Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball

I’ve heard it said that the folks who worked on KGJPMLB, being based in England and all, had virtually no knowledge of baseball. Which, given the end product, is pretty interesting.

As you might expect, this game is based on major league baseball, which, here in the States, is the lifeblood of about 3/4 of the population. It simulates everything that you might expect in a baseball game: hits, pitches, fielding… bases. It lets you take your team on a complete 162 game season and all that.

The only officially licensed character in this game is Ken Griffey. The rest of the players in the MLB are in the game, but they have odd names. But! You have the ability to change their names, so if you have enough time and the ambition, you can have the complete roster from the year this game was created. Sneaky.

I didn’t really play this game too much, mostly because I was really bad at it. After a game you get to see a sports page of a newspaper detailing the results. Mine showed that I was ‘whipped’ by my opponent. Fairly disappointing.

It is worth noting that this game was compatible with the Xband modem. I only managed to play one game before I got exceptionally bored with the whole thing. A game could take upwards of 45 minutes or so, which isn’t exactly the quick action that I liked to see on the network.

I also hated getting by head handed to me in a protracted game. I can take losing in small doses. Losing a sub 5-minute match somehow hurts less than being down twenty runs in the fourth inning (with 5 more to go!).

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