Mike Piazza's Strike Zone
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| Mike Piazza's Strike Zone | |
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| Developer(s) | Devil's Thumb Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | GT Interactive |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64 |
| Release date |  June 16, 1998 |
| Genre(s) | Sports |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Two player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) |
| System requirements | Control Pak for saving, Rumble Pak for vibration feedback |
| Input methods | Standard controller |
Mike Piazza's Strike Zone is a baseball game licensed by Major League Baseball and was released for the Nintendo 64. It was developed by Devil's Thumb Entertainment and released on June 16, 1998, by GT Interactive. While being endorsed by Mike Piazza Strike Zone represents all of the MLB players in the 1997-98 season including those in the National League and American League. The game offers standard baseball game play with all 30 official stadiums, a choice of leagues to play for, but also offers the player the option to design their own team and league, from the logo, and uniforms all the way up to player abilities and appearance. While often compared to games such as All-Star Baseball '99 and Ken Griffey Baseball both released for N64 that same year, its graphics are more polygon-like and stiff when compared to the others, it offers a Simulation mode and Arcade mode, and the same simple to understand control functions[1]. The player can play a single game, season of 15, 81, or 162 games[2], the World Series game, All-Star Game, or compete in a batting challenge known as the Home Run Derby.
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[edit] Game Play
The official players in Mike Piazza's Strike Zone have different batting and pitching styles as well as stamina that causes them to perform with less precision after being used continuously. When batting the ball has a flame-like trail behind it that tells the hitter whether it is in the Strike Zone (red) or in the Ball Zone (blue), allowing the player to better choose which balls to hit. Saving the season, and saving a player created team, require separate Control Paks.[3] While playing with a Rumble Pak it cannot be replaced with the control Pak while the game is being played, and a separate controller is needed to save.[4]
[edit] Reception
With a long list of customizable features and early test previews, the game received good previews[5], when finally released with polygon graphics, few voice clips, continuous sound elements repeating themselves over and over, and simple challenge and unrealistic home run hitting[6] the game would receive a mix of various reviews;
- Nintendo Power 5.4/10
- IGN.com 3.0/10
- GameStats.com 3.9/10
- gamefaqs.com, user ratings 9/10 and lowest being 5/10
- neoSeeker.com 2.5/5
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://ign64.ign.com/articles/152/152276p1.html IGN.com review of Mike Piazza's Strike Zone
- ^ Instruction Booklet, page 9
- ^ Nintendo Power issue 110, page 65
- ^ Instruction Booklet, page 15
- ^ http://ign64.ign.com/articles/122/122276p1.html IGN preview
- ^ http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/review/R65422.html review on GameFaqs
