''MLB ‘98'' is a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

video game for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

developed by

Sony Interactive Studios America 989 Studios was a division of Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) that developed games for PlayStation consoles and Windows personal computers. Their games include ''EverQuest'', ''Twisted Metal III'', ''Twisted Metal 4'', ''Syphon Filter' ...

and released in August 1997. It precedes ''

MLB '99 ''MLB '99'' is a Major League Baseball video game for the PlayStation released on April 14, 1998, developed by Sony Interactive Studios America and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America. The color commentary for the game is from Dave ...

'' and is the sequel to ''

MLB Pennant Race MLB Pennant Race is a baseball simulator released for the PlayStation on September 30, 1996 by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game takes place during the 1996 Major League Baseball season. Rosters and statistics are accurate as of the 1995 Maj ...

''.

Gameplay

Games are called by public address announcer Mike Carlucci.

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

center fielder A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the c ...

Bernie Williams Bernabé Williams Figueroa Jr. (born September 13, 1968) is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball player and a musician. He played his entire 16-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the New York Yankees from 1991 through 2006. ...

was featured on the cover. Some of its features are the 30

clubs, six playing modes, complete statistic tracking, and creating players. It has been succeeded by ''

'', where

Vin Scully Vincent Edward Scully (November 29, 1927 – August 2, 2022) was an American sportscaster. He was best known for his 67 seasons calling games for Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, beginning in 1950 (when the franchise was located ...

began calling the games. Starting with ''MLB 2000'', joining him is infielder Dave Campbell on color commentary.

Reception

''MLB '98'' received above-average reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. Most critics praised the fluid animation, comprehensive licensing, extensive features, and the usually fast pace of the games. The two sports reviewers of ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...

'' both gave it a 9 out of 10, with Kraig Kujawa describing it as "fast-paced, straightforward and (most importantly) fun." ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

''s

Glenn Rubenstein Glenn Rubenstein (born March 2, 1976) is a writer, director, and journalist based in Northern California. Journalism Rubenstein has been a columnist for the ''San Francisco Examiner'', ''Sports Illustrated'' for Kids, CNET's (now defunct) GameCente ...

was much less enthusiastic, commenting that while the game has all the expected features, it fails to truly stand out in any area, leaving him certain that a superior baseball game would come out by Christmas. '' Next Generation'' said, "There's no denying that ''MLB '98'' is a good, solid baseball game that surpasses '' Triple Play '98'' in many respects. However, in the grander scheme of console baseball, ''MLB '98'' does nothing to advance the genre and can't even clean the cleats of

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

's '' World Series Baseball '98'' for

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

." ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

'' concluded that it "gets rookies into the action right away and can definitely keep the most seasoned veteran hooked for an entire season. If you like your baseball served up arcade-style, ''MLB '98'' is the only game you need to order." Just a few months after ''MLB '98'' was released, ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' listed it as number 97 on their "100 Best Games of All Time", saying it "has its minor flaws and bugs, but overall it's the best 32-Bit baseball game." Note: Contrary to the title, the intro to the article explicitly states that the list covers console video games only, meaning PC games and arcade games were not eligible.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mlb '98 1997 video games Major League Baseball video games North America-exclusive video games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation (console)-only games Sony Interactive Entertainment games Video games developed in the United States