while rendering

The Greatest Games I’ve Played: #25

For no reason in particular, I’m going to run down the best games I’ve played over the course of my 23+ years of gaming.  I understand that this adds a substantial number of punches to my nerd card.  I’m okay with that.  Games, just like films, books, and other creative arts, helped foster my imagination growing up, and even helped steer me down the path toward digital arts.  And games hold, for better or worse, a legitimate place in American and international culture and therefore deserve recognition and analysis.

I’ll keep a running list here.

RBI Baseball (1988, Nintendo Entertainment System)

There’s a little bit of nostalgia at play here.  Actually, there’s a lot of nostalgia at play.  And while I normally try to ignore nostalgia when evaluating a work’s time-tested quality, the original RBI Baseball has this undeniable old-school charm that enhances its enjoyability.

I recently played MLB The Show ‘11, which is arguably the most realistic baseball simulation to date.  The level of detail and control– from the way the loose-fitting jerseys ripple and move in the air to the all-too-genuine feeling of frustration after being humiliated by Tim Lincecum’s off-speed filth– is jaw-dropping.  But it also highlights a very simple truth: professional baseball is a difficult and complicated game.  And it’s a chore to play.

RBI Baseball, on the other hand, is simple fun and accessibility.  One button to throw.  One button to swing.  There’s more nuance to be found for skilled players, but otherwise, nothing is in the way of fun game of baseball.  

To this day, I frequently get RBI Baseball’s delightful “score” (essentially one synthesized song, over and over again) stuck in my head.  I often hum it to myself while watching actual baseball.  Like the game of baseball itself, RBI Baseball is filled with personal memories, such as playing marathon games with my brother, or always picking the American League All-Star team– which, for some unknown reason, wore purple and white, allowing me to pretend that I was actually playing with my beloved Furman Paladins.  On said AL All-Star team, I would always bat Mark McGuire leadoff; after all, he hit lots of home runs, and wouldn’t you want such a powerful hitter to hit first?  (I was still a few years away from grasping the concept of a leadoff hitter.)

RBI Baseball may not be the most sophisticated game, and you’re not likely going to come away from playing it feeling like you’ve stepped into the shoes of Don Mattingly or Jose Canseco (the latter, I imagine, would be a terrifying experience).  But if you played it, you probably had a lot of fun.  And that’s a pretty good start.