Original Release: Konami, 1987, NES
An early baseball release from Konami, and a competent offering that came out just before the big name baseball games for the console started to drop … but only in Japan
Exciting Baseball (Famicom Disk, Konami, 1987)
Where to Buy: ebay
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
Konami’s “Power Pro” is my favorite baseball series by a country mile, so I’m always down to check out other oddball baseball games they’ve made. Though I don’t think this one is in the direct lineage, it does seem like an early ancestor. There are some similarities in the lineup menus, the batting system and the stompy whistly Japanese baseball music throughout. And though in-game is more standard and generic sprites, if you check out the cover art you can see something of the “big head caricature” style that Power Pro would eventually develop.
It’s primitive by modern standards, but it was a substantial upgrade from its main competition of the time – Nintendo’s Baseball (all the big name series for the NES wouldn’t roll out until 1988/1989). Exciting Baseball isn’t really worth revisiting at this point, but it’s not bad and would have felt like a quality title if you got it for Christmas in 1987. The sound work is particularly good, taking advantage of the extra Famicom Disk sound channel to really capture the atmosphere of a Japanese pro baseball stadium with the constantly rotating music clips (probably the first game to do so).
There are a few different modes of play including a “pennant race” very basic season equivalent, but all are populated by very generic teams – “L Pro”, “B Pro”, etc. I can’t tell if this had some sort of player license due to all the names being in Japanese, but it for sure didn’t have a team license! You can set positions and lineups as you like, however, and there’s even a limited mode for trading players akin to the one Tecmo Super Bowl 3 had.
Hitting is a bit imprecise but it skews to the easy side, as the game is pretty generous about giving you singles and the occasional homer just to spice things up just for getting some kind of wood on the ball. Pitching is a bit of a bear though, probably the one gameplay weakpoint. Fielders also don’t automatically chase the ball so you have to be on your toes with every hit.
Other than the lack of English (menus only), the biggest downside is the kinda obscene amount of disk flipping required before each game starts – most I’ve seen for a Famicom Disk game yet. Once on the field it plays smooth though.
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