2022/8/22: Sega Genesis: La Russa Baseball 95, Triple Play 96, Triple Play: Gold Edition

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VideoGameCritic
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2022/8/22: Sega Genesis: La Russa Baseball 95, Triple Play 96, Triple Play: Gold Edition

Postby VideoGameCritic » August 22nd, 2022, 8:31 pm

Earlier this summer I re-reviewed Tony La Russa Baseball for the Genesis (before I knew La Russa was two words). These are the three games that followed it. They're quite reasonable in price, and now I know why!

How do you like these reviews?

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GeoX
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Re: 2022/8/22: Sega Genesis: La Russa Baseball 95, Triple Play 96, Triple Play: Gold Edition

Postby GeoX » August 23rd, 2022, 6:44 am

I didn’t realize that larussa became the triple play seires. You are absolutely right in that they suck on the Genesis. It appalls me that EA even in the nineties would churn out this crap while selling it as “lf it’s in the game…” Even back then that company was just a hustle with it’s baseball games.
Of the other two “realistic” baseball series games “Hardball” was ok but “World Series” were my favorites.
At that time all of the pc versions of the game were notably superior (Larussa was still diarrhea no matter what the platform).

Interesting note about Larussa, this season he has issued intentional walks twice on batters with 1-2 counts! Only Tony… :D

jon
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Re: 2022/8/22: Sega Genesis: La Russa Baseball 95, Triple Play 96, Triple Play: Gold Edition

Postby jon » August 23rd, 2022, 8:25 am

I also didn't realize that the La Russa franchise morphed into Triple Play. I thought maybe the Gold Edition would be good lol. But it's interesting to see these games. It seems like La Russa 95 is pretty much what it's reputation is on consoles. But Triple Play Gold Edition and Triple Play 97 seem to have been released in 1996 on the Genesis and PS1 respectively. And one can see the difference in power in consoles from one generation to the next by how the games are. I think Triple Play 98 is better than 97 but that's just me.

I'm going to take people's word when they say La Russa on the computer sucked. Because, just because it may have gotten reviewed as an above average game, it's all relative. An above average computer baseball simulation in 1994 or even 1997 with a career mode may have been good for that era. But as a game with no care for the history of the franchise, I'd assume based on the bad reviews that La Russa on computer wasn't that good. And that's probably why I've never played it. I'm obviously a Front Page Baseball guy when it comes to that era in computer gaming. I just think that the people that say La Russa on computer wasn't good, I'm on that side I think.

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Re: 2022/8/22: Sega Genesis: La Russa Baseball 95, Triple Play 96, Triple Play: Gold Edition

Postby Teddybear » August 23rd, 2022, 10:31 am

A nice trifecta of baseball reviews! Someday you may want to review EA's MLBPA Baseball (that was released after the first Tony La Russa game)......then I believe all the garbage EA baseball games will have been covered here. It blows the mind to know that EA made outstanding video games based on the NFL, NHL and NBA but could never come close to producing a single decent baseball offering.

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Re: 2022/8/22: Sega Genesis: La Russa Baseball 95, Triple Play 96, Triple Play: Gold Edition

Postby VideoGameCritic » August 23rd, 2022, 6:30 pm

I can understand why EA went in this direction. When it comes to games, the underlying engine that controls animation, scrolling, and frame-rate is the bedrock all good games are built on. The problem is, if that engine sucks it's really, really hard to fix. It's basically like starting from scratch.

Instead of investing the time and money, EA obviously went the route of adding little bits of "window dressing" like minor animations or extra "modes". It's really the same thing EA has been doing with their Madden series for years!

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Re: 2022/8/22: Sega Genesis: La Russa Baseball 95, Triple Play 96, Triple Play: Gold Edition

Postby Breaker » August 23rd, 2022, 9:42 pm

I completely disagree on LaRussa 95. It is one of my favorite baseball games. Ever. Is it choppy and inconsistent? Sure. If I play 162 games, will my players put up "video game" numbers or will they have stats that reflect their actual skill level? They will have realistic stats. So if I win, I'm actually better than the opponent, and I made better tactical moves. That's what I want. I might be in the minority, but I'm happy there, and glad there's a game that satisfies my wants!

I agree that the Triple Play series was a disappointment. I hoped for an improvement in gameplay and animation, while retaining the realistic outcomes. Neither actually happened.

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RDReynolds
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Re: 2022/8/22: Sega Genesis: La Russa Baseball 95, Triple Play 96, Triple Play: Gold Edition

Postby RDReynolds » August 23rd, 2022, 10:18 pm

I seem to remember Triple Play being pretty good in the PS1 era.

That or I just have a fond spot for it as one time I somehow actually pulled off a triple play against the computer and the announcer exclaimed "A triple play? That's the name of the game!" A quarter century later, I am still laughing at that.

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Re: 2022/8/22: Sega Genesis: La Russa Baseball 95, Triple Play 96, Triple Play: Gold Edition

Postby goldenband » August 23rd, 2022, 10:32 pm

Very glad to see these reviews! Your Genesis sports coverage is among the most comprehensive anywhere. It's really a strength of the site, and seeing it expand is great.

I played through La Russa Baseball '95 a while back and didn't think much of it. Another demerit against the game: most copies have dead batteries. Somehow they screwed up the boards, or something like that, and replacement CR2302 batteries seem to drain far more quickly than they should.

Funny note about Triple Play '96. Unless something has changed, all the ROM dumps that circulate were done incorrectly, so that one guy's custom teams or team names were baked into the pre-loaded teams.

Fire up a ROM of the game for the first time, and instead of the NY Yankees, you'll be greeted with the default team of "GHETTO USA", I kid you not. See here for evidence:

https://youtu.be/lIAGW4K8aac?t=53

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Re: 2022/8/22: Sega Genesis: La Russa Baseball 95, Triple Play 96, Triple Play: Gold Edition

Postby CaptainCruch » August 24th, 2022, 8:32 am

As someone from Europe, who doesn't care about baseball, I'm always amazed there are so much baseball games (and that you even bother to play them all!). But okay, playing a new edition of FIFA Soccer every year may be just as lame...

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Re: 2022/8/22: Sega Genesis: La Russa Baseball 95, Triple Play 96, Triple Play: Gold Edition

Postby jon » August 26th, 2022, 6:12 pm

Breaker wrote:I completely disagree on LaRussa 95. It is one of my favorite baseball games. Ever. Is it choppy and inconsistent? Sure. If I play 162 games, will my players put up "video game" numbers or will they have stats that reflect their actual skill level? They will have realistic stats. So if I win, I'm actually better than the opponent, and I made better tactical moves. That's what I want. I might be in the minority, but I'm happy there, and glad there's a game that satisfies my wants!

I agree that the Triple Play series was a disappointment. I hoped for an improvement in gameplay and animation, while retaining the realistic outcomes. Neither actually happened.


I’ll take a realistic game any day. The problem with basically every baseball game in this era was that it was so easy for a batter to hit 200 home runs a season. A lot of those games were easy to get all the way to home plate by out juking infielders who can’t throw you out fast enough or tag you.

There’s another big problem and that’s the lack of triples. So many baseball video games it’s literally impossible to hit a triple. I think it’s possible in some of those early NES baseball games but I’m not sure. My computer game FPS Baseball 98 you can hit a triple on a realistic average. Regardless I still think Triple Play 97 and 98 are good games. I think The Hardball series around this 1994 or so time frame was great on the computer, probably the best baseball series then.


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