''Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr.'' is a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by

Angel Studios Angel Studios is an American video streaming service, media company, and film distribution studio. The studio uses equity crowdfunding to finance its original productions by offering individual investors the opportunity to purchase shares in t ...

and published by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

for the Nintendo 64. The game is a follow-up to Nintendo's previous title featuring Griffey, ''

Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run ''Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run'' is a baseball video game developed by Rare for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System that is named after the baseball player Ken Griffey Jr. It is the follow-up to Nintendo's previous ''Ken Griffey Jr. Presents ...

''. It was released in 1998, and allows players to choose any contemporary

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

franchise and play through an

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

, a complete season, or a

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

. Players can also select up to four individuals from any team to compete in a Home Run Derby. The game also features all 30 MLB teams' stadiums. The game was seen as a faster, more arcade-like baseball game compared to its rivaling product, the more realistic baseball simulation ''

All-Star Baseball '99 ''All-Star Baseball 99'' is a video game developed by Iguana Entertainment and Realtime Associates Seattle Division and published by Acclaim Entertainment for the Game Boy and the Nintendo 64 in 1998. The game's cover features Colorado Rockies ...

''. Nintendo released a sequel the following year, called ''

Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest ''Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest'' is a baseball video game developed by Angel Studios and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in May 1999 only in North America. A Game Boy Color port developed by Software Creations was relea ...

''.

Gameplay

Batters and fielders abilities are measured with five different statistics: Batting, Power, Speed, Defense, and Arm. Pitchers abilities are measured with three different statistics: Speed, Stamina, and Control. Statistics are measured by a number 1-10, with 1 being the weakest and 10 being the best. Every pitcher in the game has four pitches. The first pitch, which is used by pressing the A button, is always a fastball. The second pitch, a breaking ball, is thrown by pressing the B button. Pitches thrown with the B button include

curveball In baseball and softball, the curveball is a type of pitch thrown with a characteristic grip and hand movement that imparts forward spin to the ball, causing it to dive as it approaches the plate. Varieties of curveball include the 12–6 curve ...

s, sliders, and

screwball A screwball is a baseball and fastpitch softball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball. Depending on the pitcher's arm angle, the ball may also have a sinking action. The pitch is sometimes known a ...

s. The third pitch is the changeup, and is used by pressing the Z button and the A button simultaneously. The fourth and final pitch is the "special." Special pitches include the super fastball, super changeup, splitter, cut fastball, and knuckleball. The special pitch is used by pressing the Z and B buttons at the same time. Batters use the analog stick to move a batting circle to where the pitch is shown to go before it reaches the plate. The batter then presses A to swing. If the batting circle is placed where the ball is thrown, and the swing is on time to when the pitch goes over the plate, the ball will be hit. This feature can be turned off by changing the batting style to classic in the Options menu. Baserunning on offense and throwing to bases on defense is controlled by the C buttons. The button pressed corresponds to the base (e.g. the right C button is pressed to go to 1st base, up to go to 2nd base, etc.). The game accounts for injuries and real time fatigue, seen most clearly through pitchers. This is especially true if the pitcher uses their "special" pitch too often.

Development

The game was originally due for release in the third quarter of 1997, but was pushed back to 1998. The music was composed by Steve Adorno of the groups GQ, Devoshun, Seguida ny Latin Rock. On it he played drums, keys, guitar, and funk bass.

Reception

The game received favorable reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr 1998 video games Ken Griffey Jr. video games Nintendo 64 games Nintendo 64-only games Major League Baseball video games Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring black protagonists

Gameplay

Development

Reception

See also

References

External links