World Series Baseball and the Sega Saturn

A quick overview of the World Series Baseball games on the Saturn and the series that inspired it.
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Opening "Sega" jingle is from Astal for the Sega Saturn.
Ending Music during the credits is from Batman for the Sega Genesis.
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By: Jan Neves
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Intro by Evan S.
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Outro Animation by Kevin Bhall
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Episode Notes:
1. All games captured on real hardware.
2. These games had some team customization features I didn't cover here so I could keep the runtime down.
3. Sega's last lineup of mainline sports offerings were the ESPN titles on the Xbox and PS2. Once Sega lost the NFL license to EA, they sold off Visual Concepts and exited the market as a prolific sports developer/publisher.

[@jeffm5056]

My friend and I had a series going with World Series Baseball '98 as the Cincinnati Reds, and went through half the season undefeated. We would hang out at my house and play a couple games a night every week. It was a great memory of my late teens. I wish I still had my Saturn. I've always regretted not finishing the season.

[@briantaylorcloe7725]

Awesome!! I did the same with the Mariners, for part II ... My best friend joined me for just a few of those games, cause we had to balance our game sessions with Bomberman, Perfect Dark, Mario Kart among others; but I got ⁸ or ⁹ of my Seattle Squad into the All•Star game ... Hehe

[@Adam_M_D]

Nice ❤

[@andman433]

Me and my brother did the same thing with the Reds on the first World Series on Saturn. I think we went 159-3. My brother lost all the of the games and I never let him live it down. 😂

[@GotTheBestLigma]

Go Reds!

[@davidowens7305]

Always Enjoy that you bring up the retro sports games. They always feel left out of Video game history

[@GameSack]

Baseball games were great until they started getting the official licenses and taking themselves too seriously. Those World Series games on the Genesis are much worse than Tommy Lasorda with that hit box and all. However the first World Series Baseball on the Saturn was great fun. Literally the most recent baseball game I have enjoyed. The widescreen support in the Greatest Nine games is bad as it stretches the batter view because they didn't spend the ten minutes needed to compensate for that. And of course they brought that dumb hitting box back. I guess I just prefer my sports games to be more arcadey and less simulation.

[@Karateka1973]

I've had my Genesis copy of World Series Baseball for 30 years and still fire it up from time to time. In 1994 this game was the only baseball we had, as we were experiencing another baseball strike or lock-out. I also have my Saturn and World Series 98 is my go-to sports title on that console. I'm playing a season on it now.

[@RARufus]

This game was so incredible at the time. I played many, many hours of WSB1 & 2, Victory Goal Soccer, NHL Powerplay and others. So many great memories of the Saturn!!

[@ProcyonAlpha]

I only picked up NHL power play recently, it's great! Probably my third favorite game , bested by slapshot on the master system and hitz 2003 on the gc

[@weekendroady2060]

As a young teen who had grown up with my NES and SNES, I had missed out on the great WSB titles on the Genesis. Moving over to the Saturn was a revelation! I still have all three of my WSB Saturn titles and pop them in from time to time. Had so much fun with them back in the day. I was one of two people in my high school who had one though so there wasn't much of a shared experience for me unfortunately.

[@Canadian_Gamer]

I had this game on launch, it was a great game.

[@jerkusclownstar]

How awesome is that

[@TheMucky88]

I had World Series Baseball released in '94 on the Genesis and I remember it being tremendous. I was only around 6 years old when I got it but I knew even then it was good, just like I knew Desert Strike was quality. I would play those games until I got blisters on my fingers.

[@cliffchampion5501]

Always a good episode when you need it.

[@MatthewCobalt]

"Not to be confused with 'World Series Baseball'"

[@Lightblue2222]

I love that game.

[@Mitsuraga]

🐼

[@GenerationGapGaming]

Great topic to cover. Absolutely loved the World Series games in the 16 bit era. Didnt have a Saturn back them, so it was great to visit these today.

[@r-rod8116]

I still remember World Series Baseball II on Sega Saturn. One time, I played it, and it was raining on that game. It would sometimes call all players to return to their own dugout depending on how hard it would rain, and it would either bring the players out or call the game due to rain. Good times.

[@briantaylorcloe7725]

I remember that, too! Got a few quick wins that way .... LoL Maybe losses and even draws, if that is possible ... Hehehe

[@IMDLEGEND]

I love games that put in those little details. It adds so much to the experience!

