Both adults and kids love baseball. The sport connects generations, no matter what their experience of the game. It could be a grandparent throwing the ball out in the backyard to their grandkids. It could be a parent cheering their kid on the school team. People love baseball so much that they’ll even play baseball video games. They love the thrill of being out on a real or fictional diamond and engaging in the sport they love.
Of course, the most famous and historic baseball league in the world is Major League Baseball (MLB). The league consists of 30 teams in the US and Canada and represents the highest level of baseball in the world. Any player who wants to play professionally intends to join the MLB.
Like many other sports, baseball has inspired lots of video games. Below is a look at some of the best and worst baseball games ever hitting the video game market.
MLB The Show
Regarding baseball games, the “MBL: The Show” franchise rises head and shoulders above the rest. The game is renowned for its outstanding gameplay, edition after edition, and is as close as you’ll get to the real thing. The world isn’t far away from the launch of the 2025 edition, which will feature a first-person action function, Ambush Hitting, to get you swinging like a pro and on-field enhancements.
If you’re into sports betting, the game offers you real inside. The MLB odds are reflected closely in the game through the rankings. The game uses different metrics to rate all the players in each edition.
Mario Superstar Baseball
“Mario Superstar Baseball” can’t put a foot wrong and gives players a real sense of the game. Hitting the ball is more about timing when using the buttons. Different players have different sweet spots, so players must work on timing. They can also make players run faster by hitting the B button faster when running from base to base.
The game also features an advantageous challenge mode with teams from specific realms of the Mushroom Kingdom. As you go around different stadiums and challenge captains to a game, you also recruit players from the opposite team. Failing to complete a challenge leaves you unsure when the next one might come. It’s a highly engaging mode and a way to build a roster.
Super Mega Baseball
“Super Mega Baseball” and its various editions are another solid baseball game to have hit the market. It’s highly customizable. See a player you’d like but isn’t in the game? No need to worry: you create them! That’s part of the fun. The absence of the MLB license enables the game to be more playful and create caricatures.
The gameplay is simple, with highly intuitive controls, and is another immensely customizable element, and there are several different difficulty options for each phase of the game. Individually managing hitting, running, pitching, and fielding creates the engagement and challenge of finding the right sweet spot for your needs in the game.
Baseball Stars Professional
If you’re looking for a truly disappointing game, “Baseball Stars Professional,” a retro baseball game, would have suited you down to the ground. Although the visuals were good for their time, they weren’t enough to save it and even distracted the player from what was happening in the game. The teams had little balance, so the season was much more challenging if you chose a bad one. There were no full-season mode or RPG-like upgrades. Nor was there any character creation or customization.
There were also only two modes: a tournament mode, which pitted the player against CUP-generated teams, and a single match versus mode, which allowed two human players to play against each other. The gameplay was also oversimplified.
Base Wars
“Base Wars” was great in concept — that of baseball being too slow, so it’s been jazzed up with robot players who engage in violent games where fights break out on the diamond — and had the potential to be a fantastic game. Still, the game’s execution let it down badly. The computer intelligence was also poor, which made it easy for human players to beat up the computer players because of some of the computer’s lousy fielding and base running decisions. In combat, the computer’s linear movement made fights laughably easy. Upgrades to the game were available but provided further frustration for players.
Baseball is a fantastic sport that has inspired some superb and lesser-quality video games. Try the titles recommended above for a good baseball game, and avoid the ones that have received bad reviews. If you’re unsure, MLB franchise games are often a safe bet.