312 · Bad News Baseball
Welcome to the world of Bad News Baseball, a place where rabbits serve as umpires, home runs escape the earth's atmosphere, and batters are knocked unconscious when they make an out.
Bad News Baseball is from Tecmo, based on Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (a game ends in a tie after 12 innings), and the box promises to "tickle your funny bone." Mike and Joe played it with Sean still out, and we liked the playing more than the packaging. It's an agreeable baseball game wearing a silly hat.
What works
- Infield fielding. Mike read the GameFAQs rules for who you control: the pitcher by default, the catcher on a foul, the first baseman on the right field line, with the second baseman covering the bag. Once you know the logic you stop making mistakes a real player wouldn't. Joe never read them and found it just as intuitive.
- Close plays. Tight calls cut to a slide and the umpire's ruling, and the cut-away comes before the result is clear. We weren't sure it wasn't a dice roll, which kept it tense. They happen often enough to feel special.
- Easy to pick up. Outside all-star mode it's about as accessible as any baseball game we've had in a long time.
- Girls mode. Hold down and left on controller one and up on controller two, then hit reset, and you get 12 new teams with their own rosters and stats. The manual covers it, with an apology that the zoom-up display shows only boy players.
What doesn't
- It isn't very silly. The umpires are rabbits and a hard home run launches into the atmosphere, but there are only about a dozen gags and they rarely appear. Baseball Simulator already knew how to goof off. We never learned what the "bad news" is, or why the rabbits.
- It competes with itself. Tecmo Baseball (episode 158) came a little over a year earlier, and this looks like RBI Baseball, not Tecmo's own game. Neither is clearly the one to own.
- No season. You beat every other team once, and beaten teams can't be picked again. Pitchers have stamina and need a few games to recover, yet it plays like a string of exhibitions with no standings.
- All-star mode assembles the best of invented players, which rings hollow.
- The outfield. We can't see our outfielders until it's nearly too late. An arrow or a zoom would help.
- Soft AI. Twitch toward a base and the computer throws there, so runners can keep a conga line going. Once the second baseman just held the ball while Joe ran back to first.
The bottom line
Play it. We both voted no on the Essential Games List. Mike's line was that a baseball game gets one strike, and until one changes what baseball is on the NES, they stay off. Joe called it fine, as good as a bunch of others we've played, but not essential. The fielding and close-play cutscenes do improve on past NES baseball, which is why it's worth a game or two, though these games are starting to blur together.
Written from our conversation in this episode.
- Looking for a baseball game that will challenge your skill and tickle your funny bone? You’ve finally found it
- NES Longplay
- Manual
- I can’t be the only one who thought this was a game based on the 1976 Baseball Comedy Bad News BEARS right?
- Well there are animals in the game…but they weren’t in the movie and they aren’t bears.
- Rabbit umpires
- Well there are animals in the game…but they weren’t in the movie and they aren’t bears.
- Silly Baseball Games
- Backyard Baseball
- MLB Slugfest
- But is the game all that silly?
- Some cosmetic things, and cutscenes, but nothing like playing baseball in space like in Baseball Simulator 1.000
- This is made by Tecmo who already gave us Tecmo Baseball
- Yet this game at least when batting looks awfully similar to RBI Baseball
- A Baseball game with a goal
- Defeat every other team in the 1 player mode
- there is not a set schedule of games, pitchers do have a stamina rating that once depleted, will take several games' worth of rest to recover from.
- Fielding is significantly improved from past NES games (explanation below)
- Unique Rules
- Similar to in Nippon Professional Baseball (Japan's professional baseball league), the game will end in a tie after 12 innings.
- All Star Mode
- I guess if you really dig into the game and learn about the best players this mode could be worth while, but its kinda silly when they are made up characters
- The game also features the ability to play as girls. In girls mode, the teams remain the same, but the rosters are completely different, effectively creating 12 new teams. This feat is achieved by holding Down and Left on Controller 1 and holding Up on controller 2 (while still holding Down+Left) and hitting the RESET button on the NES.
- EGL
- NEXT WEEK - Boulder Dash. Sounds like nonsense to me
- Pitcher: Always controllable when the ball is hit in fair territory. Can also be controlled when the ball is bunted in foul ground, but it's meaningless as (s)he can't do anything useful.