[@mrfake675]

I had a no hitter going into the 9th and it called my game. I have never forgiven Sega for this clear abuse of power.

[@Lord_Deimos]

I couldn't care less about baseball but it's a Sega Lord video and I'm gonna watch it

[@JohnnyGooch79]

WSB '98 is still my favorite Baseball game on any console. That Mariners team was phenomenal !

[@G14Classified]

The best team on there

[@thejervis86]

Masterpiece game!

[@michaeloffgrid]

World Series Baseball on the Genesis was the first sports game I remember being reviewed as a great *game* -- not just a great sports game. Game Players magazine scored the first WSB on the Saturn a whopping 97, which IIRC, equaled their score for Final Fantasy 6.

[@jtgleave]

I have so much nostalgia from the SEGA World Series baseball games. I never had a Saturn so the Genesis versions are the ones I remember most!

[@evilash570]

WSB and Sports Talk Baseball were so awesome on Genesis back in the day! Never played the Saturn sequels

[@froston4]

World Series Baseball 2 holds some good memories for me

[@IMDLEGEND]

I was so glad that Sega Sports had made a strong comeback with the Dreamcast. To be fair the later Soccer games on the Saturn turned out very well too.

[@fabiosemino2214]

I bought 3 soccer games at the time, Euro96, Worldwide soccer 97, and fifa98, while I had a ton of fun with the second one and less with the others I find these sports games the one I come back less these days

[@kokocostanza2036]

Mostly strong comeback. NFL, NBA, AND NHL2k were good and the 2k1 were even better (no NHL), but WBS 2k1 was an absolute pile of trash. The players and stadiums looked great, but everything else was a disaster.

[@IMDLEGEND]

@@kokocostanza2036 I never played the Dreamcast baseball game. That’s so surprising since Sega was so strong with their baseball games up until the Dreamcast.

[@kokocostanza2036]

@IMDLEGEND It was absolute trash. The fielding was automatic and there was no way to disable it. The audio was muffled and baserunning was a chore. It got terrible reviews and it deserved all of them. Thankfully 2k2 was a completely different engine and while not fantastic, was light years ahead of 2k1.

[@LordTeaboBaggins]

@@kokocostanza2036 it also had a bug where custom players never regained stamina after games

[@Scott.B.Chapin]

Great video! I can't even count how many hours I spent playing Home Run Derby on WSB 2 - trying to get that perfect 20/20 and chalk up the longest hit distance.

[@boredstudent]

My ex-brother in law had World Series Baseball 98 on his Saturn. He was a pretty big Sega fan himself

[@RetroEmpireDefend]

One of the Greatest game Franchises of the 90s. As a sports fan, this franchise was absolute Gold back then.

[@TillsterT]

To this day World series baseball II (Saturn) is my fav of all time !!!

[@darylr2370]

Played the hell out of this back in the day. First game where my dad was impressed by the gfx, lol.

[@lonin2533]

個人的にセガの野球ゲームといったら「プロ野球チームをつくろう!」の派生の「プロ野球チームであそぼう!」ですね。あれは守備でのキャッチが選手視点になっていて、見上げながらキャッチするので他の野球ゲームと差別化できてましたね

[@filipmartinez1162]

Was a shame they didnt have a single 3D football game. The Saturn could have pulled off Blitz 99.

[@BobbyHo2022]

Ive given up on sega making a new console and just spending rest of my life enjoying what they got out.

[@jerkusclownstar]

Sega will remain a third party forever. 😈 In fact they should have never had made consoles, consoles were a mistake for them.

[@BigGainer98]

​@@jerkusclownstarTroll

[@jerkusclownstar]

@@BigGainer98 Hey be nice

[@PogueSquadron]

I remember playing a lot of World Series Baseball back in the day with my brother on the Genesis. Once Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run came out for SNES though, we were done. Even without the real players, we couldn’t get enough of it.

[@nicolaashamman6201]

Ah, I recognise that lovely, gritty NAOMI World Series Baseball music. I forget sometimes how hard the Saturn WSB music is to find. I really should sort out the sound test recordings I did maybe a year ago for the first two. The GREATEST NINE opening movie themes are pretty banger.

[@seancdavis13]

Baseball Advance was a great portable game!

