Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr

KEN GRIFFEY, JR. GOES DEEP FOR NINTENDO SPORTS

New Technology Supports Most Detailed Baseball Game Ever

REDMOND, Wash., May 26, 1998 – "Take me out to the (video) ball game. Take me out to the (video) park. Buy me some (video) peanuts and (video) Cracker Jacks. I don't care if I ever get back. ‘Cuz it's root-root-root for the (video) home team – Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey, Jr."

Nintendo of America Inc. brings out the heavy lumber with today's release of Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey, Jr. This 128-megabit, 3-D, one- to four-player baseball game is now available nationwide, only on Nintendo 64 – the world's most powerful home video game system – with a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $59.95.

The game includes a proprietary graphic technology – Nintendo Reality System’ – featuring more than 1,500 motion-captured character animations, including those of Ken Griffey, Jr., and a unique game-play mechanism that closely matches the experience of playing in the big leagues.

"Following on the heels of the critically acclaimed and commercially successful sports games 1080° Snowboarding’ and Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside, Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey, Jr. is another powerhouse addition to our top-quality line of Nintendo Sports games," says Peter Main, Nintendo of America's executive vice president, sales and marketing. "This game is better than any competing title because the Nintendo 64 hardware can create graphics and produce artificial intelligence that other systems simply cannot match."

Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey, Jr. features two unique pitching and batting systems that make every pitch a game-within-a-game, adding a more strategic element that's missing in other baseball games. In the Arcade Mode, cursors representing the ball and the bat both start in the center of the screen; the pitcher and batter then play a game of hide-and-seek, as the pitcher's cursor disappears momentarily until the pitch is delivered.

Once the ball is released, the batter can then readjust his bat location to swing to the spot where the ball is heading…if there is still time left. In the Classic Mode, the on-screen cursors are removed, creating a more realistic, challenging pitcher-to-batter confrontation.

The game takes advantage of the unparalleled artificial intelligence capabilities of Nintendo 64 in a variety of ways. For instance, as a pitcher grows tired in the Arcade Mode, the ball cursor stays on the screen for a longer duration, tipping off the location of the pitch and forcing the game player to make some managerial decisions regarding his pitching staff. Each hurler comes with a variety of pitches and varying degrees of stamina, replicating those of the real-life counterpart.

Another example of the excellent artificial intelligence is evidenced in the fan attendance at each game. As a player progresses through a season, the number of spectators fluctuates based on the record of the team and how well the team is playing.

The game features licenses from both Major League Baseball Properties (MLBP) and Major League Baseball Players Association®, providing for the inclusion of authentic team logos, uniforms and real-player names and statistics from the 1997 MLB season. The game also includes all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums, each intricately detailed and rendered in lightning-quick 3-D. For a visual feast, players can take a virtual stroll onto the field of each stadium to enjoy its ambiance.

Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey, Jr. includes four different game modes, Exhibition, Season, World Series® and Home Run Derby’, and three different levels of difficulty, Rookie, Veteran and All-Star’. There are two different ways to play Home Run Derby – Traditional and Alternate.

Additional features include: managerial options, such as drafting, trading and free agency; authentic stances (of the more popular players); realistic sound effects from players, crowd and umpires; Rumble Pak-compatibility, allowing players to feel every catch, slide and bean-ball; and a battery-backed memory for saving season data.

Source:

Press Release

Crammed with great graphics, enough options to satisfy a major-league manager and play control as sweet as Griffey's swing, MLB Featuring Ken Griffey Jr. is a powerhouse game that threatens to run away with this year's Most Valuable Player trophy.

Developer Angel Studios sweated the details on this gorgeous Pak for more than two years. The results are well worth the wait. MLB comes loaded with painstakingly MIP-mapped graphics and character animations as smooth as butter.

The topper, though, has to be the pitching and batting engine. Precision play control, always a top priority with sports games, is nothing short of brilliant in MLB. A light touch on the Control Stick enables you to quickly and precisely swing just where you want to. The Control Stick also does a big-league job of spotting where you want to throw pitches.

Hall of Fame artificial intelligence makes playing against the computer as easy or as challenging as you want. You can make things very easy for yourself by turning on Automatic Fielding and selecting the Rookie difficulty level. But you'll want to master fielding, which proves again and again to be one of the pure joys of this pak. You can challenge yourself even more by choosing Veteran or All-Star difficulty levels.

The computer weighs many factors before making a managerial decision. Before running in a relief pitcher, for example, the computer will consider how tired the current pitcher is, the game's score and the chances of winning. If you're playing a season, the computer will consider how tired your bullpen is from recent outings.

The computer proves to be a savvy general manager, too, carefully analyzing a trade offer before deciding whether to accept or reject it. MLB features all the general manager features you'd expect in a top-flight pak, including trades, free agents and a draft. When playing a season, you'll have to cope with injuries and fatigued players.

Top-notch play control, graphics and options -- MLB Featuring Ken Griffey Jr. has it all.

Source:

www.nintendo.com

Make your dreams of becoming a Major Leaguer a reality! Hit a grand slam, pitch a no-hitter, go for the cycle and steal home -- all in the same game!

If that's not enough, check out the real-time stat tracking in over thirty major categories. Improve your team by making the right trades and picking up the best free agents. Major League Baseball® Featuring Ken Griffey Jr. is so real, every pitch counts! * 30 MLB® teams, including the 2 new expansion teams and all 30 MLB® stadiums! * Draft and trade from more than 700 MLB® players! * Statistic-tracking for over 30 major categories! * Season, World Series®, Home Run Derby™, and Exhibition modes. * Feel the crack of the bat using the N64® Rumble Pak accessory! * Save seasons to N64 Game Pak memory and transfer to the N64 Controller Pak.

Source:

Back of Box - N64 (US)