World Series Baseball and the Sega Saturn

[Music] if you grew up a Sega sports fan chances are you were quite fond of their baseball games they had a great heritage of 1980s arcade releases like super league and clutch hitter which set up a fantastic showing on the Genesis with Tommy lorta baseball in 1989 as their software matured into the early '90s we eventually saw the World Series baseball games these were fully licensed Major League Baseball titles that had commentary and digitized Graphics having grown up playing little league myself these games were some of my favorites and really helped endear Sega to me as the go-to brand for all the major sports titles and boy did the Genesis deliver on that front it didn't matter if it was baseball football boxing tennis golf or whatever I was thoroughly pleased with their lineup they even had a number of very playable Game Gear offerings unfortunately things hit a speed bump in 1995 when the Saturn showed up in North America Sega a 16-bit sports Powerhouse in every sense of the word seemed woefully ill prepared with the same support on their new 32-bit platform we had an okay soccer game and a decent golf release early on but things just weren't the same game that was until World Series Baseball landed in October of 1995 a Sega Sports Saturn title that set a standard by which all others would be judged before we take a look at World Series Baseball let's first talk about where it came from it's based on a game that was developed internally by Sega cs1 and Sega CS2 called Pro Baseball greatest 9 this was released in Japan in May of 1995 and used teams from the napone professional baseball league it features multiple announcers you can choose from with each one having their own style it was very well received and for good reason not only did the gameplay fire on all cylinders but it also looked incredible at a time when many Saturn games were suffering Growing Pains fortunately Sega of America had the good sense to recognize its quality adding some visual changes and securing the MLB players and League licenses transforming it into World Series Baseball I was really impressed with the presentation you had a stadium rendered in polygons and players done with some very detailed two-dimensional Sprites the performance was smooth and didn't waver adding up to one of the the prettier early releases for the platform it carried over all the great modes and options from greatest 9 as well you could play a simple exhibition game you could run an entire season you could jump straight into the playoffs or an All-Star Game there was even a home run derby it had all sorts of nice little touches like wind affecting the ball and an option to make players have a realistic chance to commit an error World Series Baseball was a highlight in an otherwise lackluster Sega Sports lineup on the Saturn many people often talk about the big three Sega made releases at the end of 1995 for the Saturn but as far as I was concerned World Series Baseball was right there with them making it the big four batting Ron carob the throw to first one out now batting Azie Gan one out and nobody on no balls and one strike the wind up and the pitch no balls and two strikes ball hit to center field the ball rolls to the wall the throw to Second he's safe the success of greatest 9 in World Series Baseball was not lost on Sega they quickly turned around on an upgrade the following year greatest 996 didn't do much to add to the original release other than your industry standard roster changes when it came West as World Series Baseball 2 it added the 1998 MLB expansion teams of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Arizona Diamondbacks given that those teams did not have any players yet you had to create your own it was still overall a great experience but it was clear Sega hadn't done much to upgrade the engine or features in any meaningful way many gaming magazines were much tougher on it than the first World Series Baseball because of that with the Japanese media being particularly harsh personally I didn't mind getting more of a good thing but Sega would definitely need to upgrade their game if they wanted to keep the franchise relevant is he looking for the scroogie the ball goes into center field base hit now batting they can tie the game with a base hit he hits the first pitch the ball goes into right field base hit now batting a base hit here gives them the lead the pitcher is hitting a tough spot the pitcher is hitting a tough spot a throw to Third the throw goes to first I can hear the groan from the stand 1997 was the year Sega took the series fully polygonal greatest 997 still focused on the Japanese napone professional league but drops the 2D player Sprites for fully textured maap and motion captured polygons this of course brought things in line with many of the other sports franchises that were upgrading their engines along with the polygons came a ton of new animations camera angles widescreen support and a completely revamped pitching and hitting system each pitcher specializes in their own types of pitches when the pitch is thrown it highlights the area it's going to hit either in or around the strike zone you have the option to time the swing properly and get your Target on the ball but you can also guess where the ball will end up the strike zone uses a quadrant based system that allows you to essentially gamble with each pitch guess correctly and you auto lock on the pitch for a chance at a substantial hit it adds an entirely new dimension to the game playay and takes away most of the easy hits a good pitch can be quite a bit tougher to hit and the game feels more realistic for it it was also the most feature Rich of the game so far you could bunt and the defense could call their players in for that bunt you could manually lead off every base runner you could send the defense deep for the power hitters or bring them in Shallow for the weaker guys there were options to turn off markers to make the game play much more difficult or you could turn on automatic fielding and base running to make the game a breeze it also had a few additional fictional teams when it was