All N64 Games #13: King of Pro Baseball
Posted 08 Aug 2024 at 12:33 by Dean Jones
Hey batter batter…or something. Baseball is a sport I know very little about, although the basic rules seem pretty simple to figure out, and quite similar to a sport I’ve played in school called Rounders. Hit the ball, run around the bases. If the ball ends up at a base before you do, you’re out. The N64’s first baseball game (of many) also happens to be a Japanese-only game.
The basic controls are simple to figure out, but difficult to master. The batter controls a cursor on the screen and swings to hit the ball. Your aim has to be extremely precise, though, and it’s extremely difficult. I only managed to hit it a few times. Pitching is very simple, though: move the stick to control a invisible cursor, if you’re too far off course, the pitcher will shake his head.
Fielding I found to be quite slow, while the CPU was spot-on (they caught everything I hit). Once you figure out selecting players, it isn’t too bad, but I still had the issue with the CPU being absolutely perfect.
King of Pro Baseball doesn’t have a lot of modes, but it does have an immense amount of options, which weren’t something I could really play around with due to having to use Google Translate and then not understanding Baseball terminology. I did get the impression that this was a decent baseball game and the basic pitching/batting were intuitive.
Poor
Pro-Baseball King is a worthy attempt, but it never looks likely to convert the uninitiated.
- Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #1. Review Score: 68%
Remake or Remaster?
I don’t know enough about sports games to know what is worth doing with this.
Official ways to get the game.
There is currently no official way to get King of Pro Baseball.