Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)World Series Baseball starring Deion Sanders is truly one of the only games worth playing on the 32X. The fact that it "stars" Neon Deion really has no impact on the game...he is merely an average player in the game with great speed.
Graphics: Solid for a game that was released in 1995. The pitcher/batter interface boasted excellent background views of each stadium. When the ball was in play the stadiums were, for the most part, faithfully rendered as well. While the pitcher/batter interface provided detailed animation, graphics with the ball in play were average at best.
Sound: Definitely a weak spot for the game. Little music is present, and the crowd noises were muffled. It was best to play this with the sound off, as the constant chatter of the crowd between pitches was like the sound of locusts buzzing around my head. WSB did provide with some nice announcer effects, such as, "Now batting, the right fielder." Were you expecting all player names to be present? Not in 1995.
Gameplay: Nothing stands out as incredibly good or bad....simply solid. It was best to have the computer assisted fielding turned on to help eliminate the majority of fielding gaffes. This was one of the first games to allow a player to control the difficulty of hitting by way of differing swing mechanics at advanced levels. At its easiest, a player either pressed one button for a normal swing or another button for a power swing. The most difficult setting required a player to aim where the pitch would cross the plate, similar to what current gen baseball games provide. This was definitely an innovation at the time. However, for simplicity sake I most often played with the simple one button swing.
Features: WSB was ahead of its time in allowing a Fantasy Draft when playing full season mode. This added an element of strategy when building a team that was unrivaled until the advent of GM modes with free agency & amateur drafts. Unfortunately it was too easy to draft a team filled with major power hitters, thus making wins virtually assured. WSB allowed a full 162 game season to be played, and it was helpful that a player could simulate to any point in the season. My preference was to play 1 out of every 3 or 4 games to speed the season along. Full stat tracking was provided, and the player statistics page was presented in a user friendly view. Viewing player statistics was similar to looking at a player's baseball card, with most relevant stats easily visible. Also included was an easy home run derby mode, but that was unremarkable and tedious.
World Series Baseball suffered from one serious bug. If a runner was advancing to the plate when a fly ball was caught for the 3rd out in an inning, the AI counted the run. While I typically won most games by 5 or more runs, this bug could affect the outcome of a rare nail biting contest.
Overall World Series Baseball was one of the best titles released on the notorious 32X. Too bad it suffered the same fate as the majority of 32X games: ports from the Genesis with slightly improved graphics & little reason to purchase the 32X add on for $150 when it was first released.
It is ironic that WSB "starred" Deion Sanders, because this game was the complete opposite of Deion....nothing flashy. Any person who misses the likes of Wade Boggs, Kirby Puckett & Cal Ripken can relive their favorite players' time in the majors by picking up this game. A solid 4 star game.
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