Possibly the most detailed and comprehensive NES baseball game.

To Beat: Win a season
What I Did: Went undefeated in a short season in the Ultra League
Played: 10/15/18 – 10/20/18
Difficulty: 1/10
My Difficulty: 3/10
My Video: Baseball Simulator 1.000 Final Game

There are so many baseball games on the NES that each one should have something interesting or unique to offer. At least, I would hope that’s true. R.B.I. Baseball is always the nostalgic choice for all the good memories I’ve had playing games with friends. Bases Loaded emulates the grind of a long season. Baseball Simulator 1.000 hits along both of those lines but dials it up even further in a few different ways. While I did not spend a huge amount of time playing Baseball Simulator 1.000, it is definitely in the running for my new favorite NES baseball game.

Baseball Simulator 1.000 was developed and published by Culture Brain. The Famicom version was first, releasing in October 1989 under the name Choujin Ultra Baseball. The NES version came out in March 1990. There are several other games in this series, all on Super Famicom. The only other game to get a US release was Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 for SNES in 1991. In Japan it is known as Super Ultra Baseball. A direct sequel on Super Famicom was released in 1994. The other three games were Japan-only baseball games named Ultra Baseball Jitsumeiban. These games have the same structure as the others but include licensed rosters from the Japan’s NPB league.

Baseball Simulator 1.000 has several game modes with a wide variety of configuration options. You can play a simple exhibition game by yourself or with a friend, or you can play a full season. There are three leagues of teams to choose from for playing a season, one of which is the Ultra league where players have super skills that can be strategically deployed. You can create your own teams or even your own league. In season play, statistics are calculated for the duration of the season. Things like batting average, home runs, and ERA are tabulated and you can see how your players stack up with the rest of the league. To beat the game, simply be the league champion at the end of a season.

The first menu screen presents you with five options that do a pretty good job of outlining what features to expect in the game. Exhibition mode lets you play a simple game. You can play this game with either one or two players. In single player this is just one game, but for two players you can also choose to play a best-of-seven series. Season mode is the primary mode in the game. You can choose the number of games you’ll play in the season from either 5, 30, 60, or a whopping 165 games. Season play is contained in one league of six teams all vying for the best record. Edit mode lets you take an existing team and edit it in many ways to create a brand new team. In the New League option, you can take any six teams you want in the game and combine them together into a new league that you can play in the Season mode. Finally, if you just want to sit back and watch the computer go at it, you can select Watch and just watch a game.

The in-game controls are largely the same as in R.B.I. Baseball, so I recommend reading my review there if you want more detail. I’ll cover the highlights. Batting and baserunning I believe is exactly the game. You can move your batter around the batter’s box with the D-pad and press A to swing the bat, tapping A to bunt. While baserunning, the D-pad points to whichever base you want. Press B with a base direction to advance a runner and use A instead to go back.

On defense, you both pitch and play the field. For pitching, you can move the pitcher left or right prior to starting the pitch with A. You can use the D-pad to influence the direction and movement of the pitch both prior to the pitch and when the pitch is on the way to the plate. A quirk about this game is the “pinch” indicator which sometimes turns on during a crucial plate appearance. The pitcher will start to sweat and can have an effect on his performance, either positively or negatively at random. On defense, you control most of the fielders at the same time, but more specifically the ones closest to where the ball is headed. Move on top of the ball to grab it, then press A and a direction to throw the ball to that base. Press B and a direction to run the ball there yourself. In this game, you can press A to jump or dive for a ball that is just out of reach.

You can do player substitutions. Before a pitcher winds up, either team can press Start to call time. While batting, you can choose a pinch hitter. He will play the field wherever you sub him, no problem. Well, unless you are hitting for a pitcher, in which case both pinch hitter and pitcher are out of the game and you must choose a new relief pitcher after the half inning. On defense, you can sub out either the pitcher or any fielder. This brings up a view of the entire field with a small table for each player. Select a player, then choose Change from the box on the lower right. One thing you cannot do is swap two fielders already in the lineup; you must sub in a brand new player. If you choose a player and select Move, you can shift the fielder to just about any position on the field you want no matter what position they currently play. So, for example, if you know the batter will probably hit the ball to right field, you can move several fielders out there for a better chance of making a play. The custom fielding positions reset back to default after that batter is finished. There are a few limitations. You cannot move either the pitcher or the catcher, you can’t put a fielder in between the pitcher and catcher, and you can’t put a fielder in foul territory.

