Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball

Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball
Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball cover art
Developer(s)	Sculptured Software
Publisher(s)	Acclaim Entertainment LJN Flying Edge
Director(s)	Perry Rodgers
Designer(s)	Perry Rodgers
Composer(s)	Kingsley Thurber[1] (Super NES)
Platform(s)	NES (1991), Super NES (1992, 1993), Sega Genesis (1992), Game Boy (1992, 1993)
Release date(s)	1991, 1992, 1993
Genre(s)	Traditional baseball simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball is a baseball video game released in North America during the years of 1991 and 1992 for the NES, Game Boy, Super NES, and Sega Genesis. All of the ballplayers have the likenesses and abilities of the 1991 Major League Baseball players they represent. However, since the game is not licensed by the Major League Baseball Players Association, the only player whose name appears in the game is, of course, AL Cy Young Award Winner Roger Clemens. The 26 teams featured in the game correspond to the 1991 MLB teams as well, though team nicknames have been changed due to the lack of an MLB license as well.

The game was released in Japan as MVP Baseball (ＭＶＰベースボール).

Kingsley Thurber, the composer for Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball, also did the music for the Super NES version of Mortal Kombat along with Virtual Bart, Looney Tunes B-Ball and various WWF video games.^[2]

Gameplay

In 1993, the game was released in Japan. The game was only published for Nintendo's Game Boy and Super NES platforms. The game features 26 teams to use, an exhibition mode and a regular season mode consisting of 162 games. The game allowed players to "save" their career progress by giving them a password. Players had to memorize it and enter it at the menu screen when they wanted to continue the season.

By pushing a certain sequence of buttons on the Super NES version, a screen can be accessed where the variables for offense (pitchers/runners) and defense (fielding) can be edited. Another test mode can be found by virtue of using either Game Genie or Pro Action Replay on the Super NES version; which acts more like a traditional cheat menu then the debug menu.^[3]

The Super NES controls puts more emphasis on defense rather than offense as the majority of possible move combinations correspond to pitching a baseball to the batter. Base running is considered to be of secondary importance in the game while batting is considered to be simple by Super NES standards.^[4]

Criticism

Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball is scolded for having an inferior sense of gameplay to Bases Loaded 2; which was also a baseball game featuring an entirely fictional cast of ballplayers. The confusing angles for fielding essentially ruin the enjoyment of following the ball's shadow in order to put out a runner.^[5]

Player Name Humor

While many of the fictional players in the game have names that are simply mutations of their real names (i.e. "Gaddox" and "Fieldman" are Greg Maddux and Cecil Fielder respectively),^[6] the game programmers appear to have had a bit of fun with some of them, poking fun at the names of some of the real players they are intended to represent. Some examples follow below:

• Darryl Strawberry is "Raspberry".
• Steve Sax is "Clarinet".
• David Justice is "Judge".
• Dwight Gooden is "Doctor", in reference to his nickname "Doc".
• Rob Deer is "Bambi".
• Tim Raines is "Snows".
• David Cone is "Conehead," perhaps an homage to the comedy sketch which first appeared on Saturday Night Live and would later become a movie.
• Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco are both named "Bash", in reference to their being nicknamed the 'Bash Brothers' while teammates with the Oakland Athletics.
• Vance Law is "Order".
• Cal Ripken, Jr. is "Nekpir," which is simply his last name spelled backwards.
• Ozzie Smith is "Wizard" - after his well-known nickname
• Mike Moore is "Less"
• Rickey Henderson is "Speed"
• Dave Winfield is "Winbrener", in reference to Winfield's public feud with New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner throughout the 1980s before his trade to the California Angels in 1990.

References