- Catcher: Can be controlled if the ball is hit foul, but not bunted; your pitcher will cover home plate. It IS possible to catch a foul pop fly, but you'll have much better chances of being struck by two consecutive bolts of lightning.
- First baseman: Ball is hit somewhere near the rightfield foul line. Your second baseman will cover at first.
- Second baseman: Ball is fair and hit to the right side of second, where the shortstop will cover.
- Shortstop: Can be controlled when the ball is hit softly back to the pitcher. Can also run after the ball when it's been hit hit to the left side of second.
- Third baseman: Ball is hit somewhere near the leftfield foul line. Your shortstop will cover at third.
- Outfielders: These players will always be able to chase the ball, even if the ball doesn't travel past the infield.
Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.
Bad News Baseball! Looking for a baseball game that will challenge your skill and tickle your funny bone? You've finally found it!
And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. And I'm Joe. Still no Sean. Still no sight of Sean. But we, I don't know, we remain hopeful? Yeah, I'm talking to him. I'm convincing him we'll get him back on board. We gotta adjust his contract. Yeah, or maybe Sam will come back to fill in for Sean.
Anything's possible. We'll bring Sam back. Yeah, maybe just a new person will join the show and just catch up. We'll just ask them for their Essential Games list vote on the past 300 games. I mean, if they do that, I've been saying I'm gonna catch up on all the games I've missed for like two years now and I still haven't done it. So they might replace me. And yet you chose to play Bad News Baseball this week to be on the show. I did. Yeah. I can't be the only one who thought that this was gonna be a game based on the 1976 baseball comedy Bad News Bears, right? The only reason I thought that was last week when you confused them, and then I suddenly, like, dawned on me, how did I not think of this before?
Well, there are animals in this game, but there weren't animals in the movie. And the animals in this game aren't bears. They're rabbit umpires. But I think because there's animals in this and there weren't animals in the game, I think it's kind of like the whole Butterfree Venomoth thing where I think the titles actually got swapped by accident. Like, this was actually originally supposed to be Bad News Bears, Bad News Bears, and Bad News Bears was supposed to be Bad News Baseball. Titles got swapped and, you know, no one knew.
Right. Okay, yeah, very good. And for those of you who don't know, the same thing is true about Venomoth and Butterfree, that they are part of different evolution lines, but they look exactly like they would evolve into one another.
Moving back to video games that we talk about on this show, because this is not a Pokemon show, the back of the box said that it'll challenge your skill and tickle your funny bone. There are a category of silly baseball games like Backyard Baseball and MLB Slugfest. One is funny in the sense of it's a bunch of, like, pro versions, but they're kids now and they're playing Backyard Baseball under, like, those kinds of, you know, rules and silliness. And then the other one's like, oh, this is really silly because you can just beat up the guy running from first to second instead of having to just tag him out.
Now, I mean, I guess there's, like, there's a rabbit as the ump and there's, like, some silly animations, but, like, not very frequent. Yeah, is this game all that silly? No, I wouldn't think so. But, like, maybe the bar hadn't been set for, like, how much silliness saturation there needs to be in order to call your game silly. Because most games weren't trying to be silly. So, like, maybe just having a few silly things in there, maybe they thought, oh, this game's so silly.
Yeah, this game is whimsical, I guess is what I would say, right? Like, you know, there's some cosmetic things like the rabbit umpires and there's some silly cut scenes. Like, if you hit a home run hard enough, it, like, launches out of the atmosphere. Like, that's cute, right? But there's nothing like playing baseball in space like there was in Chex Notes Baseball Simulator.
So, Baseball Simulator even got the memo of, like, here's how you have fun with a baseball game. And yet this one is, like, staying almost entirely true, with the exception of a few rule changes, to baseball and the simulation of baseball on the NES. And then just being like, but what if the umpires were rabbits? Like, really, why are the umpires rabbits, Joe? Yeah, I thought that this was some, like, reference or, like, maybe there was, like, a term that umps were called sometimes that was rabbit-like, but I have no idea.
Yeah, and the only thing I can think of is that it must mean something to be, like, humanized as a rabbit in Japan, like the anthropomorphic rabbit thing, because that must mean something, because this game is based off of the Nippon Professional Baseball League, not, like, MLB rules, per se. And the only reason you can really know that is because the game will end in a tie after 12 innings, just like it does in the Japanese League.
