Mike Piazza's Strike Zone

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 18, 1998, by GT Interactive. While being endorsed by Mike Piazza,[2] Strike Zone represents all of the MLB players in the 1997–98 season including those in the National League and American League.

Mike Piazza's Strike Zone
Mike Piazza's Strike Zone box art.
Cover art
Developer(s)Devil's Thumb Entertainment
Publisher(s)GT Interactive
Platform(s)Nintendo 64
Release
Genre(s)Sports
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Gameplay

The game offers standard baseball game play with all 30 official stadiums, and 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.[3] The player can play a single game or a season of 15, 81, or 162 games,[4] the World Series game, All-Star Game, or compete in a batting challenge known as the Home Run Derby.[3]

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 Controller Paks.[5] While playing with a Rumble Pak it cannot be replaced with the Controller Pak, and a separate controller is needed to save.[6]

Development

The game was developed by Devil's Thumb Entertainment, a company founded in November 1996 in Boulder, Colorado.[7] Some of the development team had previously worked on the Super NES game Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball.[8][9]

Reception

With a long list of customizable features and early test previews, the game received good previews from gaming sites such as IGN.[18] When finally released, however, it received unfavorable reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.[10] It was criticized for its graphics, few voice clips, continuous sound elements repeating themselves over and over, simple challenges and unrealistic home run hitting. It was compared to contemporary games such as All-Star Baseball '99 and Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr., both released for N64 that same year.[15] Next Generation said, "There are really only two baseball choices for Nintendo 64 this year – and Strike Zone isn't one of them."[16]

Electronic Gaming Monthly's Kraig Kujawa described the presentation as "so amateurish that it could almost be mistaken as a bad 16-bit game".[12] Of common note by Electronic Gaming Monthly critics the poor detail and animation in the visuals, particularly with the players. Wrote Kujawa, "pitchers throw the ball with what seems to be about three frames of animation and the bat swings aren't much better."[12] Another one of the magazine's reviewers, Shawn Smith, panned the audio's low fidelity.[12]

See also

Notes
  1. Two critics of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game each a score of 2/10, one gave it 3.5/10, and the other gave it 3/10.
  2. In GameFan's viewpoint of the game, one critic gave it 58, and the other 55.

References
  1. Johnson, Greg (June 3, 1998). "Dodgers Took a Calculated Risk in Moves". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
  2. Johnston, Chris (February 12, 1998). "GT Announces Piazza Signing". GameSpot. Fandom. Archived from the original on November 14, 2000. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  3. The Rookie (May 1998). "Sports Insider Previews: Mike Piazza's StrikeZone". GamePro. No. 116. IDG. p. 107. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  4. Instruction Booklet, page 9
  5. "Mike Piazza's Strike Zone (Walkthrough)". Nintendo Power. Vol. 110. Nintendo of America. July 1998. p. 65.
  6. Instruction Booklet, page 15
  7. "About the Thumb". Devil's Thumb Entertainment. Archived from the original on December 2, 1998. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  8. "Mike Piazza's Strike Zone: Can Piazza Match Up Well Against Griffey?" (PDF). Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 105. Ziff Davis. April 1998. p. 40. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 1, 2023. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  9. Air Hendrix (April 1998). "Baseball's Starting Lineup: Mike Piazza's Strike Zone". GamePro. No. 115. IDG. p. 86. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  10. "Mike Piazza's Strike Zone for Nintendo 64". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  11. Cook, Brad. "Mike Piazza's StrikeZone [sic] - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on November 16, 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  12. Kujawa, Kraig; Hager, Dean; Smith, Shawn; Ricciardi, John (July 1998). "Mike Piazza's StrikeZone". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 108. p. 134. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  13. "Mike Piazza's StrikeZone [sic]". Game Informer. No. 63. FuncoLand. July 1998. Archived from the original on September 9, 1999. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  14. Higgins, Geoff "El Nino"; Mowatt, Todd "Video Cowboy" (August 1998). "Mike Piazza's Strike Zone". GameFan. Vol. 6, no. 8. Metropolis Media. p. 50. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  15. Casamassina, Matt (June 17, 1998). "Mike Piazza's StrikeZone [sic]". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on June 13, 2023. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  16. "Mike Piazza's Strike Zone". Next Generation. No. 44. Imagine Media. August 1998. p. 94. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  17. "Mike Piazza's Strike Zone". Nintendo Power. Vol. 110. Nintendo of America. July 1998. p. 96. Archived from the original on June 13, 2023. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  18. Schneider, Peer (April 27, 1998). "Mike Piazza's StrikeZone [sic] (Preview)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on June 13, 2023. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
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