Ken Griffey, Jr.'s Winning Run

Ken Griffey, Jr.'s Winning Run

Cover art
Developer(s) Rare
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Composer(s) Eveline Fischer Novakovic[1]
Platform(s) Super NES
Release date(s)
  • NA June 10, 1996
Genre(s) Traditional baseball simulation
Mode(s) Single-player
Multiplayer
Distribution 32-Mbit cartridge

Ken Griffey, Jr.'s Winning Run is a baseball video game developed by Rare for the Super NES that is named after the baseball player Ken Griffey, Jr.. It is the follow-up to Nintendo's previous Ken Griffey, Jr. Presents Major League Baseball. Two years later, Nintendo released another game featuring Griffey, Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey, Jr. for the Nintendo 64.

Summary

The game features the 28 MLB teams in existence at the time, though playing through a full 162 game season unlocks the option to play against the two expansion teams, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Arizona Diamondbacks. You can play in a franchise mode, MLB Challenge mode, exhibition (single-game) play, and All-Star Game mode which includes a home run derby mode.

The game's title is derived from the final play of the 1995 American League Division Series featuring the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees. On a play that is sometimes credited with "saving baseball in Seattle," Griffey scored the game's winning run all the way from first base, on a close play in the bottom of the 11th inning.[2]

Due to the lack of a Major League Baseball Players' Association license, Griffey is the only player in the game to use his actual name. However, one of the fun and largely unknown parts of this game is identifying other MLB players based on the phony and sometimes pun-laden names given to them by developers. For example, the prolific and temperamental Albert Belle is transformed into "Frank Liberty", Frank Thomas who is nicknamed the Big Hurt is named "Big Magoo", left-handed slugger Tino Martinez is called Viper Ramirez, athletically talented and muscular slugger Barry Bonds is named a similarly alliterate "Muscles McFee", Cal Ripken, Jr. is named "Lou Junior", and hard throwing then-Mariners ace Randy Johnson is called "Bolt Lightning" and the twirling Japanese import Hideo Nomo, nicknamed "Tatsumaki" (The Tornado), is aptly changed to "Typhoon Kuroi."

External links

References

  1. ↑ Composer information for Ken Griffey, Jr.'s Winning Run at SNES Music
  2. ↑ Ken Griffey, Jr.'s Winning Run instruction booklet