The main feature that sets this baseball game apart is included in the Ultra League. In this league, pitchers can use Ultra Pitches, batters can perform Ultra Hitting, and fielders can do Ultra Fielding. These are special, supercharged moves that can really swing the game in an instant. Each team in the Ultra League has a set number of Ultra Points for each game played, and performing an Ultra Play requires spending some of those points. Ultra Pitchers and Ultra Hitting costs 3 points each, while an Ultra Fielding play costs 5 points. To choose an Ultra Pitch, press Up twice before the windup. You will see an icon appear next to the pitcher. Then press Up or Down to choose the Ultra Pitch you want. While batting, press B to show the Ultra Hitting icon, then swing normally with A to use it. To perform an Ultra Fielding move, press B while the fielder is near the ball.

The Ultra moves themselves are fun to use with a wide variety of interesting effects. There are pitches with all sorts of movement, including a snaking pitch and a super fastball. You can throw a stop ball that freezes on the way to the plate by pressing A. You can throw a pitch that splits up into many balls. There’s a pitch that disappears on the way to the batter, and another that is a heavy ball that the batter has to hit just right to put it into play. On the hitting side, you can simply do an Ultra move that hits the ball with more power. There’s a hit that casts multiple shadows on the ground so it’s tougher to see where the ball will land. There’s a hit that spins the ball off in a drastically different direction when it hits the ground. There’s a missile hit that pushes the fielder back far, sometimes even through the outfield wall. For fielding, you can jump super high or do a super dive. You can also throw the ball extra fast to help catch a runner between bases. This isn’t a full list, but a good summary of the kinds of things you can do in the Ultra League.

There are six different stadiums in the game. You can pick which one you want to play in an exhibition game, or in a season you can assign each of the six teams to any stadium you want as their home field. The stadiums have different dimensions and characteristics, just like baseball stadiums in professional leagues. One stadium that stands out from the rest is the space stadium. Graphically it is unique, but here there is less gravity so the ball can really carry. It’s possible to hit some long homeruns, especially in the Ultra League.

Baseball Simulator 1.000 features a full Edit mode where you can build a team. To start, you must pick one of the eighteen built-in teams as a base. When creating an Ultra team, you have to use one of the existing Ultra teams as a base. You also can’t have the original team and the edited version of that team in the same league together. Other than that, there’s a lot you can change. You can rename the team and any of the players. You get to distribute both batting stats and pitching stats. You can a base amount for the entire team in each category and you can distribute those points as you see fit. You can edit things like their contact ability, power, running speed, position on the field, and fielding ability. For pitchers, you can choose if he is left or right handed, pitching speed, stamina, and strength of breaking pitches. Pitchers all have the same, weak hitting stats that cannot be changed. If you are editing an Ultra team, you can also choose and distribute the Ultra moves. You can create up to six new teams altogether.

Season play is also a comprehensive mode. While only one season can be saved at a time, there are many ways you can choose to go through it. For a new season, first select a league. This can be one of the three built-in leagues or the fourth custom league. Then assign home stadiums to each team in the league. Next, choose the season length from either 5, 30, 60, or 165 games. Since there are six teams, each team will play against each of the five other teams the same number of times. For each team, you then select which teams are played automatically by the computer and which ones are played manually by a player. You can play an entire season automatically if you want. The game will generate a schedule of the order of games played and go through them one at a time. If a team is set to Manual, then that game will be played with a player at the helm. If both teams are set to Auto, you can then choose if you want to watch the game or skip it. Skipping a game simulates the contest more quickly than watching the game play out. All stats are kept and calculated from the simulated game.

The season ends whenever a team clinches the league championship. As the season draws to a close, the standings will display the Magic Number. This number is wins by the first place team or losses by the second place team needed to secure the league title. A Magic Number of 0 means that team wins the league no matter how the rest of the games play out. You then see a victory celebration for the winning team. If two or more teams are tied after season play, there will be playoffs to determine the winner. The playoff bracket is set up automatically and are single elimination games. Most likely there will only be two teams tie, so in that case a single game determines league champion.

