Extra Innings FI

SNES A Day 44: Extra Innings

extra_innings_us_box_art

Approximate Release Date: March 20, 1992
Genre: Baseball simulation
Developer: Sony Imagesoft
Publisher: Sony Imagesoft

Extra Innings‘ distinguishing feature is that it’s the best-looking baseball game so far on the Super Nintendo.

That’s it.

I know it probably gets tiring reading the sports games reviews on SNES A Day and seeing the same complaints. That’s partly from my own ignorance about this era in sports video games, and also from playing these games so close to each other. In the ’90s, people would get a baseball game and that would be their only baseball game for the foreseeable future. How similar these games are didn’t really matter back then.

But I got major Nolan Ryan’s Baseball vibes from Extra Innings. These games were released less than a month apart, so I’m not saying there was any developmental theft going on or anything. It just shows how two unrelated games can draw from the same well of ideas and end up feeling so similar, and implies how little effort was being put into getting these games out into store shelves.

I’m struggling to come up with anything of note to differentiate Extra Innings from the earlier baseball games. Fielding is still the worst part about baseball games, as you control everyone at once. It would be nice if there were some kind of AI to position players in places that make sense or have them start moving toward where the ball is going.

There aren’t licensed team names, so there are pretty awful fake teams to choose from. I chose the Bees as my go-to team, but I also think the idea of a team being called the Triplets is funny as well. And like all baseball games, Extra Innings has a create-a-team option as well.

So yeah.

Just play Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 instead, okay?

Tomorrow: It has been almost two weeks since a scrolling shooter. It’s time for Raiden Trad!

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