I was gonna phrase the thread title in actual math terms, but it's (thankfully) been a long time, something with carrots and exclamation points?
Found this site (http://www.videogamecritic.net/nes.htm) by chance, gives a fun little rundown and critique on a number of original NES games. A few times I've had the knee-jerk reaction to exclaim out loud in disagreement with certain negative reviews, but after stepping back for a second, I usually agree with the reviewer (e.g. Duck Hunt wasn't really that good a game, but it's nevertheless fun for the novelty of play and sheer nostalgia factor). Of the shit ton of reviews, only 2 games earn a grade of A+, Punch-Out and Mario 3, so the reviewer seems to have a decent head on his shoulders. Only gripe...
Original RBI gets a rating of D, while RBI 2 gets an A-. Obviously the reviewer only play-tested the games for 2 minutes just to justify rendering a review, otherwise such a foolhardy and premature evaluation would not have been made... The rationale almost seems pat, but I just never thought RBI 2 or 3 were playable. Too damn hard to track pitches while batting, plus the soundtrack is more grating than endearing. Here are the reviews offered by the site for both games.
RBI
This outdated relic isn't one of the better NES baseball games, but it did lay a solid foundation for future installments of RBI Baseball. The freakish players are short and fat with oversized heads. They move like snails and can't jump or dive. Considering the shoddy graphics, it's surprising that RBI has actual Major League teams with real players on the rosters! While pitching, the action is viewed from behind the plate, with two windows displaying runners on first and third. The pitches fly across the play at high velocity, but once the ball is hit, the action slows to a crawl. RBI Baseball does do a few things right. The controls are simple and intuitive, and you can toss the ball around the bases with ease. The ball scales out (becomes larger) as it ascends, making it easy to judge fly balls. Still, RBI has a lot of issues. First of all, the non-stop music will drive you nuts. Next, there are far too many homeruns, and most tend to fly way out of the park. The CPU opponent is dumb, allowing you to steal bases and stretch base hits unchallenged. RBI Baseball will suffice as a simple baseball game for young kids, but everybody else should seek out its excellent sequel: RBI Baseball 2.
RBI 2
Not only is RBI Baseball 2 an enormous improvement over its predecessor, it's one of the best baseball games I've ever played! The players look fairly realistic this time around, and the pitchers look exceptionally good during their windups. The controls are superb. Players can dive for grounders and jump for line drives, and runners even slide head-first! You can select between two skills levels, turn off the music (thank you!), and the homerun frequency is reasonable. You get all the real major league teams and players. Bonus features include voice synthesis for umpires and - get this - instant replays! If there's one thing that annoyed me, it would be the excessive number of foul balls. Otherwise, RBI 2 is outstanding.
As horribly inaccurate as that review is, it's still somehow fun to go and read the other reviews, if not just to laugh in agreement at the small handful of games which earned an F rating....
I've been going to that site for years and he does really good work, but yeah, he's lost on the joys of RBI. I differ from you in that I think RBI 2 and 3 are perfectly reasonable games but to just kill RBI is a travesty.
Quote from: fathedX on 08/20/10, 10:24:11 AM
I differ from you in that I think RBI 2 and 3 are perfectly reasonable games but to just kill RBI is a travesty.
Completely agreed.
Another way to tell that he may not have played some of these games for very long is that he gave Donkey Kong Classics (DK & DK Jr. on one cartridge) an A grade. I had that, and while they're both very good arcade games, their replay value is pretty much nil - they're the type of games that you play for 15 minutes and put back on your shelf for a month or two.
I read reviews of a few other baseball games as well - while I agree with the high grade he gave Baseball Simulator 1.000 (he said B+; I'd probably go A or A-), I completely disagree with his reasoning. He thought the best part of the game was the "Ultra Teams", which have super powers like uncatchable hits and pitches that can be stopped mid-flight. I enjoy the game because of the season mode, complete with stat tracking, and customizable teams. The best thing about the Ultra Teams is that they provide a better challenge in 1-player games.