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Funkmaster V Reviews
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7800 Rank: Unranked
Genre: Sports (Baseball)
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The Legendary Duel: The Mummy vs. Pillsbury Dough Boy |
Pros:
Good control over pitches
Cons:
Heinous Fielding Controls, Missing Baseball Elements |
Just Like Field of Dreams, Every Player Wears White |
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Overview: Without a doubt, the best feature about Pete Rose Baseball is that with a special cheat code activated, you can bet on your games, just like ole Charlie Hustle used to. Just kidding! There's no best feature in this game. Now that I have that lame attempt at levity out of the way, let's dive deeper into this less than mediocre baseball title from Absolute.
Graphics: Compared to Realsports Baseball, this title is beautiful. Compared to anything else, Pete Rose Baseball has many visual hiccups. The main area of concern is the fact that both teams are wearing the same uniform. It appears that the visitors screwed up and brought their tidy whities. Speaking of the whites, not only does this title exclude our brothers of different colors, the players do not even look Caucasian... they are stark white: like an artist's abstract rendering of what a human would look like if you've never seen one. By the way, these sporting nightmares have no faces. Horrifying. Though the character models leave something to be desired, the field is actually looks pretty good. A nice scoreboard, batting decks, and even a forged autographed baseball on the title screen are all things to marvel at. Simply adding team colors would have helped this game's first impression tremendously. Otherwise it is just weird.
Sound: While the crowd noise is loads better in this game than in Realsports Baseball, PRB does little well in the audio department. In fact, the hokey organ music is more annoying in this game. At one at bat I had, the "Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Charge!!!" music played before each of the nine pitches thrown. Since this was an important at bat during that game, the music did nothing but grate my nerves, and I personally blame it for my pop up fly. Shame on you Mr. organ-grinder...Shame on YOU. I'm filing a complaint with the commisioner.
Gameplay: You can easily be fooled into thinking this is a good game for maybe an inning or two. Every enjoyable aspect about PRB is overshadowed by the worst fielding controls of all time. When a ball is struck, the camera focuses on one side of the field or the other, exposing only four infielders. As the defender, you must hit the left button and point towards the player you want to control. It is quite annoying to see a ball shooting between the 2nd baseman and the 1st baseman and you have to push "up" to take control of the 2nd baseman. Then, you must rush him over to the right. This alone hurts the gameplay, but throw in the fact that each fielder has unmarked "zones" they are limited to, and your fun day at the park is in serious jeopardy. Yes. It is quite possible (and probable) for a ball to stop in between the pitcher and the 2nd baseman and they cannot reach it because they are stuck in their individual  "zones". When you have to take the 1st baseman and run him all the way to 2nd, snag the ball, shoot the 2nd baseman an evil glance, and then run him back to first to stop the play, you know you are in for it. Luckily for us, the ball and base runners move in slow motion. Not all aspects about this game are bad, however. You have a nice array of pitches to throw, and you have complete control (like a wizard) over the pitch in the air after it is thrown. You'll probably have to snag an online manual to figure out what picthes are what... oh, and btw, you need a two button joystick to have access to all of the pitches, too. Batting options are more limited, and playing outfield is flawed, but not as terrible as the infield defense. The ebb and flow feels more like a baseball game than the Realsports' title, but games have a tendency to feel like home run derbies. In my first game against the computer we collectively hit 7 home runs. Yes, that's exciting, but these guys lugging around the bags move as graceful as bumbling, overweight cafeteria patrons... scrambling off of their seats as the cook yells, "More Peach Cobbler."
Interpretation: Like most classic baseball video games, there are several omissions from the original sport that tend to annoy, but not destroy the experience. Here it is impossible to steal bases, there are no stats, no replacement pitchers, no steroid scandal, no bunting, no lefties, no leagues, no gambling on games (The Pete Rose Special), no beanballs, no spit, no shortstops(!), and no season play. Probably the oddest baseball omission is the fact that you CANNOT make a double play that begins with a fly out. Regardless, the game still feels like a baseball game... sort of... unlike Realsports or the NES version of Baseball.
Value: Though the game is overall more fun to play than its 7800 cousin Realsports Baseball, RS may have the leg up in the value department on Pete Rose because of two factors: First, the computer team offers little challenge. Your only real threat of losing is by the computer team getting hot and hitting 7 home runs themselves. Second, at least Realsports Baseball features the classic Atari sports rivalry: red team vs blue team. Here we have white vs. white. Hitler's dream makes for boring baseball games.
Overall: It is true, sports game age poorly. Sadly, it is the same with Pete Rose Baseball. You can overlook the infielding control flaws and enjoy a mildly fun baseball title if you want to... but chances are you won't want to. This game could have been the best sports title on the system, but the gameplay mars what could have been. I can only recommend this to die hard classic baseball game enthusiasts and Pete Rose fans in between Gambler's Anonymous meetings.
Other Reviews:
The Atari Times: 9 out of 10
Atari Gaming Headquarters: 5 out of 10
CV's Atari 7800 Panoramic Froo-Froo: 2.5 out of 5.0 (Weak)
Video Game Critic: C
Tomorrow's Heroes: D-
Additional Info: I would like to take this time to thank Trebor for allowing the use of his screenshots for this review.
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