Oh, okay. That's the only, you said before some differences. Is that the only, like, rule difference to, like, the baseball I'd be familiar with? It's the only rule difference I caught, and to be honest, I mean, that would imply that it's a pretty faithful kind of game, because there are other ones that just don't even go to extra innings, right? I couldn't think of that off the top of my head, but there are certain ones that are just like, if you don't do it in nine, it's over. Yeah. So, at least they went to the 12.
Yeah, that's good. But there was no seventh inning stretch, and for the silliest game on the NES, or whatever they called it, I would think there would be some seventh inning stretch animation. Oh, well, see, that's a unique thing again, because they don't have a seventh inning stretch over in Japan. Oh, that's American. It wouldn't get added, right? They didn't add anything. This game was made by Tecmo, who already gave us Tecmo Baseball, literally the name of the developer and baseball, all in one game. Why make another one and not just call it Tecmo Baseball 2? We get, instead, Bad News Baseball, where this game happens to look nothing like Tecmo Baseball? What's going on? This game looks like RBI Baseball, which was not made by Tecmo.
Well, what I was just saying, I'm actually right now looking up Tecmo Baseball to remind myself what it looks like, so I don't embarrass myself here. But what I'm gathering is that this is kind of geared more towards, like, your little brother. You know? Just the art style. And it's in, you know, playing on, like, normal mode or whatever it is that's not all-star mode is pretty accessible. Maybe one of the more, I'm not that, like, baseball games are not accessible, but, like, maybe one of the easier baseball games to play that we've had in a long time. So maybe it's all, like, that, the art style combined with that, like, difficulty makes it a little more geared towards a younger audience.
You can see, though, too, yeah, the younger audience thing comes into play when you look at Tecmo Baseball, now that you've been looking at references of it. Like, that is a, you know, that is much more, like, these are athletes, this is supposed to be a representation of the MLB, you know, it's a more, like, detailed screen. Whereas, I don't know, something about the fact that, I mean, and we liked RBI Baseball, too, but the fact that they, even the view of the zoomed-in bases and the dirt only, you know, not connecting the entire diamond, the entire baseball diamond, it's, like, it feels like somehow, you know, because it's, like, I don't know who made that officially, if it was Tenjin or Namco or whoever,
but it's just weird that this game chose to mirror a completely different developer's style when they already had, like, something in the can, you know? Like, they could have just went with Tecmo Baseball but silly, and instead they were like, nah, let's just rip off a totally different game. Yeah, I mean, maybe they felt like they needed to differentiate them, like, this game from Tecmo Baseball, enough to justify it, you know? Like, why would I buy this other game if I already have this one that you made? I mean, I don't think consumers really thought so much about the developer back then, but maybe they did, I don't know. But, um, so that's the only thing I can think of, where they were, like, trying to, how long ago was Tecmo Baseball?
A while ago now. I can get you a date if you can talk for a second. Uh, hello, everybody. Thank you, that was one second. And Tecmo Baseball was episode 158, so February 19th, 2021, or January 1st, 1989. Okay, so one year later, roughly, a little over a year later, in real time, that this came out, is a little weird. I mean, I guess it's not now, because we get, you know, we get an MLB game every year.
But then, it was, it does feel like they're kind of eating their own lunch, which doesn't have the same meaning as eating someone else's lunch, because you're still eating your lunch. But you know what I mean? Like, they're competing with themselves. Yeah, and not only are they competing with themselves, but because they didn't go all in on the, like,
this is kiddie, this is super easy, this is super silly. Like, they could have chose any of those pads. I'm not saying they had to do all three. But because they didn't choose that, and it winds up just playing just like baseball, it does kind of run into the issue of, like, well, which one would I choose, right? Like, there's no reason to own both.
You wouldn't buy Tecmo Baseball and Bad News Baseball. And you probably wouldn't buy Bad News Baseball, because Tecmo Baseball is much more straightforward of a product, right? Like, Bad News Baseball implies that, to me, that there's something more going on here, right? Like, that's not an everyday name. It's not like Baseball 2K5, right? It's not the show. Like, something about Bad News Baseball makes me feel like there was going to be a story mode. Yeah, like, a story mode or just, like, something that is, what's the bad news?
