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Baseball Stars 2 | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | |
Publisher(s) | SNK
|
Producer(s) | Eikichi Kawasaki |
Designer(s) | Masami Tokusue |
Composer(s) | Kazuhiro Nishida Masahiko Hataya |
Series | Baseball Stars |
Platform(s) | |
Release | 1992
|
Genre(s) | Sports |
Mode(s) | |
Arcade system | Neo Geo MVS |
Baseball Stars 2 [a] is a 2-player baseball sports arcade game released by SNK in 1992 for the Neo-Geo console. [2] A less detailed console version was released for the NES by Romstar the same year.
The player can select from one of 18 teams across two leagues: Exciting League (beginner) & Fighting League (expert).
It featured 18 teams across 2 leagues (Exciting League and Fighting League) and put more emphasis on the graphics and the gameplay; for example, being able to change pitchers or batters and powering up batters which increased the size of the bat. [3]
Baseball Stars 2 for the Nintendo Entertainment System was distributed by Romstar in 1992.
Changes made from the original Baseball Stars , released by SNK in 1989:
Players can still create leagues of up to 125 games (6 teams playing each other 25 times) and view statistics such as League Standings and Top 10 in Average, Home Runs, Runs Batted In, Earned Run Average, Wins and Saves (a peculiar glitch occurs when viewing league leaders; the last pitcher listed on any user-created team in "View Team" does not appear in any of the Top 10 leaderboards).
Publication | Score |
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GameFan | 196 / 200 [4] |
Player One [ fr ] | 92% [5] |
RePlay reported Baseball Stars 2 to be the sixteenth most-popular arcade game at the time. [6] In Japan, Game Machine listed Baseball Stars 2 on their June 1, 1992 issue as being the eighth most-successful table arcade unit of the month. [7]
The Neo Geo version was critically acclaimed. The first issue of GameFan reviewed the Neo Geo version, with its two reviewers scoring it 99% and 97%; the former said it "is far and away the best sports game I have ever played" and the latter said the "graphics are incredibly well detailed" and "the gameplay is unparalleled". They concluded that it "has the best graphics, sound, and game play this side of ESPN". [4]
The NES version was less popular than the original Baseball Stars was on the NES. Reasons for this included the inability to change the name of a gamer-created team or names of the players on a gamer-created team, and unimproved graphics over the original. A Nintendo Power review wrote that "Baseball Stars 2 is such a complete rehash that if you already own the original, it is not worth your money to get this game".
The game was included in the SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 compilation by SNK Playmore for PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii, released on 2008.
The Neo Geo version was re-released for Wii by D4 Enterprise via the Virtual Console in Japan on October 30, 2007, [8] in PAL regions on November 30, [9] and in North America on December 10. [10]
SNK Playmore released ports for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable developed by M2 on August 25, 2011, on PlayStation Network via NEOGEO Station in Japan and North America on July 19, [11] and in PAL regions on August 24. [12]
A port for Linux, OS X, and Windows developed by DotEmu was released by SNK Playmore as part of the Humble NEOGEO 25th Anniversary Bundle on December 8, 2015. [13] It was released on Steam on April 27, 2016, and on GOG.com on May 30, 2017. [14]
Hamster Corporation re-released the game as part of their ACA Neo Geo series for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 21, 2019.
The Neo Geo, stylized as NEO•GEO and also written as NEOGEO, is a ROM cartridge-based video gaming system released on April 26, 1990, by Japanese game company SNK Corporation. Designed as both an arcade system board and home video game console, the Neo Geo was marketed as the first 24-bit system; its CPU is actually a 16/32-bit 68000 with an 8-bit Z80 coprocessor, while its GPU chipset has a 24-bit graphics data bus. It was a very powerful system when released, more powerful than any video game console at the time, and many arcade systems such as rival Capcom's CPS, which did not surpass it until the CP System II in 1993. Neo Geo hardware production lasted seven years; it was succeeded by Hyper Neo Geo 64.
SNK Corporation is a Japanese video gaming and interactive entertainment company. It was founded in 1978 as Shin Nihon Kikaku by Eikichi Kawasaki and began by developing coin-op games. SNK is known for its Neo Geo arcade system on which the company produced many in-house games and now-classic franchises during the 1990s, including Aggressors of Dark Kombat, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, King of the Monsters, Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown, The King of Fighters, The Last Blade, Twinkle Star Sprites, and World Heroes; they continue to develop and publish new titles in some of these franchises on contemporary arcade and home platforms. Since the 2000s, SNK have diversified from their traditional arcade focus into pachislot machines, mobile game development and more recently character licensing.
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Gururin is a puzzle arcade video game developed by Face, with the assistance of Minato Giken, and originally published by SNK on May 25, 1994. It was the first game to be created by Face for the Neo Geo platform and it was not released on the Neo Geo AES (home).
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