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 It
didn’t take Tengen long to jump back on the R.B.I. gravy train this time
around. After forcing their fans
to wait three years for the first sequel, Tengen trotted out R.B.I. Baseball 3 the very next
year after the last installment.
Apparently they heard all of the complaints about the changes they
made to R.B.I. 2 because this time around they made virtually no changes
at all. Unfortunately, they
learned their lesson too late because it was R.B.I. Baseball that had the classic template not R.B.I. Baseball 2. Either way this game is a carbon copy
of its predecessor with only three changes that I noticed – none involving
gameplay. The main change is that
all of the rosters have been updated from 1989 to 1990. That means the Chicago Cubs are no longer
awesome and that the Cincinnati Reds are the defending champs. The second change (and most important
in my book) is that this game adds all of the division championship
rosters from 1983 to 1989 into the game as well. That means you can play as either the standard 1990 Cubs, the beloved 1989 Cubs
or the classic 1984 Cubs. Of
course if your team never won a division title between those years, you’ll
be stuck with just your 1990 roster.
Unfortunately Tengen didn’t have the naming rights to any players
already retired so they just provide the initials for those guys. Also, they fudged the rosters a little
on those teams in an effort to start as many current ballplayers as
possible. The Cubs for instance
have a .111 hitting Billy Hatcher in their starting lineup playing
shortstop instead of his usual outfield (and they have him batting near the
top of the order!). The final and
only cosmetic change that I noticed is that the field is a lighter shade
of green.
This would be the final installment of R.B.I. Baseball on the NES but the series would move over to
Sega where it would have five more games (including a port of this
title). R.B.I. would shockingly
return in 1995 for one last hurrah on the Super NES before disappearing
into the mist unnoticed.
Positives:
 Once
again R.B.I. Baseball 3 boasts
every Major League Baseball team – this time from 1990. The rosters are deep leaving you a good
chance that you’ll be able to start your favorite player no matter how
much of a scrub they were. You can
once again change around your batting order, play a season mode with a
password and most importantly play as Jerome Walton (even though he’s not
very good in 1990). The gameplay
is solid but not amazing and the game features the classic sound effects
of the original R.B.I. Baseball. The organ can be pretty fun as it plays
some classic baseball tunes when you are in clutch situations and it also
plays a little ditty during the 7th Inning Stretch. After each game you can check out your
team stats in the newspaper (unfortunately you can’t see individual
player stats) and in a nice touch the newspaper often hypes another
Tengen release. Unlike in R.B.I. Baseball 2 this time around
you even get hype for a couple non-NES games; Pit Fighter an arcade and Sega Genesis title and Police Academy, which Tengen never
released on any system!
Glaring
Negatives:
R.B.I. Baseball 3 does
everything right on a basic level but excels in no area. You can dive and jump for hard to reach
balls but you move so slowly that grounders can often go for
doubles. The players’ stats
definitely impact their production but even Vince Coleman jacked a homer
off of me. The computer is also
once again beyond easy to beat even on the so-called “hard” mode. Almost every game ended in the
slaughter rule with the exception of the final game against the Tengen
Programmers, which is a genuinely difficult match-up on hard mode. I also wish they would have made some
improvements over the last game. A
longer season mode that kept track of stats would have been awesome, or
at least an ability to see the players’ stats at the end of each game
would have been cool.
Graphics
and Sound: Pretty Good
Once again Tengen went to all the trouble of getting the MLB Players
License but then made every player white – that just doesn’t make sense
to me. The graphics and sound are
both fine but not exceptional.
There’s only one stadium, one batting stance and the players are
toothpick skinny. There are no
cut-scenes or animations, just bare bones baseball. The music is fun but gets pretty
repetitive. The umpires very
clearly say “out” and “strike”, which is a nice touch.
Gameplay
and Controls: Good
Controls are very tight and easy to use. The players are slow but do
what you want them to do. The
pitching is nice because you can’t go crazy with curves but you can
certainly pitch balls that are unhittable if you need to walk a scary
batter.
Features:
Password
You do get a season mode and if you are good enough you can get a
password to play against the programming team. You can also choose between having
music or not, having a slaughter rule (although it’s at 12 runs instead
of 10) and whether the computer difficulty is set to easy or hard (which
unfortunately is still ridiculously easy).
 Fun?: Not as much as
the first
If you enjoyed R.B.I. Baseball 2
then you will enjoy this game since they are virtually
identical. If you really want real
players then this is the best baseball game on the NES, but it isn’t the
most fun in terms of gameplay.
Challenge:
Easy Against the Computer
Once again the computer is very easy to beat but it can be very tough
to hit the ball against another human if they don’t throw strikes. You just have to remember to show
patience at the plate. Of course
the challenge ramps up significantly when you match up against the Tengen
Programmer team.
Replay: Yes
I bust this one out much less than the first game in the series but
much more than the second because I can play with the ’84 Cubs or relive
classic games like the ’86 Mets vs. the ’86 Red Sox.
2
Player: Yup
It’s certainly a step down from the original but it provides quality
gameplay and interesting matchups if you are playing against another
baseball buff.
Online
Manual?: Yes at Nintendo Age
You can find all the NES manuals
at Nintendo
Age.
Bottom Line: If you are a diehard baseball
fan
This game is much more important than R.B.I. Baseball 2 because it’s the same game with more teams
to choose from. It’s the top game
on the system for baseball fans who want to use real players since R.B.I. Baseball only offers 10
teams. If you are just looking for
a fun baseball game, though, this is just middle of the pack as it doesn’t
provide the gameplay features of the top tier games.
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