What is bad news in this game? Like, that's what's, like, that's what is confusing. The bad news is Tecmo's stock after making two baseball games and competing with each other. Like, I hadn't thought about this title until you just mentioned it. But, like, yeah, it's called Bad News Baseball, but, like, maybe that's just a catchy title.
But, yeah, I do now think of it, like, yeah, I would think it's, I guess the silliness is what they're going for. But, I don't know. Even with the silliness, I mean, my theory is that they were like, oh, here's a dozen silly animations. This is going to be great. A dozen? That's a lot of animations. And then not thinking about, like, playing, like, a season of this is, like, 170 hours. So, you're spreading out those dozen silly animations. Like, it doesn't feel like they come up very often.
Well, the good news is that there isn't really a season. This is a baseball game with a goal. And while that sounds interesting, again, the goal is not a story mode. It's not a character development mode. It's just you play as one team, and then your goal is to defeat every other team in the one-player mode. So, you only have to beat every team once. And, in fact, once you beat them within that mode, they are not selectable again. So, it does make it easy to know, like, you know, this is a clearly defined parameter of beat every team.
So, you know, that's kind of cool in one way, but then also not too different from a season when they could have made it something different. We have played other sports games on our Nostalgia Bites episodes, which were for Famicom-exclusive games. We've played some of those sports games that have little, like, story beats or cut scenes in between. And it feels like that's what this game needed is, like, you kind of have the generic team, and then you take on all these teams that have, like, oh, this one has really good pitchers. This one has really good batters, you know? Like, and you work around that stuff and try to make sure you defeat them all.
Instead, this just winds up being, like, you're just playing a really shortened season where you play everybody once. Yeah. I mean, it's, I guess that also, again, it's little brother mode, you know? It's, like, maybe a little kid doesn't care enough to, like, figure out the nuances of an actual season of baseball. And, I mean, there are stats and stuff in this, too, so maybe that kind of hurts that theory. But, yeah, it's, like, a season. Beat everybody else.
You're done. Joe, they did take the time to put in stats for everybody, as you mentioned, and yet they don't give you the option to just go full season, right? Like, it's a little strange that even just things, like, surprising. So, since there's not a set schedule of games you can play anybody, you would think that your pitchers, you know, can be played whenever. But they actually do have a stamina rating that, you know, if you use them too often, it will take, you have to play a few games for them to recover.
But it's not something that's, like, communicated in the same way that a season, like, it feels like these are all exhibition matches, not the season. Because there isn't an overall standings or a trade players or a, you know, a stats page that evolves with the game. Like, it's just the stats that are built into the characters.
I feel like the game wanted to, like, be two different things, right? It wanted to be, like, oh, baseball but with a clearly defined goal, but also baseball that's silly. And it didn't really do either. Yeah, I mean, it's hard for me to, like, to really say. Because whenever I play a baseball game or really any sports game, like, I play it, I play two games, and then I'm like, okay, I get it. Like, I'm not a good judge of, like, the season mode or the whatever, the goal mode. Because it just doesn't stick with me. Like, I don't, the desire to keep playing doesn't stick with me enough.
There is an all-star mode in this game, which I guess if you really dig into this game, if you, if this was your only copy of a baseball game, and you really spend a lot of time with it and learn about the best players, this mode could be worthwhile. But it's kind of silly when they're all just made-up characters to be like, I'm going to build a team of just the best ones and pit them against another team.
It feels like, I don't know, it feels like maybe if you could have built the characters and stats from the ground up like we saw in other baseball games, that would have been something cool. But just to have, like, you know, here's, you know, here's Joe. And it's just Joe, right? It's not like you're not playing as any specific Joe. It's just the Joe that was introduced in this game that you've never grown up adoring.
It's not the Joe from Nostalgia. Yeah. Joe Jackson. The game also features the ability to play as female characters, female baseball players. Did you know this? I didn't know this. How do you? They don't want you to know this, but it's weird that it's all in there. Okay. So in girls mode, as they call it, the teams remain the same, but the rosters are completely different, including stats and stuff. So it's not like they just change, you know, they're changing sprites. They're changing names.
It's basically 12 new teams if you can get past the fact that the uniforms remain the same. And the only way to do this is by holding down and left on controller one and holding up on controller two. Now, keep in mind, you have to also still be holding down and left on controller one at the same time.