brought to North America a few months later in July of 1997 it was given the name World Series Baseball 98 it had all 30 teams their stadiums and their players the two expand an team still had a fake roster of course but nearly everything else was there I say nearly because it's missing the widescreen support a removal that made little sense fortunately it has all the game modes from the previous two games and many people consider this the Pinnacle of the series the gaming magazines at the time absolutely loved it rating it as well as any top-of-the-line sports franchise on any console Sega Sports had been very hit or miss on the Saturn but world Series Baseball had been a bright shining Beacon of just how great things could have [Music] been strike dynamites unfortunately for those of us in the west 1997 would Mark the final year of any real support for the Sega Saturn in 1998 Sega of America essentially slipped the Saturn's throat and sent it to a very early grave there would be no more World Series baseball games for us with the Saturn continuing in Japan Sega prepared another greatest n release in 1997 subtitled make miracle this was an update that saw new camera angles sound effects and a season that plays out just like it did in real life it was an interesting idea in that regard basically update a sports game with the stats wins and losses that happened in the real season that year it was kind of like the modern roster and power rating updates of today's games you kept the same polygon engine and additions from before so this was one of the most complete and accurate versions of the game so far Sega Then followed that up with greatest 998 in March of 1998 another Japanese only release to its polygon engine from 97 Sega didn't do much different with this one but add new rosters clean up some of the visuals and spiffy up the presentation a bit with Saturn still selling in Japan it made sense to keep the yearly Sports titles going in that region I had hoped Sega would make a World Series Baseball 99 out of this one as a last harah for the US but that one never materialized the final time the greatest n series would appear on the Saturn was in August of 1998 Pro Baseball greatest 998 summer action was a sort of mid-season refresh with the latest stats and rosters it kept the same polygon engine from 97 with the usual presentation and art changes but the gam playay is still very much the same [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for fou [Music] [Applause] the internally made greatest nine lineup of games would slip into retirement with the close of the Saturn's run in Japan and for four years there was nothing Sega made a few arcade baseball titles for the Naomi and their subsidiary visual concepts made a couple of World Series Baseball 2K titles for their Home console to Dreamcast it wouldn't be until August of 2002 before the greatest n name would resurface this time developed by smile bit for the GBA again based on the napone professional baseball league it uses pre-rendered Sprites with 2D stadiums to a pretty impressive effect in an ironic Twist of events this game is based on smile bits other GBA title baseball Advance released 6 months earlier and using the American major league baseball teams effectively it was the opposite of what had happened on the Saturn I was pretty impressed with the GBA games they weren't quite as visually impressive as the Saturn titles but the gameplay was fun and very easy to get into the kind of portable experience you could sink 20 minutes into here and there no matter where you were Sega would go on to publish a few more World Series baseball games for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox shortly after the GBA games but its acquisition by Sammy would close this chapter completely no more World Series Baseball no more greatest nine and eventually no more Sega Sports at all a shot to deep Center it has a chance and it's gone a home run Alonso steps up for his first at bat of the [Applause] gameo I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'd love to do similar for other sports titles for sega's various consoles Sega really did have some well done baseball games for the Saturn and many of them are just as playable today I always felt the greatest nine in World Series Baseball releases on the Saturn were special in that regard Sega Sports had taken a hell of a hit on the Saturn the great Joe Montana football titles on the Genesis had morphed into a complete utter show with the Gastly NFL 97 on Saturn the incredible greatest heavyweights boxing gave way to the laughable funky head boxing the Saturn's initial soccer basketball and hockey releases were just okay or average at best it was a fall from grace that cannot be overstated sports games had helped build and sustain the 16-bit market from the very beginning it was of Paramount importance that the Saturn continued that trend from day one greatest nine in World Series Baseball were one of the few titles in the Sega sports lineup on the Saturn that had been early in top tier right out the gate it shouldn't be lost on you that Sega had developed this game internally in Japan time and time again this comes up when Sega of Japan makes it it was usually something worth playing this was The Great Divide in the two Sega of the time all the bright ideas in the world don't mean when the games you make are largely mediocre or forgettable and when it came to what Sega of America made or farmed out you just never knew what the hell you were getting I'm Sega Lord X thank you guys for watching and I will catch you next time [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 32,774

Keywords: world series baseball, sega, baseball, greatest nine, segalordx, sega lord x, sega saturn, sega genesis, sega dreamcast, mega drive, megadrive, game gear, 32x, mega cd, genesis, saturn, master system, sega cd, gameplay, review, movies, retro games, retro gaming, video games, ps4, xbox, wii, nintendo, gamecube, n64, ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, vita, switch, atari, mlb

Id: md5dSJHkLpA

Length: 15min 54sec (954 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 29 2024