10 Best Baseball Video Games of All-Time

Many sports video gamers choose football as their number one sports purchase each year due to the Madden and NCAA Football franchises but over the years the best football games have all come from long series of games. Major League Baseball on the other hand has produced a lot of great video games that are unique from each other. These are the 10 best baseball video games.

Sports Talk Baseball (Sega Genesis)
Any gamer that picked up a Sega Genesis controller and inserted the Sports Talk Baseball cart would consider the play-by-play to be pretty bad by today's standards. At the time though, commentators that actually spoke were a new idea and Sports Talk Baseball did it a lot better than its football brother.

Bases Loaded (NES)
Bases Loaded made the mistake of using the camera behind the pitcher instead of behind the batter. This camera angle is how baseball is seen on television but hitting the ball is more difficult. Other than that Bases Loaded had very good graphics at the time and the game produced six sequels.

Earl Weaver Baseball (PC)
Earl Weaver Baseball looks ancient now but provided many innovations for the baseball genre. Earl Weaver Baseball was the first game that allowed players to simulate an entire season, had a manager mode, had multiple ballparks that looked differently, had the firs MLBPA license and featured real players and the Amiga version of the game had the first voice synthesis of any sports video game.

Pete Rose Baseball (Atari 2600)
Despite a behind the pitcher viewpoint like Bases Loaded, Pete Rose Baseball was probably the best pre-NES baseball game. Pete Rose Baseball was a pleasant surprise because until then the baseball games on the Atari were an epic fail

Realsports Baseball (Atari 5200)
Realsports did not have a lot of extra features that we love so much in baseball games but all the important elements of the baseball game were handled well. Realsports featured very good graphics at the time, the gameplay was very good and the voice synthesis was top notch.

Basewars (NES)
Basewars was one of the most memorable baseball games because of how bizarre it was. Basewars was set in the future and players would have a team of baseball-playing robots. Some of these robots would have tank treads, others would hover, another had a motorcycle wheel an some had human legs. Each player also had a weapon and a team would win either by scoring more points than the other team or destroying so many of the opponent's players that they have to forfeit.

Baseball Stars (NES)
Baseball Stars did not have real players or teams but it made up for the lack of a license by allowing players to create their own team and name all of their players. In the season mode each player would have a money value and by paying them that much money the player would be able to increase the player's stats. Unfortunately paying a player more money doesn't necessarily mean they'll play better in real life (I'm looking at you Jason Bay).

Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball (Super Nintendo)
Ken Griffey Jr. had all the real Major League Baseball teams and may have been the first game to have the Rockies and Marlins as part of the league. The players were fake but their names could be altered so the player could enter real players. The nicest feature of Ken Griffey Jr. was that it had all the Major League Baseball stadiums in great enough detail to tell which ballpark it was.

MVP Baseball 2005 (Playstation 2)
MVP Baseball 2005 is the second best baseball video game of all-time even though from a technical stand point it probably ranks first. The MVP Baseball series of video games was such a superior franchise than the 2K series that five years later there are still many gamers trying to get a copy of a five-year old MVP Baseball game over the current season's 2K game.

RBI Baseball (NES)
MVP Baseball 2005 is the best baseball video game from a technical standpoint but RBI Baseball runs away from the pack in nostalgia and fun. RBI Baseball was like the baseball equivalent of football's Tecmo Bowl. It was the game that a larger percentage of the first video game generation grew up playing.