Together Retro Game Club: World Series Baseball ’95
Presented by retrosportsgamer and racketboy
New To Together Retro? Check out the introduction to the club
Since Together Retro’s inception back in March of 2008, there have been two sports titles spotlighted with the gaming club. Punch-Out!! and NBA Jam were golden choices as games that originated in the arcades before making their way to a home console. Both had sequels or re-releases in subsequent gaming generations – most recently with a Wii release for Punch-Out!! (can’t leave off the two exclamation points) and a fantastic updated NBA Jam that came out across platforms a year or so ago. The crux of both of these classics is how they appealed to non-sports gamers. Punch-Out!! had cartoony opponents and repetitive patterns to master – not to mention Mike Tyson in its first home iteration.  NBA Jam had big heads, easy controls to pick up and was flat-out multiplayer fun. These were easy choices for a retro gaming club.
In September, we are excitedly back with the sports genre and taking a look at a real sports gamers’ game in Sega’s classic World Series Baseball ’95. Sega’s World Series Baseball franchise kicked off on the Sega Genesis and Game Gear in 1994 and went head to head with Tony La Russa Baseball (and to a lesser extent – Tengen’s RBI Baseball series) on the Genesis. World Series was revolutionary with its new batting camera angle and had great control and feel. As with most entries, it was the follow-up that really hit the ball out of the park (baseball pun intended).
History
To digress for a moment, on top of these great 16-bit baseball titles (Triple Play ’96 is held in high regard also), the mid-90s were the golden era for 2D sports games and a time of huge progress throughout sports gaming in general. You had Madden ’95 removing the passing windows and finally having the NFLPA’s license to have real names (just numbers before). NHL ’94 is arguably the best hockey game ever (and NHL ’95 incorporated the first hockey season mode ever), making huge leaps from ’93 and is still played in online leagues today. NBA Live ’95 had the most significant jump from its predecessor, NBA Showdown ‘94, and changed basketball games forever with its camera angle and gameplay. Tack on your Bill Walsh College Football titles, Coach K College Basketball (it used the NBA Live engine and is still the best college hoops game ever) and the introduction of FIFA Soccer and it was a great time to be a sports gamer.
World Series Baseball ’95 set the standard in 2D baseball games and is fun and enjoyable to play still today. In 2001, a college roommate and I played an abbreviated baseball season with different custom teams. We had a team draft against the CPU (who ran all the other teams) and then played through until we met in the World Series. Was this game Triple Play 2000 or something next-gen on the Playstation or Nintendo 64? Nope, it was a Sega Genesis game that was six years old! In 1995, pre-internet roster updates or downloadable content, we had a baseball cart that could handle this kind of league setup – on top of a ton of other features.
World Series Baseball ’95’s Features
The cart for the Genesis was ramped up to 24 meg to allow for more saving and the graphics built upon the original with full stadium details and was the pinnacle of pixel baseball graphics (the animations of diving for balls was unsurpassed). You had tons of modes – multiple season length options, playoffs, a home run derby and a classic home run derby (where you play three outs in each half an inning and continue to switch sides). On top of this you could play as AL/NL and MLB Legends teams also. This was really big for the mid-90s. The game also boasted (literally, on the back of the box) 6-button support but it was limited to specific sliding techniques (hook slide, etc; interesting but not significant) and also an additional celebration during a home run trot.
While the game is easy to pick up and play, there are a lot of strategic options that set the game apart from more arcade-like fast-paced baseball games. Between each batter the game goes to the pause screen to show the next batter’s splits and gives the player the option to adjust fielders or address the bullpen or lineup. This can slow the game down a bit, but the extra step of hitting the “c†button to resume isn’t too daunting. The process of selecting a pitch or getting ready to swing, however, is very deliberate. Before each pitch, you select the pitch type and then the pitch speed (slow/medium/fast) before fiddling with the location. Very similarly, when hitting you are selecting contact/normal/power before each pitch (strategizing depending on the hitter and count).  Needless to say, today’s games have these options streamlined a lot more efficiently.
Let’s talk about the difficulty and game AI. The pitch speed and batting level options can make this game very challenging. Pitch speed affected both teams (in case you wonder when you first start a game and Curt Schilling is only throwing 86mph) and everything was faster as you increased the setting. Increases in batting level meant aiming the outline of a bat as the pitch as it came in. This was difficult enough on the veteran setting (slightly larger bat outline) – the all-star level of batting was off the charts hard with how small the bat and contact area was. For the most fun, we would crank the pitch speed up to all-star but kept batting on rookie (just left/right/up/down and swing). It led to a number of home runs, but the fun factor was there. Speaking of difficulty, the AI in this game has a batting eye that would make Barry Bonds blush. While your friends will chase sliders and splitters slightly out of the zone, the CPU is a stone cold killer when it comes to laying off pitches. Unless it’s in the strike zone, they aren’t swinging. It takes a good amount of switching up pitches and location to get a strikeout, but it’s satisfying when you pull it off.
Overall, with a bevy of game modes, detailed stadiums and great game play, World Series Baseball ’95 stands on its own as one of the best Genesis games ever. I’ve heard the same about the Game Gear version – but admittedly do not own the ’95 release. Also in 1995, Sega released World Series Baseball starring Deion Sanders for the 32X (contrary to Gamefaqs and others – there is no ’95 in the title) and the first incarnation of World Series Baseball for the Saturn. While the series would go on for several years on both the Genesis and Saturn (and then to the Dreamcast), the 16-bit goodness of the ’95 version could not be duplicated in the blocky offerings of the next generation’s attempts at 3D models and a TV presentation-style emphasis. I’ll take the monotone stadium announcer (“Next up….number…33â€) and the oddly toned shriek of “It’s a long drive….this one leaves the yard!†any day.
Legacy
Like many sports games, we’ve seen numerous installments for each season of the sport. The style of the World Series Baseball franchise quickly evolved as the console world transitioned into 3D graphics. The franchise eventually evolved into the Word Series Baseball2K series during it’s stint on the Sega Dreamcast, which turned into the “Major League Baseball 2K” series on the current plaforms and is published by 2K Sports as opposed to Sega.
Controls
- D-Pad = aim pitch/move batter
- Buttons = vary per type of pitch, follow the on screen directions.
Recommended Ports
Unfortunately, for the sake of the game club, sports games typically keep us limited to a particular game generation. Lucklily, Sega supported its sports games well, so it is availible not only on the Genesis/Megadrive, but also saw a port on the Game Gear.  And while technically, the game has a slightly different title, you could also play “World Series Baseball Starring Deion Sanders” on the 32X.  So, the Genesis is the most practical and ideal version to play, but we won’t keep you away from the others.
Together Retro Discussion
Instead of posting in the comments section of the blog, we will be using the forum for all of our discussion in order to keep things more organized. So play World Series Baseball ’95 and talk to us about your thoughts and play experiences in the forums. We want to know your favorite parts, your successes and your failures.
Discuss The Game In The Forum
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The Sega Saturn game “World Series Baseball” came out in the same year, and I would consider it a port as well. In some ways, it is the superior port.
It’s been a long time since I played the Saturn WSB games, but IIRC it has a very different feel to it.