Reviews

1985 Imagine Software (UK)
by Ian Morrison, David Anderson and F. D. Thorpe

This game belongs in the Imagine World Series, together with another game, both were quite good.
I always thought the graphics in 'W.S.Baseball' were a bit childish, but amusing, and entertained me even when i wasn't in the mod for playing.
The screen layout really gave a great atmosphere to the game, especially when the cheerleaders made their appearance.
The game mechanism functioned quite well and was easy to get into. Simple but effective.
It isn't the classic in which 'W.S. Basketball' would turn out, but it was still a worth game having.

This game is bloody marvelous ... like all the World Series Simulators .

It is a pity that baseball is a sport hardly played here in Spain because this guys in Imagine Sofware knew what they were doing pretty well .

Nice but pretty dated baseball game.

Or maybe it's just because I've never managed to do much.

Part of the 'World Series' that Imagine was going to release about several sports but they eventually published only this and WS Basketball.

Baseball is not a popular sport in Europe. Therefore, there are not many games for the Spectrum about it. Maybe the best is Imagine's World Series Baseball. The game screen includes a general view of the ground to see the team position and a view from the usual giant video screen used to see how you throw or hit the ball. Also shows adverts between game breaks. At first, you can choose the team's colours and the players' position on the ground. It has an easy gameplay. In fact, I had no idea about this game before getting WS Baseball, and with only some games I easily learnt the rules. A funny and enjoyable game with which you will have a good time playing it.

A rare occasion of 'better than I remembered' this sim has cute quick graphics, cheerleader razzmatazz, big screen advertisers like Pepsi and John Menzies and simple intuitive controls for performing a variety of functions - pitching, batting and fielding.
Options abound including difficulty, innings number and a 2 player I can't review but which I suspect is marvellous.
If only someone had nicked the AI, control method and big screen/full pitch visual approach and made a cricket game. Cricket was fumbled attempts all round in the Speccy years.

I have been putting this off but its time has come. I had this one back in the day, never liked it and still don't. While batting is alright and I can at least score runs, fielding however is different. I could never field properly or throw the ball correctly, plus you have to throw it back to the main thrower, the pitcher I think you call him, every time, even after throwing a strike. Too many times I was prepared to throw the next ball at the batsman when suddenly the catcher has thrown it to second base allowing the opposition to score an easy run. Never got on with that at all. The billboard next is a nice touch but I couldn't help but feel aggrieved at the game being interrupted by cheerleaders, because it's not an American sports game without cheerleaders is it, except it's not seen in a traditional baseball game anyway. This game could have been a classic and I suppose it is to some gamers, but as far as sports games go this was always a bust for me.