0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Bottom of the 9th

     

Bottom of the 9^th also known as Bottom of the 9^th Major League Heroes in Japan, is a baseball simulation sports game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Chicago and published by Konami of America. Bottom of the 9th and is one of Konami’s earliest franchises with the series dating back as early as 1989.

This release was one of the first in a mini revival of the Bottom of the 9^th Franchise, a revival that was short lived with the franchise not making it into the new millennium. The game released on the Playstation in North America and Japan in late 1996, the Sega Saturn release of the game occurring at around the same time.

A Nintendo 64 port of the game would be released three years later on April 14^th 1999. This game while licensed by the MLBPA for real player names, the game did not however have a licence for the team names, as a result teams are named after their respective cities.

Notable people who worked on the game, Norio Takemoto who worked as a Designer on the game also worked as a Producer on the following two releases in 1996 and 1998. More recently he worked on Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 to 2018 and a Product or Project Manager.

Shinichiro Shimamura who worked as a Designer on the game as well, he worked on the 2D and 3D map graphics for the 1999 releases Vandal-Hearts II, he has also worked on the Castlevania series from 1997’s Symphony of the Night as a designer to his most recent credit in the series the 2006 released Castlevania Double Pack for the Game Boy Advance, which contained both Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow. Shimamura’s most recent credit was away from Konami, he worked on the 2015 release Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam with Shimamura working on the games graphics.

Masahiro Ueno who worked as a Production Supervisor for Bottom of the 9^th a role he would hold for the next two releases. He was the Producer for the Konami Collector's Series in 2002, the first being a collection of Castlevania & Contra games released on Windows, the second was the Konami Collector's Series Arcade Advanced which was released for the Game Boy Advance.

Following those releases in 2002, Ueno worked mostly on the Frogger series, working as a Producer on five Frogger titles from 2002 up until 2005. Following this Ueno moved to MySims and the 2007 Wii release as part of the Production Team, he would go on to be a Senior Producer on MySims SkyHeroes which was released in 2010.

Jun Funahashi has had a long career in the video games industry and a long career with Konami, his career dates all the way back to 1986 and the NES game Crackout. He worked on the Sound for the 1989 released Castlevania III Dracula's Curse, as well as the 1992 released Contra Force. Like Masahiro Ueno he worked on the Frogger series as either and Audio Director or Audio Manager from 2001 to 2006. His final credit is for the 2007 released Midway title Stranglehold, where he provided Additional Audio Support.

This version of Bottom of the 9^th features 700 real life Major League Baseball players, while the has player licenses the game does not feature real team names instead the game has team names based on the cities that the MLB teams are based for example Boston and Chicago.

Bottom of the 9^th features three main game modes as well as an additional training mode. The first mode is an exhibition mode for single player games against the computer as well as human versus human games. The main mode of the game is the full complete MLB season, if however you don’t want to play the full length seasons the option to reduce the number of games in a season to either 52, 26 or a minimum season of 13 games. The full seasons mode includes the playoffs at the end of the season

The training mode which is used to hone your skills, this mode allows you to practice your pitching, fielding, batting and base running skills. In addition to the previously mentioned modes the game also features a manager mode, this mode allows you to perform trades as you manage your team.

The gameplay is geared more towards a simulation sports game rather than an arcade game, with player stats determining how well the player will field, pitch or bat. When in control of your player who is pitching the D-Pad is used to select which type of pitch you want to throw and the location of the pitch. When you are ready to pitch the X button is used, during the pitching motion if you repeatedly press the X button the power of your players pitch will increase

When in control of the Batter  the D-Pad is used to aim the batting cursor this can be locked on to make it easier for beginner players, the X button when batting is used to swing your bat. In addition to a simple swing there are more batting options available, the L1 or L2 shoulder buttons can be used to do a hit and run, pressing the R1 or R2 shoulder buttons will make your hitter go for a more powerful swings, players can also bunt by pressing the Triangle button.

When fielding the shoulder buttons are used to throw the ball to the cut off man, the triangle button is used to throw the ball to the second base, The square button is used to throw to third base, Circle will throw to first base while the X button throws the ball directly home.

