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If you want an over-the-top, arcade-style baseball game, this is it

Baseball video games have been around since the beginning. Baseball may be a major sport, but it's not the most exciting one; therefore baseball video games really need to grab you with something unique or inventive. If you're looking for a classic and fun baseball game, look no further than Baseball Stars 2. Originally released in the arcade, BS2 was ported to the Neo Geo and (suprisingly) the NES. For this review, I played the Neo Geo version. It was developed by Eikichi Kawasaki and Team, published by SNK, and released in 1992.

Being an arcade port, the game options are limited. There's a one player mode (win 15 games and go for the championship) and a two player mode. That's it. For the one player mode, there are two leagues (difficulties): the Fighting League (easy), and the Exciting League (hard). That's right, there's no normal, just easy and hard. There are six teams in the game, all of them made-up teams (such as the New York Monsters and the Tokyo Ninjas). Choose a difficulty, choose a team, and go at it on the diamond.

Batting is the simple part of the game. As the batter, you can move around to get in your desired position, swing, and bunt. Bunting is never a good idea, though, because the CPU is very fast at grabbing the ball and throwing it. The pitcher really keeps you on your toes! Some of those balls he throws are fast! You have to watch out for throws that are off-base, which are considered "ball" if you don't swing. You want to hit the ball when it's directly over the plate. It sounds like I'm coaching you in how to play baseball, doesn't it? One last thing here: you can call a time out and do a "power up," which causes the batter to swing faster. Once I did this and immediately hit a home run, so it's very helpful.

Pitching and outfielding is the complicated part of the game. As the pitcher, you can move around, pitch, and move the ball while in the air to try and trick the batter. That's right, you can do something which you perhaps can't do in real life: you can throw a curve ball. You can also call a time out and switch batters, but this won't make much of a difference. Once the batter hits the ball, you now control the players in the outfield. However, this can be tricky as you're not sure who you're controlling. Once you're close to the ball, you can press the button to dive for it or to catch it. Diving never seemed to work, though, as my player would dive past the ball and then it takes awhile for someone else to finally get to the ball.

Once you finally have the ball in-hand, you can throw it to a certain plate by holding the d-pad in that direction and pressing the button. Once again, here I had some problems as I would quickly press the button to throw it in the heat of the game, and the player would throw it to the wrong place! To be fair, this only happened a couple times, so just be careful when throwing the ball.

BS2 is a fun game, but half the experience is the presentation. The character sprites are big and full of charm. The details are great. You see each player's profile before he bats, although you don't have any time to look at it because it's gone in a second. The batter and the pitcher are in panels at the top of the screen; the batter is focused, ready to swing; the pitcher is constantly chewing (most likely tabacco, but let's say it's gum). When you hit the ball, the bottom portion of the screen shows your player running while the CPU scrambles to get the ball on the top of the screen. Whether you're "safe" or "out," the game will tell you with a dramatic picture. If you dive to catch the ball, they'll give you a close-up picture of the action. The entire presentation gets you pumped up to play ball. Plus the arcade-style music makes it even better.

But here we run into the same problem which I've had with all of SNK's arcade ports, and that is that you cannot pause the game. This is such a sad oversight. Also, the two difficulty modes both seem to be the same. Whether you're playing easy or hard, they're both hard. The CPU kicked me in the teeth on both difficulties. Perhaps easy is slightly easier than hard, but it's still too difficult to be considered "easy." However, you will have a good time if you grab a friend to play against you.

BS2 is not perfect, but it's a great game nonetheless, far more impressive than any other baseball game of the time. I can't believe this was an arcade game, but it certainly looks, plays, and feels like one. It's over-the-top, exaggerated, and full of charm. The presentation is the best part of the game, making the experience fun and memorable.

Final Verdict--4 Stars: Recommended

Baseball Stars 2 takes a classic sport and makes it crazy, over-the-top, and thrilling. Simply hitting the ball is a blast, and watching the players move around the field and score is half the fun. While outfielding can be tricky, the overall game is very fun. The difficulties are both tough, but playing with a friend is the best way to play. If you enjoy arcade-style games and are a fan of baseball, then check out BS2. It's available for download on the Wii Virtual Console. Now if only SNK made an arcade golf game.....

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