[@supercap3000]

I played WSB 1 and 2 on the Saturn with my older brother We LOVED the games and played them for hours on end I have to say that I’m not sure if it was the jump to polygons or what but we didn’t love 98 as much as the first entries. We were really of the mindset of “if it aint broke don’t fix it” Another point- SLX mentions that the differences from 1 to 2 were minimal like roster changes etc. we were hardcore fans of part 1 and the additions in part 2 were amazing and worth it. All the stadiums were included (pt 1 only had 4 of them I believe). Also, more batting stances were included especially ones accurate to the players (realistic batting stances were a big deal). Also, all the players now had their jersey number on the back. Amazing memories Thank you SLX again

[@angleshero2447]

Maaan, WSB was one of my favorite games from Genesis to Saturn. Thanks for the video. Great Job! Go Braves .

[@Jhoffa22_]

World Series baseball is my sh*t, my favorite was World Series '95 with Andres Galaraga being the cheat to cranking homers...💯

[@filmbuff2777]

I had World Series Baseball 2 on Saturn when I was a kid.

[@jwilder2251]

I feel bad for early Saturn adopters, but I bought it late with WSB 98 and Virtua Fighter 2 - those games alone were well worth the price of admission

[@churchofthelambofsat]

I loved this on Game Gear

[@Real_Sgt_Tom]

The fact that these games have more presentation than the RBI Baseball games of the past few years continues to show what Sega did that other simply Don't.

[@mccalejk2]

The only baseball game where I completed a 162 game season… with only 4 stadiums 😅

[@jburdsinfuse]

Who would have thought the golden era of sports would have been 30 years ago?

[@mjdf122]

Sega Lord X Sega Saturn and World Series Baseball amazing memories thank you for taking us back in time every video I’ve blessed to see all from 1980-Now

[@ikemenbcn24]

I had world series baseball II and was awesome gem and world series baseball 2k1 on dreamcast, nice times

[@nickatmacomb8965]

I absolutely loved the World Series Baseball for the Game Boy advance. I was actually able to score more than 100 runs one game which was insane

[@BurningRangers]

Baseball was pretty well represented on the Saturn even in the US. You should review some of the others and do a best of list.

[@rancid_]

I miss Sega sports games, I hope one day they try again although I imagine the cost to license one of these games would be insane by today's standards.

[@Pally356]

My dad, brother and I would always play World Series Baseball I and II together. Many great memories. Its a shame that Sega Sports eventually folded. I know alot of the dreamcast sports games were really well received. But I guess alot of things changed in sports games with the exclusivity deals. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[@stephentysz5988]

WSB98 is still my favorite baseball game of all time

[@icenine09]

YES DUDE! This was my jam back in the day.

[@mathewkolakwsk]

What great memories! These games were so solid, and just plain fun. And watching my guy Ozzie Guillen hitting a double with two strikes (on World Series Baseball for the Saturn)… it just warms my heart :-) NOTE: Ozzie would eventually become the manager for the 2005 World Series champion White Sox, and today he is one of the pre and post-game hosts for the team on the channel that airs Sox games, NBC Sports Chicago.

[@GhostStalkerActual]

They got panned for only doing roster updates lol. Today they'll tell you it's worth $100 for ultimate team cards

[@stanwright4110]

I loved World Series Baseball on the Saturn. I remember when I got World Series Baseball 2k on the Dreamcast and I hated it, and now I know why.

[@tom11zz884]

World Series baseball 98 was praised by reviewers back in the day for being the best baseball game on any system at the time. Still holds up well today.

[@britneyspearsvillarosa]

My ❤️ will always belong to MLB series on PS1 more specifically MLB 2000❤ that game is absolute gold I love it when I was 14 back in 1999 I'm 39 years old now and I still love the game 25 years later

[@BryanTruong]

I liked NBA Action 98 and NHL PowerPlay 96/All Star Hockey 98 on the Saturn. Shame Sega didn't have a great Football game on the Saturn, although the 2K Football games on Dreamcast blew me away at the time

[@maroon9273]

Sucks sega never developed any nfl and nba games during it's launch. Missed 1995 major football and basketball game releases.

[@mattb6522]

Good review! I'm not even a baseball fan, but some baseball video games can be really fun! So is World Baseball '98 technically the best baseball game on the Saturn or was there another game that was even better? I'd love to try some of these old baseball games. The ones on the Dreamcast look especially good!

