- JP release: 26th March 1998
- PAL release: N/A
- NA release: N/A
- Developer: Diamond Hear
- Publisher: Konami
- N64 Magazine Score: 78%
One simple change makes this a huge improvement over Power Pros 4: when the ball is pitched, a target appears on screen for you to aim at. It still needs incredibly quick reflexes, but you now have a chance of hitting the ball. The computer is still completely perfect, though, catching pretty much everything you hit while they always hit a large gap between your players.
Another new feature is the scenario mode, which gives you a bunch of in-progress games and you need to try and win from that position. It’s very similar to the scenario mode from International Superstar Soccer.
The RPG mode also returns, but there’s just an immense amount of text involved in it, so it’s difficult to keep track of what is going on.
Interestingly, there’s still no N64 baseball game that has released in the USA.
Fine
Although the text remained a mystery, we soon formed a bond with our adopted baseball kids. When the one who wears too much mascara and the twins with the inflatable heads were missing, presumed electrocuted, it felt like a beloved Tamagotchi had expired on us.
Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #17
Remake or Remaster?
I would like to see an English version of one of the RPGs in these games.
Official Ways to get the game
There’s no official way to play Power Pros Baseball 5
N64 Games by Date
1997: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1998: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1999: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2000: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
Bloody hell, I never realised how utterly dire the platform was for western-developed sports games… Pretty much nothing of note until 1998, two whole years into the console’s life.
A console with not a single Baseball or American Football game in the US for two whole years is just utterly dreadful… even the SEGA Saturn had managed much better!
Granted, sports games would come eventually, but they’d come far too late.
Thank God that the N64 had ISS for Europe, that was its big saving grace as far as traditional sports games go and it was a belter, but it’s also only one game and one sport.
Madden 64 and Quaterback Club 64 came out in October 1997, so just over a year after the US launch