When thinking of Sports games developers, one typically thinks of EA Sports or SCEA or some other US-based developer... but what about Japanese company, SNK? I've played many of their fighting games, but I never expected them to have anything good in the way of sports. Then I discovered Baseball Stars.

This is one of the most comprehensive NES sports titles I've ever seen in what options you have to do here. While this may not be the ideal sports sim for those who want real players from real teams, it's a very fun game for those who don't care about such things. The teams are fake, the players are fake, but it's a game you can just have fun with. You can even create your own team and customize the players on it. It even features female players which is pretty forward-thinking for 1989.

Graphics: They're standard quality for NES. The player mugshots are pretty good quality, though some of the arrangements are a bit ugly, there are some nice ones as well. The pitch and swing animations are good as well as ball traveling animations.

Sound: The sound effects aren't too bad, considering the time. It's a bit light on the music, but the songs it does have range from catchy to repetitive.

Addictiveness: It's fairly addictive to keep playing to earn more money and build up your team better. You can definitely have a lot of fun with it, trying to get new players as well.

Depth: There is a lot to do in this game. You can have Exhibition matches (1 player, 2 player, or computer only), League Play where you compete with other teams and earn money to improve existing players as well as hire new ones... you can also create and edit new teams. Most of the game's depth goes into messing with custom teams and building up player attributes.

Difficulty: The game's not exactly easy unless you're playing a weak team like the SNK Crushers. The AI plays tough and it can be difficult to get a hang of the timing and responses need to play. Though if you're an NES-era baseball game vet, you'll probably adapt to this a lot faster.

This is probably my favorite baseball game, because to my knowledge, it's the only one that actually allows you to create female players. I wish more sports games were this progressive.