Provided you're doing that, you hit the reset button on your NES, and then it boots up with the girls. You need to introduce like a toe into the equation to be holding both of those and hit the reset. You can't play it unless you have a friend. Yeah. Well, so that's just mind-blowing to me because, first of all, they've put, like you said, it's not just like a sprite swap, but actual stat swaps. And then they put all this work into making, I'm assuming, newly balanced teams.
And, like, first of all, I don't think anyone, if you're not trading or doing anything with those sets, and this game is kind of, seems to be geared toward a younger audience, I don't know how many people are really, like, doing the math on which team is better based on those stats. So, already. But then you're taking this additional double work that you've done and hiding it behind two controllers and a button on the NES.
So, it's like, it's just like almost like extra pointless work that they did because they hid it all. And they focused on things that they didn't, like, then elevate in their, I don't know, marketing? Or not even marketing, but in their, like, just in the game. Like, it just doesn't seem like it encourages you to really, to get any appreciation out of that.
Right. And here comes the crazy thing, Joe. When I told you how it's performed, right, you would think, what, cheat code, right? Like, a specific set of inputs. This is in the manual. This is like, hey, if you want to access the girls mode, just do this super complicated thing. And so, it's not even like, you know, this feels like the kind of thing that you would sell in a book of, like, 101 Nintendo Entertainment System secrets.
Yeah. It's not. It's in the manual. They tell you how to do it. And even have, like, a little asterisk for, unfortunately, in this mode, the zoom-up display shows only boy players. Sorry for letting you down. Wow. It's like, they're apologizing for, like, rushing the game out the door. Like, we could have put them in, but we just didn't have the time. That is, that is, this is just getting weirder and weirder with everything.
But it makes you feel like they didn't need to do all those steps, and it could have just been a selectable, like, thing on the main menu, right? You could just select girls mode. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Completely. But also, like, any other company would have just, it would have just been one of those things where it's like, the, yeah, it's weird that the, that the sprites don't, the zoom-up sprites don't change. That's annoying. But, like, they called it out in, like, this, this, like, this, like, self-deprecating or, like, self-ashamed way of, like, we're sorry we let you down. We know we did wrong.
My fourth grade teacher did the equivalent of the girls mode manual thing to us on a test once. And so the test was, you take the whole test, and if you just would have looked where you put your name in, above that, it said, if you are reading all the instructions, like, do not fill out the test. And obviously, like, I missed that. I filled out the test, and I failed.
That's a great test. It's the same thing here, where they're like, let's put the girls mode at the end of the manual just to make sure everybody read through the manual. So I actually just looked up the developers of TechMone. One of them is Mike's fourth grade teacher was one of the developers. They still go by that name, huh? Yeah. It's my, like, M-A-I, fourth grade teacher, one word, last name.
There was one significant improvement, though, in the simulation of baseball in this game. And, Joe, let me know if you agree. I have an explanation for why I think it's better, too. But really, the fielding is significantly improved from past NES games for Bad News Baseball. I really felt like I knew who I was going to be on the screen when the ball got hit. And I did feel like I was able to field almost all kinds of hits, whether they were high pop-ups or line drives. What do you think?
I mostly agree. I'm curious what your reasoning is, because I didn't really think about it until now. But, yeah, like, it was, I did not have those same frustrations. And I don't really know why. But I will say that I, the, my agreement is limited to the infield. Because in the outfield, I think, I don't remember if other baseball games were this frustrating to me. But I think that, I think that something needs to change in video game baseball when it comes to the outfield. The outfield is the issue, though, specifically in this version and in many other versions.
For you, I imagine, because you can't see them until a limited amount of time. I have no idea where they are until it's actually too late to even know, to even know, like, even once I can see my outfielder and see where they are and, like, orient myself, I actually don't have enough time to get to the ball. Where I would have if I knew where my fielder was. And 3D baseball games solve this by saying, like, well, when the balls hit and you're playing defense, we will cut to the fielder of choice that you'll be controlling and see, you know, and see it kind of from, like, over the shoulder. Not really over the shoulder. From behind the full body.
2D games never really did that, though, right? They don't, like, a great baseball game on the NES might just, like, zoom in on the shortstop, right? And make the whole field bigger and you know, like, okay, I have to get the ball. Like, I'm this character and only this character.