[@michaelfrost6503]

WSB 98 was the best baseball game for Saturn

[@mattb6522]

@@michaelfrost6503 Thanks, man! Definitely will check it out! It looks like a really solid game!

[@philmason9653]

I hope you do get around to doing other Sega sports series videos. Specifically Sega's Genesis NFL & MLB series. There's a bunch of Genesis Madden series retrospectives & rankings but I can't find anyone who's gone through the Sega stuff. The Dreamcast NBA & NFL games are a natural as well, but probably deserve their own videos considering all the circumstances surrounding them and their subsequent influence.

[@Mitsuraga]

Huh. And here I always thought that World Series Baseball '98 was an MLB-ified version of Greatest Nine '98, not '97. Shows what I know.

[@MichaelTorres-b2v]

I loved World Series 98. Sega did the right thing by sacrificing a couple of polygons k the player models so the game could run at a silky smooth frame rate. Meanwhile, EA’s Triple Play games had horrible frame rates so they could cram every polygon they could into the player models. Those games were atrocious.

[@RicardoRandom691]

Great video, and now I'm ready to revisit the series :) I'd love a deep dive into the Joe Montana series, especially its tangled origins with Madden, since EA and Park Place Productions were involved in its development. PPP are deserving of a video of their own, too!

[@6sKi6z6]

I got WSB on a sampler disc that came with my Saturn. It allowed you to play the home run derby. I’m really not that big a sports videogame fan, but this one was fun. I ended up eventually getting the full game and loving it. The one gripe I’ll always remember about it is that the sound f*cks up when it says Frank Thomas.

[@IndyF1FanMarquis]

I always hear the frustration and disappointment in Sega Lord X's voice when he speaks of the western developers for Sega, and I completely understand it. Remembering that time personally, it's a wonder how Sega themselves completely disavowed the reviews and complaints from the fans. I refuse to believe that they were completely cut off from the criticism. Not that every title out of Japan was a winner, but more often than not they were. You'd think this would've been some kind of motivation to the western developers to step up their game. Half the problem in my mind was development time. Sega of America always seemed like they were in a rush to put out games on the Saturn; there were always delays of some kind. I think that goes all the way back to the rushed launch. A bit off topic, but relevant to what happened with so many of the sports titles that released on all of Sega's consoles in the west after the Genesis.

[@dragonz6189]

Love your channel and the content you cover man!

[@an0therdimensi0n99]

the time went by so fast. whistling outside to get cousin's attention to answer the door. 3rd flood. hot af. world series baseball 5 hours

[@beeaye7944]

What I wouldn't give for someone to hack one of the Saturn WSB titles with modern rosters.

[@Gorilla_Jones]

All the SEGA WSB games are fantastic! WSB II on Saturn is still great to play today.

[@djpythonsexotics2704]

The first WSB on the Saturn brought back great memories... :)

[@AguilaDeOnix85]

Your point about Sega of America constantly dropping the ball is on point. It was happening when SCEA was showing up with NCAA Gamebreaker and NFLGame Day. N64 had pro wrestling on lock. Man, it felt like Sega was fumbling on purpose.

[@crackcorn0404]

I had World Series Baseball 98. It was a ton of fun. Just wish there was general manager features. Also, the leap in visuals from the Saturn to the Dreamcast is astounding.

[@alexgeorge501]

I wanna see a similar video with either basketball or hockey games on the saturn

[@kingof95694]

No major upgrades on WSB 2? There were 4 stadiums in the first game, and 2 gave every team their own stadium. That is a huge deal. The first one was like a demo of the 2nd one. Also, gameplay was super smooth and fast-paced. The only other game as fluid and fun was mvp 05.

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

If there’s one thing that Sega needs to do is bring back Sega sports.

[@megabyteDeSu.]

WONDERFUL TIMES!!!

[@paulblackwood46]

Why does most of your video show the Mets getting beat?? 😀

[@mjf8897]

World Series Baseball 2 is peak 2D baseball. the homerun derby is worth the price of admission all by itself.

[@mikelucash1881]

World Series 98 is still my all time favorite baseball game

[@Harerazer]

The only MLB game I ever put real time into.

