When I sat down to research and write this article for Operation Sports, I faced a dilemma. I wanted to make this list as comprehensive as any top five list could be, but I've never had the chance to play any iteration of MLB: The Show on PS3. So how does anyone pick only five games from the rich history of video game baseball AND leave out the best console baseball game of the last generation? Well, for me it became about games that I remember loving, and games that are still remembered fondly by my fellow sports gamers. Have a look at my top five greatest console baseball games, The Show excluded, and let me know what you think.

Baseball Stars (1989) – When I look back at the first game that got me hooked on console baseball, it's not even close. It's Baseball Stars on the NES, released in the U.S. In 1989. Often referred to as the best baseball game on the NES, Baseball Stars was the first game to have many of the genre's most popular features. The game was cited by David Littman of EA's NHL series fame, as the inspiration for the GM mode that exists today. Among the other “firsts” in Baseball Stars; battery backup for stored statistics, create-a-player, create-a-team, and female baseball players. Baseball Stars also offered customizable league and season play (up to 125 games), RPG elements in team building, and a monetary/attendance model.

Simple pitching included fastball, off-speed, curveball, and sinker ball pitches. Hitting is timing based. Responsive fielding included the ability to jump, dive, and shift infielders. Eight teams were included on the cartridge with room to create six more. Baseball Stars spawned one direct sequel, three Neo-Geo spinoffs, and two other Nintendo baseball games using the same engine; Little League Baseball (1990) and Legends of the Diamond (1992).

World Series Baseball (1994) – World Series Baseball on the Sega Genesis, released in 1994, was the first baseball game that captured my attention with it's gameplay first and foremost. The original World Series Baseball was innovative in many ways. The first game to use a perspective from the catcher's eyes as opposed to overhead, it also featured all 28 MLB teams and each team's 1994 opening day roster with a 162-game schedule. Also featured (although not baseball gaming's first): a home run derby and full play-by-play announcing (the latter first seen in 1991's Sports Talk Baseball on Sega Genesis).

Strategy felt more meaningful than any previous console game, with each pitcher having a reasonable facsimile of their real life pitch repertoire. Eight pitches were possible including fastball, curveball, slider, splitter, change-up, knuckleball, screwball and sinker, all of which could be thrown at three different speeds. Pitch location had to be chosen before throwing the pitch. Hitting now provided the option of a contact or a power swing. Hitting in World Series Baseball was purely timing based, but it also had a circle which aimed the bat to swing with power at a certain “sweet spot.” Mistime your swing or fail to react to where the pitch is going, and you don't make contact. Contact swings got you a larger hitting circle, power swings got you a smaller hitting circle.

Understand that we're talking about 1994 here, so while the aforementioned gameplay doesn't sound terribly compelling, for it's time it was something different and welcome. World Series was a little bit home run happy at times, but that was a common issue with baseball games of this era.

To add to the depth of strategy you had a bullpen to warm-up your pitchers, double switches, infield/outfield shifts, bunts, pitch outs, and other strategic options. Three difficulty levels from Rookie to All-Star, four or six division alignment, and full season stat tracking with league leaders added to the depth. Realistic ballpark dimensions allowed you to pitch to the strengths and weaknesses of each stadium.

High Heat Baseball 2004 – You could choose either the 2003 iteration or the 2004 one here, but I enjoyed High Heat Baseball 2004 on the Xbox more than any other baseball game that year. It was also the last year that the game was made by 3DO. What made High Heat 2004 special? Beautifully simple to play, deep and difficult to master, it had an authentic feel and world class simulation results. Graphically, this game was always behind the times on home consoles. Released in March 2003, High Heat included eleven different modes of play. Exhibition, All-Star Game, Batting Practice, Home Run Derby, Two-on-Two Showdown, and the Career Mode were the highlights. Career Mode was the standout in this title, allowing gamers to play an unlimited number of years with player trading, free agency, rookie drafts, and minor league farm teams with development. Player editing was there too along with over twenty sliders with everything from pitch speed and baserunning A.I. to error frequency and rate of foul balls. The only hindrances in Career Mode were poor menus that weren't designed to be very console friendly.

Earlier I spoke about beautiful simplicity in High Heat's gameplay and I'd like to expand on that a bit here. Timing based hitting was always the standard in High Heat with no contact or power swing option, hittting was simple in execution but deep in it's mastery. To hit well you had to wait for the right pitch, time it to pull or go opposite field, time it to hit the ball in the air or on the ground, and work the count.