Yeah. I mean, and I like that. I don't think that that's a perfect solution because it is, it does feel like it's, like, it's almost playing a little bit for you by, like, I mean, it's hard to say. Because, like, in a baseball video game, I am, like, yeah, I need to figure out where this ball is going and whose ball it is. But, like, if you're playing baseball and you're the shortstop, yeah, that's all. You know you're the shortstop and you know that, like, you need to get the ball.
Like, and it's the same thing with, like, the fielders. Like, I would like something that would simulate me knowing where I am as the right fielder. Like, even if it's just an arrow pointing off screen to, like, roughly where my right fielder is or whatever. Like, it feels unrealistically unfair to just be blind until your outfielder comes into view. And the reason why I think the fielding is better here is because there are rules that feel obvious about who you'll control.
And this could be a chicken or the egg kind of problem where, like, I read these rules on GameFAQ's, like, strategy guide thing before playing the game. And so I was aware of them. But I don't recall in other games it being this intuitive about, like, well, depending on where the ball is heading, here's who you will be controlling. And so there are kind of rules about, like, you know, it defaults to the pitcher.
But if the ball's hit foul but not bunted, you'll be the catcher. If the ball's hit somewhere on the right field line, you become the first baseman. Well, the second baseman will automatically cover first. Like, there's all these different rules. And I can't, you know, it's such a long thing to describe. I'm not going to get into it now.
But once you know kind of, oh, well, it is based on where the ball is hit, you can get your brain kind of in tune with that. And maybe it's because I know the rules of baseball pretty well. You can get your brain in tune with that and be able to make less of the mistakes that real baseball players wouldn't make, which is what you're always trying to. You're trying to have, like, a real game of baseball here. You don't want the novice level, like, oh, the ground ball got through the legs, right?
It's like, no, because it doesn't get through the legs when you miss it in these games. You'll catch anything you scoop up. It's that the ground ball got past you because you were running in the wrong direction. Tell me when that's ever happened in a game of Major League Baseball, right? Nobody runs, like, you know, the ball was hit towards second and he went right, you know? Yeah, it's sort of like three other players on the field, like, at the exact same time. Yes, exactly.
So I think having these defined rules, which I'm sure every baseball game actually has, but for them to be clear enough to be just a paragraph in a game FAQ's strategy guide, I think says a lot about the thought that went into what is usually a problem in these NES baseball games. Yeah, and I think that going back to your chicken or the egg question, I think that it's – I don't think it has – it's because you read the FAQ first. Because I didn't know anything about these rules until right now, and it did feel more intuitive to me. I mean, I think it's just because, like, yeah, you – I mean, maybe from knowing the rules of baseball or maybe just from seeing where the ball is going,
when the ball is hit, I just intuitively am like, okay, well, you know, I want to control my shortstop here because – you know, or whatever. Like, whoever it is, like, of course if the ball is hit, like, to third base, I'm not going to be trying to, like, control my first baseman, you know? Like, so there is, like, a level of intuition there that it seems like they factored in very well to the point where I don't even see it. It just works in the infield. Yeah, that's well said.
And while we were talking about the silliness of the cutscenes, I do think that another thing that enhances the gameplay are the cutscenes of when you have a close play at the bases. And it goes to a, you know, like a cinematic style out versus safe where you see the players slide into the bag and see the umpire make the decision. That is exciting because they cut away before it is obvious what the result is on camera. So you really don't know going into the cutscene if you're safe or out. Yeah, yeah.
Granted, I was also pleased because there were some times where, like, beforehand I was like, I'm clearly about to be safe. Then it goes to the cutscene, and I was always worried that it's just, like, the cutscene is, like, randomly rolling whether I'm safe or out or something. But it always felt bad. That actually is true. And I think the reason I had the same thought is because there was one where I was obviously safe. And I was ruled safe. But there's that moment when you see the cutscene where you're like, is this up to Chance? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
I agree with you. And then, so what do you think of, should they have done more of that? Or does that, like, slow down the game too much? Should they have made it where, like, if you're obviously hovering over a pop-up, that it should switch to a cutscene showing you, like, catching that ball in a more awesome way? Or should they, or is that, like, now that breaks up the action too much? I'd say it happens enough to make those moments feel, like, elevated, exciting moments, but not so much that I get sick of it. And I'm like, okay, like, I don't want to see cutscene after cutscene.
