''MLBPA Baseball'', known in Japan as , is a baseball video game for the

Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania a ...

Mega Drive/Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

, and

Game Gear The is an 8-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth-generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990 in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and in 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear primarily ...

Summary

The game included the 1993 season's major league players and stats thanks to its

MLBPA The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) is the labor union representing all current Major League Baseball (MLB) and Minor League Baseball (MiLB) players. All players, managers, coaches, and athletic trainers who hold or have held a ...

license, but could not use team names for lack of an MLB license. The game got around this by using the city names of each team with matching colors, and using terms "

A League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

", " N League", and " The Series". Notably, MLB teams representing a state are referred to by a city in that state instead, for instance, the

Florida Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. The team plays its home games at LoanDepot Park. The ...

are referred to as

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

in the game. (Coincidentally, the team would later rename themselves the Miami Marlins in 2012.) Players are allowed to play a single game (with the default teams being

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, the 1993 league champs), a full season based on the 1994 schedule (with wins and losses recorded by password in the SNES version, battery back-up for Genesis), playoffs, and a

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

. Though the full season mode is based on the 1994 schedule, it does not include the new (and current) three divisions/wild card format introduced for the 1994 season; instead it uses the old two division (per league) format. Couched in what the packaging billed as "huge arcade style graphics," games could be played on either natural or artificial grass (depending on the home team) during day or night. The game also featured scoreboard animations for double and triple plays, home runs, grand slams, pitching changes, pinch hitters, and sometimes strike outs. The SNES version is the first ever baseball video game to include the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

' distinctive Tomahawk Chop theme song, which is advertised on the back of the game box. The game's cover features Brent Gates of the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...

and

Billy Hatcher William Augustus Hatcher (born October 4, 1960) is an American former professional baseball outfielder and first base coach. He played for the Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phil ...

of the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

. The Japanese version of ''Fighting Baseball'' did not have the MLBPA license and used modified player names and statistics.

Reception

On release, ''

Famicom Tsūshin , formerly , is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the form of special to ...

'' scored the Super Famicom version of the game a 20 out of 40. ''

GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...

'' praised the easy controls, digitized voices, and the ability to control the ball after it leaves the pitcher's hand, but criticized the lack of real teams and the so-so graphics. They summarized it as an enjoyable game that falls short of ranking among the best in the genre. The Japanese version of Fighting Baseball, which did not have the MLBPA license, achieved fame on the Internet in 2017 when the programmer-created rosters went viral. The game's players include examples of

Engrish ''Engrish'' is a slang term for the inaccurate, poorly translated, nonsensical or ungrammatical use of the English language by native speakers of other languages. The word itself relates to Japanese speakers learning r and l, Japanese speaker ...

and included names such as 'Sleve McDichael' and 'Bobson Dugnutt’, many of which are based on combining actual

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

and

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

player names.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mlbpa Baseball 1994 video games Coconuts Japan games Game Gear games High Score Productions games Major League Baseball video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Sega Genesis games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Brian L. Schmidt Video games set in 1993 Visual Concepts games