KEN GRIFFEY JR. PRESENTS MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL by Nintendo

Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball has to be one of the funnest baseball games that I have played. From the opening shots of Griffey in action, to the boxscores at the end of the game, this has to be one of the funnest baseball games around.

Griffey Baseball has many options to suit any of your baseball gaming needs. The season play gives you the option of a 26, 78, or 162 game season. There is also an all-star game with a homerun derby, a world series option if you wish to skip playing a whole season, and a single game play option. There are also options for playing the games, like the ability to use the D.H., just coach the game and not play, auto fielding options, and more. You also have the ability to edit the names of the players, but if you don't have access to last year's roster, you will have a hard time getting realistic rosters for the teams.

Now on to the game play. The games are fun to play in part because it only takes about 20 minutes to play a whole game. It is easy to learn how to bat and pitch, however it is fairly difficult to walk or strike someone out. The fielding takes some getting used to, but after a while you get the hang of it. One major problem, however, is the inability for most players to steal bases. If the player doesn't have a 10 speed rating, or you don't time the pitcher very well, you won't get a stolen base. If you are a stat hound, you will be disappointed by the lack of stats like stolen bases, doubles, triples, season long strike out or walk totals. If stats aren't your thing, you won't mind these deletions.

The graphics are quite good for a sports game. Most of the detail is spent on the pitcher-batter screens, considering this is where most of the game takes place. The batters are all different, with power hitters usually having huge upper bodies, the average hitters having average size bodies, and the weaker hitters have relatively small bodies compared to the other players. There are also different shades of skin for the individual players to add to the realism. In the field, the characters are small, but not as small as the fielders in the older baseball games. Each individual stadium is included, but the stadiums lack the detail that the stadiums in World Series Baseball by SEGA has. If you hit a homerun to center field of the Baltimore park, for example, all you see is blue background beyond the fence. For all the hype that surrounded this game, you would think that they would have spent a little more time on the stadiums. However, the new uniforms and logos of the teams are included, which helps make up for the lack of detail in the stadiums. The sound for this game is quite good. It is easy to understand when strike, ball, out, and foul are said. However the music gets kind of annoying after a while, which must be why they added the music shut off feature.

Despite the lack of some graphical details in the ballparks, the lack of statistical categories, and the difficulty of executing some basic baseball plays, Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball is one of the funnest baseball games on the market. For their first effort of baseball on the Super NES, Nintendo has created a solid entry that should keep video gamers, not just sports gamers, interested and playing for a long time.