Evolution of Hitting Systems in Baseball Games

[RaychelSnr]

Batting systems in baseball video games are constantly changing. When developers do change them, they tend to implement systems that either completely reinvent how users hit the ball or repeatedly refine the hitting experience that is already available.

From the simple button presses present in RBI Baseball to the more intricate right-analog stick system present in MLB 2K9, hitting systems have never remained exactly the same for very long. Like many other video games, as the technology has improved, hitting systems in baseball video games have become increasingly more challenging.

While it would take too long to detail each baseball video game’s batting system -- from RBI Baseball to MLB 2K9 -- I intend to look at the evolution of batting systems in a few key baseball games today.

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[The Sim God]

good article!
you shouldve included BASES LOADED....that was my ISH for nes

[davewins]

only thing i think they need to do for the future in hitting is increase the contact timing window tenfold. this way instead of having quality of contact be for example 100% (hardest hit ball) 80%, 60%, 40%, 20%, etc it would be by 5% increments that way we see more variety in hits and more doubles and less hr's. Just increase that timing window ten fold year in and year out. the shows hitting system in my opinion is perfect. i think all they need to do is just tweak the timing window as described every year.

[Smokez4DAyz]

MLB2K9 has PCI and Batter's Eye. And Zone Hitting. Overall, The Hitting System in MLB2K9 trumps The Show. I Am Just Talking About The Hitting System. I Spray The Ball All Over The Field. In The Show I Barely Get Hits.I've never seen any of the MLB2K9 reviewers mention that its got EVERY Hitting System We've Ever Used.

[jyoung]

Cursor batting is the devil.

I pretty much stopped playing baseball games when they became widespread.

There's just too much complication going on with most of the interfaces, and I've always preferred hitting to be based solely on timing, the angle of the hit, and the location of the ball on the bat instead of arbitrary nonsense like hot/cold zones and "power hits" vs. "contact hits."

[JonahFalcon]

You forgot Atari 2600 Baseball

[SDwinder]

2K's hiting system is a joke, very arcade. The Show's is intuitive and works like the thought process and reaction on the field does. The hit physics are great in The Show with a ton of realistic outcomes.

Smokez4Dayz doesnt get hits in The Show because it separates the men from the boys, due to its realism. This guy keeps trying to find ways 2k9 is better than The Show. It is a complete waste of time to do that. Move on.

[WatchdogXC]

I remember using a hitting cursor in the old World Series Genesis games and I got pretty good with it in '95 and '96 since I played those a ton.

[sroz39]

Give me a "Hitter's Eye" type feature in The Show, and I will agree that it is the greatest hitting system out there. I hate using guess pitch but I'm forced to because it is a little too difficult for me to distinguish pitch types at times.

Obviously, make sure it's an option that can be turned on and off. I understand its not everyone's cup of tea.

[mKoz26]

Yo, SDWinder, calm down. This isn't 2k vs. The Show. That's not what these articles are about. Move on. Now, back on track. Very nice article.

[baa7]

As far as pure zone hitting goes, HH was the best. The Show can't be referred to as Most Realistic Ever given hit results often have very little to do with bat placement. I can aim low and away and still hit high and inside pitches in The Show. Couldn't ever do that with HH. Or with MLB 2K5's zone hitting for that matter, which I consider as good as HH's zone hitting. 2K5 definitely should have gotten a mention in this article.

[MultiThreat]

I second the lack of inclusion of Bases Loaded. I grew up playing it (and Baseball Stars, for that matter), and loved the location-based hitting. There was nothing else like it for some time. I downloaded it for the Wii the other day and was surprised that the hitting actually held up fairly well (although not much else did, but meh).

[Loser09]

Should have had a mention of Power Pros. It has in my opinion the best interface out there. Cursor based, and the cursor varies on both hitter ability and current situation. How can someone honestly say that timing should be the only factor in hitting? If that were accurate why would anyone in baseball bother with breaking balls?

[ComfortablyLomb]

Re: Evolution of Hitting Systems in Baseball Games

I'll probably be criticized for saying this but I think The Show's hitting system is a cheat. The trick to a proper hitting system is putting the batter in complete control of the outcome but all the batter does in The Show is improve his (or her!) chance of a good outcome (ie a hard hit ball). MVP's was too simplistic and quirky but at least when I was dead perfect on a pitch I knocked the snot out of it. That's not the case in The Show and I don't know if I'll ever warm up to it. The results may be correct but the developers got there the wrong way.

[StormJH1]

I'm surprised that World Series Baseball (for Genesis) gets so frequently overlooked. That game was revolutionary for its time (like 1995, maybe?) in so many ways. The cursor batting system, which the article attributes to All-Star Baseball 1999, was actually an innovation of World Series Baseball. And I'm not 100% sure, but I think the cursor size varied with hitter ability (as it does in PowerPros today). Also, you had the choice of Contact, Normal, or Power swing, which you also see in games today. I think that a good cursor system is the best effort videogame baseball has made at "simulating" the experience of lining up a pitch and swinging at it with gameplay that is fun and accessible. 2k9 tried to implement cursor batting as an option, but it was extremely inconsistent, and nearly unplayable. And their swing stick, much like many zone hitting mechanisms, only gives you half of the batting equation, which is the timing aspect--so it's basically softball.