Critically the game was pretty well received, earning a review high of a 90 as well as four review scores in the 80’s range. The game also received a couple of respectable scores, and while it did fall below this point from two reviewers the game did not fall below an average review score.

As usual we will start with the best of them which comes from Gamezilla, who awarded Bottom of the 9^th an impressive 90. The reviewer calling the game the one game that no baseball fan should be without, even if you are not a baseball fan with fun enough gameplay. Concluding the review said. “This is one of those games that makes your family happy that you invested in a second TV”.

Game Players magazine were next up with their 87 rated review, with the review finding that the game is a great arcade/simualation combat that is highly recommended and a ton of fun.

GamePro (US) were next with an 80 rated review, one of three 80 rated reviews received for the game. The reviewer saying, “serious baseball fiends will enjoy this ballpark’s authentic, and challenging gameplay, at least until the next wave of Playstation baseball games arrive this summer.

IGN were the next 80 rated review, while the reviewer did find that Bottom of the 9^th does not look as impressive as previous Konami sports titles, the reviewer however found the deep gameplay to more than make up for it. While the reviewer did have some issues with the games screen being cluttered and the aforementioned weaker graphics they concluded by calling the game an intensely detailed game

Video Games & Computer Entertaiment are the final 80 rated review, this being a magazine review and one from a publication that ceased printing soon after this review very little information on the review is available, other than the following. I certainly don't have too much of a problem with this, though. For the most part, MLBPA: Bottom of the 9th is a worthy baseball title.

Dropping down to the 74 rated review from GameFan Magazine next, the reviewer finding that the single camera angle does hurt the game, but otherwise it’s a nice looking B-Ball game that plays very well. Concluding however they had the following to say. “Basically video game baseball, no matter how dressed up, is just repetition. The 32-bit versions look real nice but until I get a real time hat cam, I'm steerin' clear.”

All Game Guide were next up with a decent 70 rated review, the reviewer finding all in all Bottom of the 9^th is an enjoyable baseball experience that should not be missed by those bored with traditional offerings. From here the reviews for the game too a bit of a dive with the penultimate review falling to a 58.

This review comes from The Video Game Critic, who unlike the other mentioned reviews in this section did not review the game when or near when it came out. This review comes from 2005, with the reviewer finding Bottom of the 9^th to be an odd case, where its graphics are so bad they’re good, and its smooth arcade style gameplay is timeless.

The final review comes from Electronic Gaming Monthly who rated the game at an average 55, with the reviewer finding the game nice to look at, but a real pain to play. The reviewer found the learning curve for hitting is simply too long, with it being hard to hit the ball resulting in the computers AI killing you.

They continued by saying that the game is a good first effort, but the gameplay needs a lot of work, the reviewer did praise the practice feature, calling it a nice touch. Concluding however they said it would be best to rent first to give the game a try.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, where if you are looking to trade in your copy of the game at Gamedude you will be looking at $5 for your copy of the game. If on the other hand you are in the market for a copy of Bottom of the 9^th from Gamedude, you will be looking at an outlay of $14.

Retrogames.co.uk are next up, sadly this game is not available or even listed on the site. So we will quickly move on to eStarland.com where we find the game listed alongside the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 versions of the game. The Playstation currently has one copy available from eStarland.

This copy is a used but complete copy of the game, this copy is priced up at $7.50. Also on offer at eStarland is a trade in for the game, with up to $3.50 being paid for a complete copy of the game. At the time of writing trades in for an incomplete copy of the game are not being accepted.

Lastly we have Amazon.com where we find a modest supply of the game available. The cheapest complete copy on offer is the long box version in acceptable condition, with a broken case, this copy will set you back $5.96, several disc only copies also litter the first page of listings.

The next complete copy of the game we find is listed as being in very good condition, this copy is priced at $5.99, but once shipping costs have been factored in this price rises to $9.98. The next couple of complete copies both of which come in good condition, and can be picked up for $12.06.

Two more complete copies of the game are on the market, the first is a copy of the Long Box version, this copy which is in very good condition can be picked up for $13.93. The second copy another very good condition copy is available for $18.97. This game is another that is suffering from disc only syndrome with a large majority of the copies on offer being disc only copies.

Written by

P J Gibbon