This was my first time playing through Baseball Simulator 1.000. I do like baseball quite a lot but I’m not so interested in baseball video games, so this has sat on my shelf for some time. This is the first game with a battery backup I’ve played in a little while, and thankfully my battery was still good. I probably picked this game up in a lot of games for next to nothing. A cart-only copy costs around $6, so it’s quite affordable for baseball fans.

I figured that if I’m going to play this game, I might as well play in the Ultra League to check out the enhanced features. The ending is the same no matter what. I also decided on a short, five-game season. A friend of mine suggested I play with the team called Heroes, which is the team with the icon of a smiling baseball abbreviated HE. (You can read his review of the game.) This team is likely the best team in the game for a few reasons. The team has the most Ultra points of any team in the league. The starting pitching is very strong and each pitcher can last several innings. This team also has two players that are borderline ludicrous. The leadoff hitter, Boyd, is the fastest player in the game easily. Anything hit on the ground is a guaranteed hit, and usually more. In one game, using an Ultra Hit, I performed an unheard-of infield inside-the-park home run. Yes, he’s that fast. The fifth hitter, Bret, has some of the best power in the game. When combined with Ultra Hitting, you should mostly hit home runs with him. I only hit nine homers with him in five games since I was a bit conservative with spending Ultra points, although he did have one four-homer game.

I went undefeated in a short season and all the games but one were blowouts. This game has the same rule from R.B.I. Baseball where games are called if one team is winning by 10 or more after any inning. The first four games went as follows: A 12-2 win in 5 innings, a 15-1 win in 6 innings, another 12-2 win in 7 innings, and a 14-0 shutout in only 3 innings. I hit nine home runs in both the first and fourth games. Game 2 was the four-homer game by Bret, and Game 4 was played in the space stadium which explains all the home runs there. The fifth and final game of the season was the biggest test by. Both teams were undefeated so it functioned the same as a one-game playoff for the title. I played a full 9 inning game and won 7-4. It got a little scary at the end because I gave up a three-run homer in the bottom of the 9th and they had the tying run at the plate. I just barely held on. That team had really good pitching and they messed up my rhythm. I also played conservatively with the Ultra moves the entire season. I rarely used Ultra Pitches or Ultra Fielding, spending most of my points on Ultra Hitting. Even then, I mostly utilized Ultra Hitting when I had runners on base. The idea was to keep the rally going or go for the big home run. I had an easy time with the game up until that final game, but it still wasn’t too tough.

Baseball Simulator gets a 1/10 difficulty because you can trigger the ending without playing a single game. You are allowed to play a full season with every game played automatically. The winner of the league gets the victory screen no matter who it is. I know this is true because I played out a separate 5-game season automatically, just to make sure. I’m sure you can see the same ending screens if you play a full season and don’t win. The end of my winning season and the end of the simulated season were both completely identical from what I could tell. If you are going to play the game at all, then you might as well try to win it, but here you can lose and just tell people you won, and they would be none the wiser. I try to go about it honestly. The game gets a 3/10 from me because I made the effort to win and it wasn’t too challenging in the Ultra League.

It’s a little early to say, but I think Baseball Simulator 1.000 might well be the best baseball game on the NES. If not, it’s certainly one that is overlooked. The gameplay is rock solid and easy to play. The graphics and music are nice. The controls work well. What sets this game apart is the huge number of features for such a game, such as custom teams, custom league, the Ultra League, statistics tracking, and full season play. I think the Ultra League is the real draw here as you can spice up the gameplay dramatically. Hitting a home run off a tough pitch or spoiling an Ultra Hit with a great play is very satisfying. The only thing I don’t like about the game is how long it takes to simulate unplayed games in a season. Even when skipping a game, it takes about five minutes of real time for it to play out entirely. All you are left to do is watch the scoreboard for updates and twiddle your thumbs. Or look at your phone like I did. I suppose that is the price to pay for tracking every pitch, every hit, and every out, all with cumulative statistics. I did not expect to get all of this out of an NES baseball game, but I’m happy I did.