MLB Pennant Race from Sony


This is a game that many folks, including myself, were suspecting was
never going to be released.  Sony started advertising it months ago,
back before the All Star game was being played, and most of us sports
game junkies were salivating from the word go!  After all, this game was
being produced by Sony, the makers of such great sports titles as
Gameday, NHL Faceoff, and NBA Shootout, and with the quality of those
games, we all knew that this was going to be a killer app as well.

The question at this point is what took so long for the game to come
out?  It's main competitor, Triple Play '97 (by EA Sports) was released
long ago, as was Frank Thomas - Big Hurt Baseball (by Acclaim), and even
Hardball 5 (Accolade), and Bottom of the Ninth (Konami) -- never mind
that abomonation, Bases Loaded - Double Header (Jaleco) -- have long
since been out.  What took Sony so long, and more to the point, was the
wait worth it?

When the game was first talked about, and started being advertised, it
was projected to be one of the hottest titles on the Sony.  Local stores
were taking pre-orders and deposits, and waiting lists were hundreds of
people deep.  As it turns out, the game rather quietly hit the streets,
and folks that were interested in it all seemed to have turned their
attentions (and their money) to some of the competitors products.  (A
local Babbages for instance was only able to get 3 people to purchase
from a waiting list that was originally over 100 people deep, and they
had pre-purchased the game).


Does it cover all the bases?

The game itself does just about everything you would want it to do. 
Ratings in other sources say it's one of the best baseball games ever
(4.5/5).  It does after all include both MLB and MLBPA licenses, so team
logos, names, player names, uniform colors, stadiums, and everything
else are included in the game.  It also includes stats from STATS, Inc.,
from the 1995 season, and has baseball card "mug shots" of most of the
players.  For extra bonuses, you can create players, trade players,
change camera views to any of seven different choices, and play either
simulation or arcade modes of play.  There's even Home Run Derby,
Exhibition, Season, Playoff, or World Series modes to play in.  And as
icing on the cake, there's nicely called play-by-play and commentary by
Jerry Coleman (that works in real time, without choppiness, as found in
some of the other games [Hardball 5]).

Players can be traded one-for-one, and players can be created and then
added to your roster from a free-agent pool.  This is nice since you can
trade players to build your own dream team, or to account for moves that
might be made by your own favorite MLB team.

The pitching mechanics are among the best in this genre, and leave
little room for improvement.  Pitchers have choices of 3 pitches, and
those pitches are based on the pitchers own specialities.  You can't
take a knuckle ball pitcher and throw sinkerballs if the real pitcher
doesn't have such a pitch in his arsenault.  Pitchers also lose stamina
as the games continue (depending on the type of game play you select),
which is something that should happen in a good simulation.

An even nicer touch is that pitchers also have three speeds to choose
from, and depending on the speed choosen, the pitch location can vary
widely.  (Normally there is better control the faster you throw).  This
makes the game far more realistic, since you can't just pin-point the
ball into the spot you want.

True seam-heads will love the statistics that are gathered during season
play, which cover virtually everything.  If it can possibly be tracked,
this game does, and you can look at whatever portion you want.


It sounds good and looks pretty, (different, but pretty!)...

The game does include a good sound track, with appropriate music played
throughout the game.  The commentary is well done, though gets a bit
repetitive, and most of the names are pronounced correctly.  The
commentary is also situation based, and is current with the game that is
being played.  When a batter comes up to the plate, the commentary notes
the batters accomplishments for the game, along with other information. 
Very nicely done!

The graphics are pretty good too.  The players have a bit of a
cartoonish feel to them, and will take a while to get used to,  but they
don't look bad, and are no where near as funky as the players in
Konami's Bottom of the Ninth (which are way different!).  After a few
games, you'll not even notice the cartoony feel, and will be engrossed
in the game play itself.


That "sounds" like lots of good stuff!

With all of that "right", what could possibly be missing?   Well,
considering how long it took until the game was released, folks just
seemed to want "more" in the game.  Even though the game includes
rosters as of 9/30/96 from the real MLB teams,  it doesn't include any
statistics from the 1996 season.  Considering that the season was over
when the game was released, it really should have included information
from the 1996 season when it was released.  Now it seems that Sony will
basically wait until early next year, throw in the stats from this
season, and add a few minor touches to the game to come out with
"Pennant Race '97" (or whatever they call it).

Moving around in the batters box is possible, though not as intuitive as 
in Triple Play '97  -- you have to read the manual to find the R2 + d-pad 
combo is required to do it

Missing from this game -- but only included in one game so far,
Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball -- is a "bull pen" feature.  You don't
manage your pitchers the way you would have to in real baseball. 
There's no warm up of pitchers required or allowed, and pitcher all just
come into the game "ready to play".  That's not very realistic, and for
a true simulation fan, it draws from the game.  (It really should be an
option that can be turned on or off, and in a game that includes many
available options, it wouldn't seem that tough to have added it prior to
it's long delayed release).

Another thing that draws a bit from the game is in the defensive side of
things.  Pitches that are hit up the middle and should really be handled
by the pitcher aren't.  The pitcher never really makes a move for the
ball, and the ball simply trickles to the outfield, with what amounts to
an infield hit being awarded to the batter.  While you don't expect the
pitcher to catch everything, it would be nice to see the pitcher attempt
to field an up-the-middle hit.  Pitchers do cover the bases though when
the ball goes into play (on fly balls for instance), which is definitely
something done right.

The game does include some nice on the field menus that tell you what
controller buttons will do what when you are pitching or batting.  Those
are nice touches.  On the other hand, the buttons and mechanics used
while on defense are totally different than the buttons and mechanics
used in most of the other baseball games that are out.  It takes a while
to get used to not selecting the base on the d-pad and then hitting the
"X" button to throw to the base you want.  If you do that you wind up
throwing to home each time.  Instead you have to just hit the
appropriate button for the base you want to throw to "[ ]" to throw to
first or third, depending on the point of view being used, "O" to throw
to first or third, "/\" to throw to home or second, etc.   This is more
a matter of taste in which buttons should do what,  but after playing so
many of the other games, you expect the late-comer to conform!


Sum it all up, please!!!

This game is very well done in it's own right, but it's not that much
better than the other games that have proceeded it to set the world on
fire.  After all, game was released at the end of the season, right
before the World Series, and with such a long delay, the programmers
should have had time to, and definitely should have added, all of the
positive things found in all of it's predecessors.  After all, if you
have seen all of your competition, and know what was done right in all
of those packages, shouldn't you have taken those things and included
them in your own product, to create the better mouse trap?


Rating:  8 or 9/10  (nice, but not that much better than everyone else!)


Barry C. Dowell (10/23/96) 


Vital Statistics: 

Genre: Sports/Baseball
Game Format: 1 CD for Sony Playstation
# Players: 1 or 2
Memory card: 1 to 6 blocks required
Release Date: October '96
Street price: $49.95 - 59.95