Not that they're long, but, yeah, I think that, like, having them spread out more makes them more of a novelty. And I feel like any other problems I would have with, you know, this version of baseball, because it's just so similar to the kind of RBI baseball and similar games we played, it's like, yeah, those are just the, they haven't been fixed, but they're not necessarily worse either.
So I don't know, like, where this ranks in the baseball games that we played. We'll get into that in a minute. But overall, you know, it's kind of just another, like, another entry here. It didn't twist baseball enough. I think the back of the box sold me on silly baseball game, and it didn't deliver on that front. Yeah, I mean, if we are going to get into where it ranks, like, I'll tell you right now, like, I don't know.
Like, all these baseball, they're all baseball. Like, there are some that are different, but, like, they are starting to blur together to me, where I'm like, I thought this one was fun. I think I thought a bunch of other ones were fun, too. So, like, that's a tough one. Well, I have good news about bad news baseball. And that is that it's time for its judgment on the Essential Games List.
Should have said it was up to bat. Hmm. Yeah, whatever. Maybe next week in whatever baseball game we're playing next week. Yeah. Well, you know what? There's three strikes and you're out, right? But really, it just takes one strike for a baseball game to get off the Essential Games List. And I'm not saying that this is a better or worse game than what we've got. It's just clearly more of the same. So, like we were just getting at a moment before, until a baseball game does something that, like, radically changes what a baseball game is like on the NES, these are going to continue to remain off. So, for me, it's a no. Joe? Yeah, I mean, almost exactly the same sentiment. I think this is fine.
This is just as fine as a bunch of other baseball games we've played. We mentioned some things that have done better with, like, the fielding and stuff, but not. It still just feels like most of those other games. So, yeah, it's fine, but it's not Essential. One thing we didn't talk about now that it's off the Essential Games List, and this is neither a pro or con against the game. Are you aware of the, like, little cheat to just always be safe? No. Against these, yeah, there's a, it's not always, it's like, you know, it does require some skill on the player. But essentially, if you are safe, right? Like, let's say you're safe at second, right?
Just head to, no, sorry, you're not safe at second. If you're on your way to second, just head to third, and you can advance the player behind you while just heading right back because they'll throw the ball to the empty bag. So, you can just kind of always keep your players going in, like, a constant conga line. As long as you have one bag open, you know? Like, you, if you, if you twitch, I didn't explain that perfectly, but basically, if you just twitch a player in a certain direction, the computers will automatically throw the ball in the direction you were heading. Yeah.
Hit both heading at the same time. They're going to throw to home to stop the run, but you just return back to third, and the guy from first gets to second safely. I noticed a similar thing happen. Now, this only happened to me once where I basically got into a pickle, but there was just no pickle.
Like, you know, like, there was a pop-up or something, or I tried to, I don't remember, I tried to take an extra base and run to second, whatever it was. And then, I'm, like, almost at second base when I, like, realize, like, when I remember how to turn back or figure out how to turn back. I turn back, and, like, from basically, like, a foot away from second base, I run all the way back to first base, and the second baseman just holds the ball. Does not throw it back to first base. Like, they do not put me in, like, a pickle.
Guys never heard of monkey in the middle. Yeah, I don't know why. I was just like, why was that free? But it was, and I wonder if it always would happen that way. Next week, we'll be playing a game called Boulder Dash, but I don't know, that sounds like nonsense to me. I think that is the fourth or the eighth level of Crash Bandicoot 1. Great. Oh, you know, Joe, there was something I wanted to talk to you about, so we'll do that in the post-show.
Crash Bandicoot, since you mentioned it. I found out, because you also play those Uncharted games, right? Mm-hmm. So, in Uncharted 4, there was a Crash Bandicoot? Like, you play the exact level? How did it work? You play... I don't know why I'm bringing this up on the show. This has nothing to do with anything. It's funny, because Boulder Dash, which is, I just looked it up, it's the 15th level, I was way off, but Boulder Dash is, like, the sequel level to an earlier level, which is level 4, which is called Boulders.
Boulders is the level you play in Uncharted 4, where you sit down on the couch as Nathan Drake and put on your PlayStation 1, and you play through that level of Crash Bandicoot. Okay, now hold on, a couple questions. So, Uncharted 4 is a prequel? No. Okay, so all the other games take place in the past?
