SNES

Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run

This phenomenal baseball game is even better than the first Ken Griffey game, and that's saying a lot. The pitcher/batter view is now angled low enough so you can see the stadiums in the background, and they look fantastic. Once the ball is hit, you view the field from a much higher angle. This makes the fielders appear small but makes it easy to track down the fly balls. The players look more realistic than they did in the first Ken Griffey game, although Ken himself looks ridiculously buff on the title screen. Winning Run preserves the fast-paced gameplay of the first Ken Griffey, and the crowd and umpire sound effects are noticeably improved. The only faults I could determine are the lack of major league players and no instant replay. Otherwise, this is the best baseball game I've played on the SNES.

World Series '95 fans will probably stand by their man on the Genesis, but it'll be hard to find SNES baseball that bests Griffey's game. Winning Run's a solid hit for Nintendo.

I didn't expect to like this game much, but to my surprise, Ken Griffey Jr. is a fun, well-designed experience. If you own a SNES and eve kind of like baseball, then this is the game for you.

What do you get when you take the team of talented Brits responsible for Donkey Kong Country and ask them to come up with a baseball game? Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run, of course! Certainly not the combination one might expect. How would Rare be able to pull it off? While the title is far from a simulation, it is a fun playing arcade game that surprisingly doesn't skimp out on the features.

If you're still faithful to your 16-bit machine, this is a definite buy for baseball fans. In comparison with the predecessor, the gameplay has greatly improved. Realistic player animations have been enhanced as well. Newer sounds and cleaner graphics can make this compete with the 32-bit machines out there.

Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run is the best baseball around for the Super NES. While not a perfect sim, it has all the necessary elements to sustain the suspended belief of a real game, while not bogging you down in too much little stuff.

Hitting and scoring are so difficult, the game becomes depressing. All 28 pro teams are represented here, but except for the game's marquee-value all-star, the real boys of summer are no-shows — so you're forced to face off against such ridiculously named players as ''Mosh Pittman.'' Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run barely manages to leave the dugout.