Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Old-school"

Just wanted to write a fairly brief rebuttal to what I felt was an overly harsh review here at Gamespot. World Class Baseball is not the greatest game of all time, but a 4.0? C'mon. Taken in context as an 'unofficial', decades-old arcade-style baseball simulator for the Turbo-Grafx 16, World Class Baseball is a fun way to spend a little free time.

How can one criticize the game for lacking an in-depth Season Mode, or the ability to edit players? It's a glorified 8-bit game that's older than half the people that visit this Web site. A game with players named Pasta and Boots isn't aiming for any kind of realistic simulation. It's a pick-up-and-play title with simple controls and a bright, fun presentation style.

There are indeed some legitimate control problems (although expecting Hudson to fix them at this point in the game's life is overly optimistic, to say the least), and the game shamelessly overuses the 'moonshot' ball effect. Oh, and the music, while kind of catchy, does tend to wear on you after a while. But the game moves quickly and is easy to handle, so it fits perfectly in the Virtual Console line-up as an affordable little side game that provides a nice dose of baseball fun.

If you're looking for a nice, casual-friendly baseball game, World Class Baseball is easy to recommend. It's certainly more engaging than Baseball for Wii Sports, which becomes tiresome after taking about three swings with the Wiimote and the novelty effect wears off. And it blows the old NES Baseball game out of the water, although that's hardly a fair fight. I doubt the fate of World Class Baseball weighs on the minds of many, but somebody has to stick up for it.