Baseball Stars 2

The Baseball Stars series actually got its start outside of the arcade and at home on the NES. Praised for its deep team customization options outside of the action, the NES Baseball Stars is lauded as one of the best if not the best baseball game on Nintendo's 8-bit hardware. When ready to release its Neo-Geo to the world in 1990, SNK decided to bring the Baseball Stars experience to the arcade in the form of Baseball Stars Professional. While the team management and other time-consuming mechanics were watered down for the arcade release of Professional, this more action oriented game plays great and garnered good sales and critical reception upon release. Riding on the success of Professional, SNK released Baseball Stars 2 in mid 1992 to rave reviews and healthy sales. While not much bigger in cartridge size than the first Neo-Geo outing, Baseball Stars 2 ups the ante with better graphics, sound, and play-ability. 

Disclaimer: I'm not a sports fan or a baseball fan. So, while I know the basic mechanics of baseball, this review is coming from somebody who does not have much experience with baseball or other sports simulation games. 

Baseball Stars 2 has a little more meat on its bones than its predecessor, but being an arcade game the customization and team management options still leave much to be desired. As an arcade game, though, one should expect to be able to jump into something exciting and begin playing immediately rather than managing various stats in drab menus. 

Upon pressing start, players can choose from a variety of fictional teams that hail from various countries around the world. Each team has various batting, pitching, and outfield stats to pay attention to that affect the moment to moment gameplay. Baseball Stars 2 is an arcade baseball game, so the nuance in these stats will feel like fluff to all but the most ardent arcade sports fan that is willing to put dozens of hours into the game to understand the nuances of the frame timing and other under-the-hood mechanics that make the game work.

The general gameplay feel is a bit tighter than its predecessor. The different ways you can control a ball upon pitch, and the movement and speed of your team in the outfield doesn't feel unfair - just make sure not to press the control stick until you see the outfield character come on screen, lest you go running in an opposite direction from the ball you're trying to catch. The Batting mechanics overall are quite good as well, but it will take a bit to get the timing down. At first you will land numerous foul shots, which can be frustrating, but once you find that sweet spot everything flows as it should.

A neat feature you can take advantage of when you're up at bat is a menu of additional options you can access by pressing the D button. This menu allows you bring in a different batter or add a buff to your current player, like a power-up that generally guarantees a home run hit. When you're on the pitching mound, you can also bring up your menu to change pitchers. Each member on a team has unique stats you can view on the fly, and there are some wild variances in pitch/batting speed and power. You'll quickly discover that the pitcher the game chooses for you isn't necessarily the best pitcher on your team, so mess around a bit and find the best team member for your pitching style. 

Speaking of pitching, you have amazing control over the trajectory of the ball. Pressing the controller slightly before you throw will curve the ball in the direction you are holding. But even after the ball has left your hand, you can nudge trajectory of it before it reaches the batter. It's all very satisfying and leads to some great moments when playing with a friend. 

I'm not much of a sports game fan myself, but I had the chance recently to revisit this game with a good buddy who plays sports games almost exclusively and he really enjoyed it! He said, "I love a good baseball arcade game because it gives you all the fun parts of baseball and strips out the boring stuff." We played a full game, which ended up being almost 10 innings when he finally managed that one point lead to win the game. It was a super good time, and even though I already liked this game quite a bit for what it is, being able to dig in with a friend is the optimal way to play it. 

Baseball Stars 2, like any good arcade sports titles, needed to have big, colorful graphics to grab people's attention and entice them to put money into the machine. The attractive title screen, detailed sprite work, and bright colors across the game really help sell the experience and captures the "big-top" feel of a real baseball game. The player sprites are large and detailed, but given the limited amount of memory on the rom compared to later Neo-Geo releases there are only about 3 or 4 player sprites the game recycles per team with the only defining feature being the pallet swaps for team colors and skin tone. It doesn't kill the experience, but it does get a little repetitive after a while.

Like most Neo-Geo games, sound is a strong suit with plenty of chatter from the announcer and great sound effects. The crack of the bat, crowd noise, and other effects really make the game pop and keep you interested. Music, as you would imagine, is at a minimum, but it is serviceable for what it's worth. My only gripe with the sound design is the over-used "Ba-ba-baseball Stars 2!" that plays over and over again in the background during a game. 

Baseball Stars 2 is a great arcade sports title that you can pick up and play easily with little knowledge of the actual sport. While it will take inexperienced players a while to get used to the batting mechanics, what's here is otherwise a fun pick-up for single or competitive play. 

If you're hoping for the AES release, be prepared to pay as it continues to rise in value in the modern market. A complete Japanese copy can be had for as little as $300 in some private sales, but be prepared to pay $400 or more in the 2022 market. The US copy (which is a sought after "dog-tag" release) can be had for around $600 or so. The game isn't the cheapest on MVS either, but is still much less than the AES version at around $150. You can pick up the Neo CD version for under $70 if you go import. There were no home ports in the 90's, but you can find Baseball Stars 2 on the Arcade Archives series for $8 on modern platforms for easy accessibility

There are better, more important games to get for your AES at this price point, but this is still a solid purchase - especially if you like Baseball games. If you already have Professional, Baseball Stars 2 will feel a little redundant if you're only going after games you'd like to play. If you don't already have Professional, Baseball Stars 2 is the better game and I recommend saving your money for this release if you only plan on adding one baseball game to your Neo-Geo library.