Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).
Shigeru Miyamoto recalled that in 1983, he "personally really wanted there to be a Baseball game" for the Famicom, and was "directly in charge of the character design and the game design".
Because the video game industry was so young and had crashed in America in 1983, and because some other NES launch games like Clu Clu Land have abstract fantasy themes that are not instantly recognizable by a new audience, the presence of a traditional American pastime was said to be an instantly relatable aid to the system's introduction.
In 2007, IGN gave Baseball a 5.5 out of 10, noting its depth of pitching, its two-player support, "its still-intact sense of fun", and its important place in Nintendo's history.
The review said that the 1985 test market launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System had "heavily relied upon" Baseball, due to the globally recognizable status of the sport.
In 2006, GameSpot gave Baseball a 4.2 out of 10, stating that while it was easy to play, the "bare-bones" replica of the sport "hasn't withstood the test of time".
In 2020, historian Ken Horowitz said VS. Baseball (1984) lacks certain features of the competing Sega's Champion Baseball (1983), but has superior multiplayer capabilities.
The game sold 3,200,000 copies worldwide (as of the end of 2022-12) and 2,350,000 copies in Japan (as of the end of 2022-12).
In Japan, 2.35 million copies of the original Famicom version of Baseball were sold.
Worldwide, 3.2 million copies were sold for Famicom and NES.
It was originally released in Japan on December 7, 1983, a few months after the July 15 launch of the Famicom.
Shigeru Miyamoto recalled that in 1983, he "personally really wanted there to be a Baseball game" for the Famicom, and was "directly in charge of the character design and the game design".
The Famicom had only three launch day games on July 15, 1983, and Baseball was released on December 7totaling seven games by 1984.
Because the video game industry was so young and had crashed in America in 1983, and because some other NES launch games like Clu Clu Land have abstract fantasy themes that are not instantly recognizable by a new audience, the presence of a traditional American pastime was said to be an instantly relatable aid to the system's introduction.
The passages quoted on this page are taken verbatim from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles.Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) — reusable under those terms. They are the work of the people who wrote them.