[@georgelea4297]

WSB 2 was my favorite game on the saturn

[@terranceoliver8935]

Now that you mentioned it, did Sega of America release any good Saturn games? I personally can't think of anything that the Japanese consumer would consider importing.

[@JiltedValkyrie]

Not really a big sports fan, but I used to occasionally watch baseball and had World Series Baseball on the Saturn. I fondly remember the game -- especially the music! I can still hear it in my head doing home run derby.

[@timothymoynihan8063]

I played tf outta this on my Saturn.

[@Ashura96]

Is it just me or does the first World Series Baseball on Saturn only have a limited number of stadiums to play in?

[@daren42]

It looks like WSB 98 didn't even get released in Europe, all I can find are NA and JP imports. Criminal. As is the fact that baseball is largely overlooked here in favour of cricket, which I cannot stand. I know which one I'd rather watch and play! Good stuff, man

[@Skorpio420]

I loved the World Series series of games for the Saturn. I had all three. And when I got my CIB Saturn in the mid/late-00s I made sure to get them all again.

[@Aragorn7884]

Triple Play '97 ❤😅

[@ricardobarros1090]

WoW Dreamcast game😍

[@KennethKaylor-k8l]

I guess I was in the minority, I loved WS2 a lot more than WS1 or WS 98. I still have them and almost all the Japanese baseball games as well. But, WS2 is still my favorite.

[@VirtuaIceMan]

World Series Baseball '96 appeared on PC too in Japan only, despite having the US teams in. I imported a copy but it's really hard to get running well on a modern PC. It appears to be based on WSB'95 presumably with '96 teams.

[@radiantmuse23]

I remember having this on my Sega Genesis with sonic 2 it was hype but i wasn't good at it lol but NHL 96 now that game i was good at

[@Jolly-Green-Steve]

Sega should have made first party basketball and football games with this 2d player sprite style. Konami should have also ported Run and Gun arcade game.

[@mercster]

I really, REALLY wish there was a decent MLB game for PC. Super Mega Baseball is cool and all, but...

[@co81385]

I am glad that you are covering this game! I absolutely LOVED these games. I am not really a baseball fan, but I loved these games. I had many, many, many afternoons with friends having very competitive games against each other with these games. Also, those games could potentially break out into fights, if someone threw the scroogie pitch! 😂 By the way, I prefer the arcadey style of the 2D World Series games than that or World Series '98. To me, World Series Baseball 2 for the Saturn is the baseball equivalent of NHL '94.

[@Jebbreh]

I put so many hours into these.

[@acerimmer8338]

WSB 98 is easily my favorite baseball game ever. So many hours played, so many homeruns. The B button quadrant was the right pick about 70% of the time. I used to get mad if I didn't win by 30+ runs! 😂 My friend and I still make the announcer voice decades later.

[@CortinasAndClassics]

I wanted these games back in the day. Sadly the pal region only got the first 2 games.

[@jonathanfenton5496]

World Series Baseball was a game I had and loved. Of course when Playstation came out with Triple Play 2000, and 2001, it outdid this game by a large margin. THen again we're talking about 4 years so not a fair comparison but I do tend to hold it up to Triple Play.

[@jonathanfenton5496]

World Series Baseball was a game I had and loved. Of course when Playstation came out with Triple Play 2000, and 2001, it outdid this game by a large margin. THen again we're talking about 4 years so not a fair comparison but I do tend to hold it up to Triple Play.

[@ShadowEl]

6:14 SLX I love you but you've been covering Japanese games for long enough that you should know better. it's pronounced NII-HON. not the phonetic "Nippon".

[@emotionz3]

WSB2k on DC make everything else look embarrassingly bad. All the baseball games on PS2 looked like tarted up PS1 games because there was terrible if any antialiasing. It might have looked fine back in the day on a CRT but man you load of most PS2 games today and they really don’t hold up well if they are trying to be photo realistic, while DC with less overall detail still look better because objects are smoother.

[@accumulator5734]

Game critics always mess up a good thing, when Gears 1 released critics mocked it’s bad ass art style saying out was different shades of brown. Then because of that Gears 2 and 3 were more colorful, it looked terrible 🤦🏻‍♂️. Definitely not as cool as Gears one

[@LJW1912]

I own both World Series Baseball 2 and Greatest Nine '98 (the year my team, the Yokohama BayStars, won the championship)

[@rodzor]

So good graphics