Title: Super Ultra Baseball (JP)/ Super Baseball Simulator 1,000 (NA)
Release Date: 7/12/91
Developer: Culture Brain
Publisher: Culture Brain
It's another baseball game. This was my first big case of "phoning it in" for the blog, and one I hope to rectify with this update.
Background
Gameplay
Now this game is, for the most part, a standard baseball game. There are three "leagues" you can play in: the Atlantic League, the Northern League, and the Ultra League. If you play in the first two leagues, the game is a standard baseball simulator (one functions as a minor league, the other as a major league). It is when you decide to play in the Ultra League that this game gets very interesting.
In the Ultra League, I am guessing that the players have had access to either Compound-V or some sort of Wizarding School, because both the pitcher and the batter is able to perform a myriad of superpowers or magic. For example, the batter can choose to hit the ball so hard that they can drive the fielders into the back wall, or can change the properties of the ball midflight after they hit it (in one case it turns into a leaf and floats slowly down to earth). The pitcher, as seen below, can multiply himself and throw "shadow balls" to confuse the batter. They can also perform a "lightning" pitch which sends the ball over the plate at ludicrous speeds and can only be hit with a frame perfect slug. It is really surreal, and it makes multiplayer for this game really quite fun. Other than that, it is still a baseball sim, and a rather mediocre one at that.
Music?
Ads and Commercials
Not any print ads that I can find, nor for the SNES version, but here is a commercial for the NES version!
Background
Culture Brain was the developer that would also make the mediocre but curious Super Chinese and Super Ninja Boy series. Not a sparkling pedigree but they did make the excellent standalone NES game Magic of Scheherazade. They had a reputation for playing with genre concepts and being pretty experimental in their games (if you have ever played Super Ninja Boy, the beat-em-up/RPG then you know this to be true). I never thought that this could be extended to a baseball sim, but Culture Brain managed to do that too.
This game is actually the SNES port (or update would really be more accurate) of the NES game Baseball Simulator 1000. It has some (barely) updated graphics and a new sound chip with compressed voices that scream what barely sounds like "play ball!" at you.
Now this game is, for the most part, a standard baseball game. There are three "leagues" you can play in: the Atlantic League, the Northern League, and the Ultra League. If you play in the first two leagues, the game is a standard baseball simulator (one functions as a minor league, the other as a major league). It is when you decide to play in the Ultra League that this game gets very interesting.
In the Ultra League, I am guessing that the players have had access to either Compound-V or some sort of Wizarding School, because both the pitcher and the batter is able to perform a myriad of superpowers or magic. For example, the batter can choose to hit the ball so hard that they can drive the fielders into the back wall, or can change the properties of the ball midflight after they hit it (in one case it turns into a leaf and floats slowly down to earth). The pitcher, as seen below, can multiply himself and throw "shadow balls" to confuse the batter. They can also perform a "lightning" pitch which sends the ball over the plate at ludicrous speeds and can only be hit with a frame perfect slug. It is really surreal, and it makes multiplayer for this game really quite fun. Other than that, it is still a baseball sim, and a rather mediocre one at that.
Music?
Ads and Commercials
Not any print ads that I can find, nor for the SNES version, but here is a commercial for the NES version!
Final Verdict
This game is a neat diversion, but it definitely feels like it has its solid foot into the NES side of the SNES. Its music is still very tinny, and the visuals feel aged even for a game of this early an SNES vintage. I would say that this is better than Nolan Ryan's Baseball, but is still no where near as good as Super Bases Loaded.
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