Why does he have a PS1? Oh, I don't know, she just has a PS1, his wife just has a PS1, I don't know. Got it, oh yeah, they just leave all their PlayStation consoles connected. They're the retro gamers. He's been out climbing mountains and jumping off of architecture and shit. Yeah, and now he's playing every PlayStation 1 game in chronological order. No, he's catching... yeah, exactly, he's got a podcast.
But one thing that's cool, did you play Uncharted 4? I haven't played any Uncharted, that's why I'm trying to figure out what's going on here. Great, great games. But I don't know if you will permit me a minor, non-story-related gameplay spoiler for Uncharted 4. I'll allow it, but I'm glad you said it for the listeners at home. Yes. If you don't want this minor spoiler, finish the episode.
But at the very end of Uncharted 4, I never see anyone talking about this, but I'm pretty sure this was intentional. It's not like the very, very end, but it's close to before the final boss. There is a run-and-gun kind of section that they've done before, but you're running from a giant truck.
The camera is in front of you, and you're running away from it, and you're shooting back at it. And that is this level of Crash Bandicoot, you're running from a boulder. And I think that that was thematically meant to be a little nod. Which is also like a... I thought that was really cool. Isn't that just a thematic nod to Indiana Jones? Yeah. Which is what also Uncharted is? Yeah, that's a good point, too. But it's not... The thing is, I would think it'd be more a thematic nod to Indiana Jones if Nathan Drake was running from a round boulder. But I guess you're right. I mean, the level in Crash Bandicoot is a nod to Indiana Jones. So, wow. There's a lot of connections here.
Also, just have to unpack this. You saying Uncharted 4, the end, and right before the final boss... The statement final boss sounds crazy to me. And I don't play these games. But that's like hearing like, oh, you know the final boss of Grand Theft Auto V? It's like we just don't call them that kind of thing. But it is. It is. And the thing is that there's been what... I think Uncharted 3 didn't really have a boss in the same way that the other ones did. But they've tried to make the Uncharted formula work with a boss in each of their games.
And it's always been really weird. And it still is weird in Uncharted 4. But I think that they perfected it in Uncharted 4. It's not a difficult thing. It's very cinematic. But it feels like a very good culmination of the gameplay out. It feels like, oh yeah, this is how you do a boss in an Uncharted game. And so I guess I'm just going to have to start playing these Uncharted games. But true or false, Uncharted 1 didn't age well.
Yeah, true. I mean, I still enjoy it. The aiming is really weird. I think that that's probably like the biggest thing. Isn't there like a big thing plot-wise though that's also like didn't age well? I don't... I'd have to watch a recap of the plot. It has been a long time. But I don't remember anything that was like... I don't remember anything that was like cancelable. Okay. No, no, not cancelable. Spoilers, I guess, for Uncharted 1. Or maybe this is Uncharted 2. I'm pretty sure it's 1 though because 2 is beloved.
Don't like zombies show up at a point? Oh, I wish you didn't know that. But yes. But I think that that's not it aging poorly. When I first played that, I was like, what the hell? This is such a realistic game. And now they're just throwing zombies. But now I look back on it. It was an awesome twist. You had no idea it was coming. And the whole game changes. It becomes not like a cover shooter. Suddenly it is like a run and gun, like run for your life. Because you don't expect there to be zombies. You don't expect it to be scary or to be like...
And all of a sudden that's what it is. And a lot of the Uncharted games have supernatural elements. It's like Indiana Jones. You know? There's like... It's almost like when I think back, like why didn't I expect there to be some supernatural thing? That's what it's based on. Indiana Jones always has some supernatural thing.
Your reaction, I wish you hadn't heard that. I can't think of too many other video games where I would have that kind of reaction. Like, oh, I wish you didn't know that. Yeah, that wasn't spoiled. It's funny. It doesn't happen that often anymore. Yeah. I get it with books and movies. I mean, you know, Harry Potter, there's still stuff that like... It's impossible to not know. But I wish people didn't know before they read the books. You know, there was a moment in God of War 2018 that I'm not going to discuss here. Because I wish you hadn't heard it. But like that, there is a moment in God of War 2018 where it's like, it's cool if you don't know that's coming. So I'll leave it at that. Yeah.