High Heat 2004 gave it's pitchers 27 total pitch types with only a ball and strike option at their disposal. Of course you could change the direction of the ball by moving the directional pad in different directions, but it was difficult without an onscreen cursor or rumble-based system to tell you when you're out of the strike zone. Variable umpires with bad calls also upped the challenge. No pitch meters, no power swings, and no invisible rumble zones, High Heat Baseball 2004 was a bit of a throwback and that was undeniably part of it's charm. Five difficulty levels were offered from Rookie to Hall of Fame, each one more authentic than the last.

High Heat always offered a large number of batting/pitching views that could be set up independent of each other and I always appreciated the variety, including some throwback cameras. Unlike in games like Madden where going to the highest difficulty level initiated what felt like speed cheats and psychic AI, High Heat was all about ramping up the difficulty by being more authentic. At the end of the day, that was High Heat Baseball 2004's most enduring quality. Unwavering authenticity to the game with a great mix of old school style and modern additions, the High Heat Baseball series was one of a kind.

All-Star Baseball 2005 – All-Star Baseball 2005 was truly a game for the hardcore baseball fan. It had amazing AI and managerial intelligence featuring saber-metric lefty vs lefty substitutions and the best late game pinch running/pinch hitting of any game available. The depth of the game was for serious fans. You want examples of how deep this game was? How about all thirty authentic stadiums for the 2004 season plus fictional and non-fictional ball parks that brought the total number to over eighty! Included were the Polo Grounds used by the then New York Giants; the Houston Astrodome; Hiram Bithorn Stadium used by the Montreal Expos in their final season; retro, current, and future versions of Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium and Dodger Stadium.

How about one of the deepest franchise modes in video game history? The ability to take your team through Spring Training, earning points to improve your team. A huge free agent pool, trading and creating players, calling up minor league players, watching players get inducted into the Hall of Fame, attending the Winter Meetings and even participating in the Rule 5 Draft. Going to arbitration with eligible players, you're also in charge of the budget (medical, training, and coaching staffs). The game even featured a full expansion mode, where you selected a city and mascot, chooe your stadium, then participated in an expansion draft, picking from a variety of veterans left unprotected from their teams. How about a 'This Week in Baseball' challenge mode where you try to "do-over" some of the most memorable moments from the 2003 season? Those moments include taking control of Moises Alou just in time to leap up toward the stands and catch the most infamous foul ball in Chicago history. How about classic players like Babe Ruth, Yogi Berra, and Jackie Robinson?

The depth alone in this game would make it an all-time great in my opinion even if it was just an average game on the field. But it wasn't. It played a very good, immersive game of baseball. The studio at Acclaim who worked on this game, the final game in the series, had a real passion for baseball and it showed in every detail of the game. All-Star Baseball 2005 was a love letter to Major League Baseball and it's fans, and I'll always have a soft spot for this game.

MVP Baseball 2005 – What can I say about a game that is still revered by many as the best baseball game ever made? I could talk about the depth and authenticity including actual high-A, double-A and triple-A-level farm teams. Two legends teams, 63 legendary players, 15 classic stadiums, 5 fantasy parks, and more than 100 retro uniforms are also on the disk. The game had RFK Stadium and the new Washington Nationals franchise as well.

I could talk about the much revered dynasty mode. A dynasty mode that lets gamers draft and manage an MLB team for up to 120 seasons all while managing your organization's three minor league farm clubs, team chemistry, rivalries, and player moods. I could tell you about Owner Mode, similar to Madden 05's famous owner mode, it gave baseball fans a chance to dive deep into ownership and financial responsibilities on a home console. It included things like stadium upgrades, promotional giveaways, ticket and concession pricing, and a custom ballpark editor.

I could talk about the Hitter's Eye system, which was completely new to console baseball gaming. Near endless customization of the game including difficulty, pitching indicators, fielding aids, icons, replay frequency, team chemistry, game tuning for both the player and the CPU, pitcher ball rate, user batting power, infielder speed, runner aggression, and injury frequency. I could tell you how EA Canada managed to make a pitching meter that felt better than any game that came before it. How about the smooth fielding with a throwing meter that was dynamic with player ratings? The great graphics and animations? The strong responsive online gameplay? The little things? I could tell you about all of those things. But MVP Baseball 2005 is a game that needs to be played by all gamers and fans of the sport for all of those reasons and more. It was the last baseball game that EA made, and they went out on the top of their game.

From Many to One

As a gamer who got to play sports games on the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube generation, I look back with amazement at how many great games we got. Three of my top five baseball games ever come from that era and I feel comfortable listing each one. Writing this piece has been equal parts research and nostalgia. I still own a copy of every game on this list with the exception of Baseball Stars on the NES. It was nice to take a look back at the greatest from baseball gaming's past before we step forward with the release of MLB 14: The Show. I can't wait to play it for the first time on PS4 and hopefully make a new entry into my personal top five.

Operation Sports, which games are in your top five? Sound off and let us know.