Super Baseball 2020

Great, we're just starting out and already we have an enormous problem with false advertising.

I just finished watching baseball almost four years after 2020 and what I saw was absolutely not what was promised in Super Baseball 2020. First and foremost, there were absolutely no robots or androids. You certainly didn't have to hit balls to dead center for home runs and there was a lot more foul territory. It was pretty much the same old baseball that I always remember, though I guess if I found out Aaron Judge is actually a terminator I wouldn't be surprised. Remember how futuristic 2020 felt in the 90's? As 2000 drew ever closer, sci-fi media started realizing they had to push their futures farther. You would have thought they would have just said 2100, it's very unlikely any of us are going to be around then. But a lot of games that would have had "2000" in the title started doing "2010" or "2020" as if it was so far in the future. I mean, we had to know there weren't going to be that many changes to the game of baseball in 30 years, just call it Super Baseball 2200.  In all seriousness though, sports titles with futuristic themes have always been interesting to me and it's honestly a motif I would like to see more. I don't mean completely out there, future sport-esque stuff, I mean variations on actual sports we have. In other words, games like Super Baseball 2020.

Originally a Neo Geo arcade game, Super Baseball 2020 was ported to both the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. It was kind of a strange case, the Genesis port was done by EA while the SNES port was handled by Tradewest. Even though they were ported by different companies, both versions seem to be largely the same. Neither version is all that different from the arcade game, though obviously the graphics and animation are largely inferior. All of the versions look really good, I think it really nails the look of futuristic baseball. The player models are very detailed and the field looks nice as well. Even the stadium itself looks solid, a lot better than they do in most sports games of the era. The sound is also solid, not anything to write home about but some decent background noise for a futuristic sports games. Really, the presentation overall is excellent, I especially like the cutscenes that pop up during close or exciting plays. These look especially good and the camera shifts are very done well, they are nice and dramatic but don't cause any gameplay issues.

While Super Baseball 2020 has a futuristic motif, it's gameplay is fairly in line with that of its contemporaries. You can only throw one pitch, but you can add speed by holding up or back on the dpad or break by holding left or right. You can adjust yourself left to right on the mound to throw further inside or outside. Batting is similarly simple, you can move freely throughout the batter's box to attempt to adjust to what the pitcher is doing. There are not hot zones or power swings, all you have to do is time your swing properly to make contact. Of course, this is easier said than done. The swing button is pressure sensitive, so you really have to make sure you are getting the sweet spot to the ball to make the best contact. Your first and third basemen never move, so when the ball is put in play you control the middle infielders and outfielders. There is no ball indicator here, but it is something you eventually get used to. It's honestly a bigger problem when baserunning, because you can never tell when a fielder is going to catch a ball when you are trying to advance a runner. Of course, the 2020 future theme does impact gameplay. Foul territory is much smaller, it's pretty much only behind the plate and directly down the baselines. Home runs only count to dead center, any ball that hits the stands anywhere else is a live ball that will bounce back into the field of play. Every few innings, "crackers" will be placed throughout the field. I don't know if this is a translation thing, but "crackers" are land mines that will blow fielders up if they walk on them.

The other big difference comes in the form of upgrades. Every positive play you make will earn your team money, with small amounts for making contact or getting putouts or big amounts for driving in runs or hitting homers. You can then use this money to make improvements to your players stats, including speed, contact and power. Each upgrade type has four levels, so you can be aggressive with small ones or save up for larger ones. Save up enough and you can replace one of your players with a robot that will almost always get a hit if it makes contact or be impossible to hit if its pitching. I liked this, it certainly added to the arcadey feel of the game but it also fit in thematically with the whole "future sport" aspect of the game. It also differentiates SB2020 from its contemporaries gameplay wise. Outside of the robot transformations, I didn't notice the stat increases all that much, but it's at the very least a good idea. Players will retain these upgrades throughout the game, but they can also be overworked. This will lead to them blowing up and losing said upgrade.

As with a lot of sports games from this era, there isn't really a lot of depth here. There's no season or franchise mode, so you are pretty much relegated to playing one on one games against either the computer or a friend. The closest thing you have to a campaign mode or anything of the sort pits you against each team in your league one time. I guess I can't complain too much, this was initially an arcade game and it was definitely in line with titles of its era. All of the teams have different ratings, but they really don't feel all that different in practice. Again, outside the robot upgrades all of the players kind of play the same despite looking very unique visually. I actually kind of like the idea of the new field layout and I think the cyber egg stadium looks pretty cool, but I wish there was more than one venue for the games. I kind of alluded to this before, but fielding in baseball games of this era is a challenge, it's hard to really tell where the ball is going to go and I've always found the camera perspective makes it difficult to differentiate ground balls from line drives. It's always been somewhat shocking to me how long it took them to add ball indicators for fly balls to baseball games. As a whole, I find it's really hard to get the timing of hitting down here, it feels like pitching definitely has the advantage. At least it's fair in that regard, the computer had just as hard a time getting hits off me than I did off of it.

Super Baseball 2020 is a very good, unique 4th gen sports title that's absolutely worth checking out today. It's kind of in the same vein as Mutant League Hockey, a unique take on a sport that I wish more modern developers would try. I have to give it extra points here because I've always felt it's a lot harder to do that with baseball, as it's structure is so rigid and its rules so sacred (at least they used to be). It's kind of sad to me to see baseball becoming less popular, I am a combat sports fan first and foremost but it's always been my favorite of the "ball" games. Hopefully that changes. I feel like a lot of people that still have interest in the sport do because of video games, I know a few people that don't follow the game who are big time fans of MLB: The Show. That's very understandable, unlike the other sports titles I feel like the Show continues to improve, even if just incrementally, as they release new editions. We've come a long way from Super Baseball 2020, but that doesn't mean it's not worth checking out. Definitely worth a try for baseball fans as well as sci-fi folks who either like or would like to become interested in the most cerebral of the popular sports.

8.25/10