Bads News Baseball, for the Nintendo Entertainment System, was originally released in 1989 in Japan by Techmo, under the literal translation of "Fierce Fighting Stadium!" It is one of the first major titles for baseball games for the NES and paved the way for future baseball franchises. It competed directly with RBI Baseball at the time and may not have been as commercial successful but is the superior game for the time.

The gameplay is simple in design. The objective of the game is to select one of twelve teams, all named after cities with Major League Baseball teams and all of color schemes of their respective teams, and beat the other 11 squads. There is no mention of actual team names, so the Detroit Tigers are simply represented as Detroit, with a black and gray coloration. There is no record for wins and losses and the player may lose several games before beating team. However, if they successfully beat every time, they are crowned league champions, even if it took the player a number of losses to do so. You could be 11-40 and still 'beat the game.'

The game is also more entertaining because it doesn't take itself seriously. The onfield umpires are rabbits, who signal safe and out. The baserunners are knocked unconscious if they are thrown out or they pop out to the field. There are stars that circle over their heads and they fall over. There is animation for close plays at the plate or the bases, there is animation when players strike out (sometimes), and the homerun animation is enjoyable for a time. It shows a player high five teammates down a line and the last person is often a gorilla or Mr. T. There is also a not so secret mode where the rosters have females instead of male players. Lastly, when fielders make errors, they bobble the ball and panic.

GRAPHICS: 7 As mentioned above, the field looks good, the crowd bounces up and down to give the effect of a real crowd, the pitches are easy to see, and the fielding mechanics are intuitive. The game is smooth and has a simple design with some fun in-game animation for special plays.

SOUND: 2 The music is repetitive and not catchy. I recommend turning off the sounds and using some other type of audio for entertainment. It's not critical to the game and muting makes the experience better.

ADDICTIVENESS: 6 For an NES sports game, Bad News Baseball can hook you. It takes five minutes to understand offense and defense and another hour to understand exploiting the computer's AI defense. I still revisit the game because it's quick to play through a season and I try different teams to see which one is the most fun.

STORY: 3 It's baseball. Beat the other teams. It's that simple. There's no compelling storyline to follow, no grand opera or save the world adventure. It's baseball.

DEPTH: 6 The depth of the game is impressive for the time. As you win or lose and progress, the pitchers have stamina or fatigue ratings to show if they're tired or not. This means there's a need to manage the bullpen if a pitcher isn't doing well and the need for an actual rotation in games. The same goes for the other team and if you play someone twice, their pitchers will also suffer from fatigue, making the pitchers easier to hit. The strategies like hit and run and bunting and sacrifice flies come into play and different hitters have different stats, like speed and power, which changes how you use them. Pinch hitting is available too but it's generally limited to positional players. If you put someone who's a 3B in at right field, they will play terribly.

DIFFICULTY: 3 Bad News Baseball isn't hard once you learn the pitching strategy of the computer and how they field. Baserunning is not challenging and the computer is extremely conservative when going after runners. The controls are also very easy to understand and will take only minutes to learn timing for hitting.

Overall, Bad News Baseball is fun. It's a quick game that you can pick up in a few minutes, play a few games, and feel good and check it off the list of NES Games To Play. Try it, enjoy yourself, and tell me what you thought.