloppiest game i have ever seen. Glitches in RBI are endearing; glitches in modern games are infuriating. Until EA gets the license back, baseball games will continue to blow.

 

[Still Lee]

EA can have their MLB license back if they relinquish the NFL and ESPN licenses, which destroyed Sega's ESPN NFL 2K series. I'm surprised they didn't manage to trademark "2K" as well. EA ruined football games.

2K eventually came back with a heavily disappointing and half-assed title about the all-time greats, so we actually might've not been missing much had they actually been still allowed to make NFL games.

The same can be said about EA's baseball entries. I played EA's MVP 07 NCAA Baseball, and it was choppy garbage. It was actually LESS polished than their MVP 2005 entry, the AI was dumb as a brick, the commentary was horrible and flat, and the mini games were just exact ports from MVP 2005, right down to the tractors. Their home run durby from Triple Play Baseball, a first generation PS2 title, was more innovative and fun than what they put out in their new games. You could have a derby in a giant-sized living room, where you could break stuff like giant TVs and windows. Why couldn't they just bring THAT back?

If you want a great MLB game, try Sony's title. It's superb on PSP, at the least. On gamerankings, the PSP title has an 84 and the PS3 is at 77.