I have nothing nice to say. Every aspect of this game drives me up a wall. The music is repetitive and obnoxious. Casting spells is frustrating. Multiple status effects that stop you in your tracks. Character progression is simple and uninspired given this is an FF game. Everything is slow. Traveling the world map, story events, connecting GBAs. GBAs dying is the cherry on top. Carrying the chalice is but a drop in the bucket compared to everything else I've mentioned. There is a clear gameplay loop they have designed but I hate playing the game so the fact I have to keep grinding dungeons for stat ups and materials to make progress is infuriating. There's little left to enjoy when the foundation was so poor in the first place.

[Played on Retron 5 with the original cartridge]

Nintendo's Baseball is a rather basic interpretation of the sport.

There are no stats. There are no distinct players. There is no customization. There is no fielding control beyond what base you throw to. Pitching is as simple as choosing your throwing speed and your curve. Hitting is as simple as moving your batter and swinging (or pausing mid-swing to bunt). That's essentially everything provided here, so it makes sense that people through the modern lense view this as bare-bones.

Compared to many baseball games of the time, this is pretty outstanding. When viewed against Atari's home run and the offerings on Mattel's Intellevision and Epoch's Casette vision version, this is clearly far ahead. It may not be another level of complexity in comparison, but the game is certainly closer to the physical sport, especially on a visual level.

I think my only gameplay gripe is that of the fielding. I often felt like the ball would go straight through my players and that some would just stop trying to go for the ball even if they were closer than the outfielders. Don't even get me started on how slow they can be. Sure this is kind of a double-edged sword because it can really help you if you're the one batting, but then again I do wish I had some more sense of control in this.

At least I can say that everything else feels fine. I'm really not a big sports game guy, but I can appreciate how approachable this title is. It's just your basic no-nonsense baseball, and that can be kind of problematic in the sense that it's very easily overshadowed, but I can't say this is bad at all.

Sadly, I still don't know if I would call this good either. I appreciate what's here but I would never go out of my way to play this (at least alone). I guess part of that has to do with there being so many other Baseball titles on the NES to choose from, and so many better multiplayer games too. Despite those feelings I have, I can admire what's done here. Considering how cheap this title is, you really don't have a reason to not pick it up (unless you just really hate baseball). Even if you don't like it it's only about a fiver lost, and you should still have plenty of fun with a friend, even if this isn't exactly anything good in the modern day.

I can not believe it took me this long to play this game. I was in denial for so long, I thought before that, “oh fan carts and emulation are cool but I can just never do it, i’m a pure real hardware girly”. But then I grew up. Finally picking this up from a local game store and not stoping since I first turned it on. Such an insane level of creativity that i’ve never felt before. I’ve only played Mother’s contemporaries such as undertale, but now that i've actually played this game, I can see why it’s so special. The gameplay is super engaging and I love the rhythm combo mechanic, it made paying attention to the great music more satisfying. The flow of the chapters and characters getting all the right amount of development at the right times is just beautiful and well paced. All while being funny and super gay as shit. I love the Magyspies so much.

I also have to mention the sprite work on the gba here is just amazing. I love every single use of color and animation. The gba is such a fun piece of hardware to experience these kind of games on.

Nothing beats the feeling of crying in your bed, dimly lit by you gameboy advance at 3 am cuddled up to your loved one experiencing this devastating art. Such a beautiful and heart breaking game.

“Hey other world.
Be good to Jill”