An Ode To Griffey On N64
Yesterday I wrote a blog saying Baseball Writers should be thrown in Jail for giving Slammin Sammy Sosa just 8.5% of the total 416 available HOF votes. I was very mad at the time and in hindsight now I’m even more upset. These assholes are flaming imbeciles. They’d all be out of work if Sosa and McGwire didn’t save baseball in 1998.
Anyways along the way I made reference to Ken Griffey Jr. on N64** and I got some feedback people did not know what that means from our valued Barstool Gold members.
So I took to Twitter to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind and that other people built their childhoods around Major League Baseball featuring Ken Griffey Junior on N64.
I was not disappointed:
Daryl Kyle (RIP) arguments. Cheat codes. Grand slam calls. Paul Molitor. Even a Quinton McCracken reference despite QM having a 0.3 career WAR in 12 major league seasons. Why does that name sound overly familiar? Because he was the leadoff hitter for the Devil Rays and you always played against the Devil Rays because they were the worst team in the game. 50% of my childhood was spent padding N64 sports stats and Griffey was no different.
Anyways, all this nostalgia got me thinking that it’s time to pay proper homage to best baseball video game ever, Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Junior
The Game: Released in May of 1998, MLB ft. KGJ was N64’s first major move in baseball video gaming. At the time, there was a revolution around graphics from Playstation and N64, with classics like GoldenEye and Mario Kart 64 dominating the scene. But then MLB’s Long Ball movement came around hard in 1997 with the Sosa/McGwire homerun chase in 1998. Video game developers were clamoring to get a piece of the action and this was Nintendo’s best effort. Other notable games around this time include: Triple Play (playstation), Mike Piazza’s Strike Zone (900 foot homeruns), MLB 98 (playstation), All-Star Baseball (N64) and yes even Tony La Russa Baseball 4.
Baseball managerial strategy has never been so fun.
Needless to say Griffey won the battle for best video game of it’s time otherwise I’d be blogging about something else.
Here’s some technical stuff about what made the game different for its time
At the time, improvements reached far beyond the improved audio and licensed players. The game also tracked season stats, had a full season mode and even offered a fantasy draft. Seasons could yield comically unrealistic stats — over 100 home runs in a single season was a routinely attainable feat for a single player. Stadiums looked good (for the time), and multiple camera angles created an engaging experience.
In reality the best thing about the game was that its release coincided with Sammy and McGwire singlehandedly saving baseball.
Pitching: By far the most important component of the game. This is where you had pretty much all the arguments with your buddies because you could move the location of the pitch as the pitcher released the ball making it damn near impossible to hit:
That subtle sinking action at the end of that fastball was the cause of many, many fist fights amongst adolescent boys in the late 90’s. If you gave free reign to move pitches you’re a psychopath that loves a good 1-0 video game shutout. The overwhelming rule was you couldn’t move the cursor once it locked in. Those who break this rule were subject to immense shaming. Fuckin cheaters.
Anyways there were a total of 8 pitches anyone could throw: super fastball, fastball, change up, super change up, curveball, slider, knuckle ball and screwball. The knuckle ball was really just Tim Wakefield and using him was also against the rules. There was nothing funny about that.
The super fastballs would get up to 106 and super change ups could go as low as 40. With that you can understand why removing location from competitive gameplay was such a big deal. Just getting the speeds right was fucking impossible.
Best Pitchers: Randy Johnson (super fastball), Pedro and Maddux (super-change up), Mussina, Wakefield, Clemens, Daryl Kyle, Trevor Hoffman and John Franco
Hitting: Hitting comes down to two criteria: Batting and Power.
Batting is based off the player’s batting average while Power is based off how many homeruns were hit the year before. For the younger guys out there, this wasn’t just how video games valued players. This is how literally the entire baseball industry valued players. The combined number of Batting and Power dictated the size of the yellow hitting circle. Here’s Barry Bonds:
Gigantic. Only bested by Larry Walker, Paul Molitor and Ken Griffey Junior himself.
Sup ladies
Best Hitters: there’s a lot of hidden gems in this game like Rondell White and Raul Mondesi and many more. That was a huge bonus about the steroid era – any number of guys could do damage on any given day.
But the real prize of the steroid era was the SuperStar status position players attained. You just don’t see it any more. These guys were some of the biggest names in sports, not just baseball: Griffey, Bonds, Tony Gwynn, Larry Walker, Mike Piazza, A-Rod, McGwire, Sammy, Jeter. All of them were awesome.
Again though, no matter how good they were, you couldn’t move that cursor when pitching or else you were a dirty rotten jagoff.
Bonus Observations: Home run derby was so fresh. Especially if your crew ran 5+ deep in junior high.
You could also argue that using the 4-C buttons to throw to the different bases was the easiest throwing methodology ever devised for baseball video games. Seriously be more perfect:
Finally, the batting stances were remarkably realistic. Keep in mind the Super Nintendo version in 1996 didn’t even have real players’ names. Like the White Sox starting infield was named after famous St. John’s basketball players. This was a revolution:
Conclusion: Best baseball video game ever and a damn shame some of you don’t have these memories.
**I only focused on the 1998 version, Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr. In 1999, Nintendo released Slugfest which was an easier and slicker version of this. It didn’t catch on as much because it was $60 and parents just bought the 1998 version the year before so everyone just played the original. Nothing against Slugfest it just doesn’t have the same cultural significance.