Baseball Stars II (U)
SNK, DotEmu (Steam, Humble Bundle), D4 Enterprise (Wii Virtual Console), M2 (PS Network), Hamster Corporation (PS4, Xbox One, Ni
Baseball Stars 2 is a 2-player baseball arcade game released by SNK in 1992 for the Neo Geo console. A less cartoony console version was released for the NES by Romstar the same year. The Neo Geo version was re-released as part of SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1.
Changes made from the original Baseball Stars, released by SNK in 1989, include:
- Ability for the player to assign situational defensive shifts while in-game
- Improved pitch control.
- Easier bunting controls. (Hold Down+A to bunt activate standard bunt. This can be directed left or right as well.)
- Ability to see the players on the base paths while in pitcher/batter view, rather than an icon representation overlay as in the original.
- 6 pitchers and 4 bench players instead of 5 each.
- New music and home run animations. These include the "Power connect" graphic for a two-run home run, an animated graphic of the batter rounding the bases and pumping his fist for a 3-run home run or grand slam, and a similar (yet very rare) graphic including a West Highland terrier following the batter for a come-from-behind (usually game-ending) home run in a dramatic situation.
Teams include:
- Tempe Matadors
- Texas Towers
- Los Angeles Superstars
- Chicago Fireballs
- Oakland Knights
- Toronto Captains (a suspiciously similar logo was used by Chinese Taipei in the 2006 World Baseball Classic)
- Houston Eagles
- San Diego Samurai
- Boston Apaches
- Denver Dragons
- Nebraska Jets
- Miami Pirates
User-created teams include:
- Milwaukee Rockets
- Memphis Bluesox
- New York Comets
- Torrance Tigers
- Detroit Arrows
- Vancouver Cobras
Players could still create leagues of up to 125 games (6 teams playing each other 25 times) and view statistics such as League Standings, Average, Home Runs, Runs Batted In, Earned Run Average, Wins and Saves. Players could still fire players and upgrade them using the same 15-point system introduced in the original Baseball Stars. Players could also trade players among user-created teams. The game also contained a glitch that would keep the last pitcher listed on a team's roster from appearing in any of the league standings.
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