The North American release has an official license from the Major League Baseball Players Association and features the names of actual professional baseball players, but it does not have a license from Major League Baseball and no actual team names are used; the teams are only identified by their respective locales. While the all-star mode in the Japanese version of the game closely mimics the Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Series, the North American version of the game emulates the MLB All-Star Game. An intrasquad mode (found only in the Japanese version) allows players on the same team to face off against each other. The only limitations are that there are only five pitchers on each team, players cannot be changed, and uniforms are limited to red and white colors.
Gameplay
Someone has managed to hit the ball into the outfield. The outfielders are scrambling to retrieve the ball before the runner can score a run for his team.
Players are shown standing up for the national anthem of both the United States and Canada (when the home team is Toronto or Montreal).[8] They can also choose to substitute a hitter or a runner while at bat.[5] All game stats are shown on the fictitious newspaper, known as the Namco Sports paper. Players are permitted to zoom in and out of the paper to look for minor details. The words "game over" appear on the screen regardless of whether the player wins or loses a game. Passwords can be entered to restore progress in the game. Both one-player and two-player modes integrates the traditional playing mode of the game. If the player wins the single-player tournament, then he can see the ending. The battle mode becomes a single-game mode when two players are playing. While the Japanese version of this game uses super deformed graphics for the ballplayers, the North American version uses 2D rendering software to create more realistic graphics.
The single-player league play mode keep tracks of all the players statistics during the season. Pitchers are considered to be "cold" when their ERA is above 9.90. An "average" hitter for season mode would theoretically have a batting average of .300 and 30 home runs while the "average" pitcher would have an ERA of 3.00 along with a fastball of 150 kilometres per hour (93mph).[7]
Stadium dimensions
Dome: Artificial turf with 100 metres (330ft) distances down each foul line and 122 metres (400ft) in center field.
Modern/contemporary stadium: Artificial turf with 91 metres (299ft) distances down the coal up lines and 118 metres (387ft) in center field.
Traditional stadium: Natural grass with 97 metres (318ft) distances in each corner and 120 metres (390ft) to center field.
