Collection essentials #94: R.B.I. Baseball (NES)

Nintendo had made their own baseball game at the start of the NES’s lifespan simply called “Baseball”, but it wasn’t very good and didn’t catch on. Enter esteemed developer Namco, who made a game called Pro Baseball: Family Stadium with real Japanese players, and greatly improved on the gameplay of previous baseball games. It was an enormous hit, so much so that not only did scores of other develops start copying Family Stadium’s gameplay style, but the series itself would go on to see yearly installments with, at the very least, roster updates to reflect currently-active pros, something that would become common across the sports video game landscape in the coming decade.

R.B.I. Baseball is the American release of Pro Baseball: Family Stadium, sort of. It’s pretty much the same, except the teams and players are different. R.B.I. Baseball swapped out the Japanese players, and it became the first video game to actually get the MLBPA License and feature real major league players. The players are programmed to perform differently based on their real-life stats, so for example speed demon Vince Coleman gets across the bases very quickly, and you’re more likely to hit a home run with slugger Mike Schmidt. So that’s why you could argue this isn’t truly the same game as Family Stadium, because the player attributes are different, they don’t simply have different names. The game did NOT get the license to use MLB team names or logos, so the teams are represented by the abbreviation of their city, so it’s not hard to figure out who’s who. Unfortunately not every major league team is represented; there are 10 teams total, including the eight different teams that made the playoffs in 1986 and 1987, plus N.L. and A.L. all-star teams consisting of players who weren’t on those playoff teams. Because of this limited selection, this has to be one of the only (if not THE only) game with an MLB and/or MLBPA license that does not have the Yankees since they did not make the playoffs in those two seasons! (The NY team in this game is the Mets)

R.B.I. Baseball was one of the first NES games I owned as a young teengar, again, thanks to my mom’s yard sale acquisitions. Over the years it was always a good time taking it for a spin once in a while. I think my favorite memory was when I played it on New Year’s Day of 2010. I started the game by loading the bases, and then I hit a grand slam with Jim Rice! I thought, “What a way to start a new decade!” I’ve also at times enjoyed firing it up to play with a friend, and I usually like to play as St. Louis and drive people crazy stealing bases, heehee.

Better baseball games were to come on the NES, but that doesn’t mean the original isn’t still fun to play. Due to its significance and having some nostalgia value, this one’s an essential.