the cutting room mirror

Virtual League Baseball

To do:
Prerelease images.

Virtual League Baseball stepped up to bat as the first (and only) released baseball game for the Virtual Boy. A sequel was on deck for release in 1996, but the system struck out before it ever got to the plate.

PLAY BALL!

Regional Differences#

To do:
There's more, including in-game player graphic differences.

Title Screen#

Japan

US

Mode Select#

Japan

US

  • Allstar Game and Mini Pennant Race were renamed All Star Game and Pennant Race, respectively.
  • The US version adds an option to turn the background music off.

Teams#

Japan

US

The Japanese version features real teams from Nippon Professional Baseball, which the US version replaces with international teams.

Passwords#

Japan

US

  • The password system in the Japanese version contains the full English alphabet plus an exclamation point, question mark, comma, and period. The US version, as per Nintendo of America policy of the time, replaces all but the exclamation point and question mark with the numbers 0-9 and card suits (spade, diamond, club, and heart), which in turn reduces the number of selectable characters from 30 to 16.
  • Blank spaces are represented with hyphens in the Japanese version and Xs in the US version.

Auto Pause#

Japan

US

The Japanese version offers a happy cup of joe in the auto pause screen. This offer doesn't exist in the US version but instead asks you to "please take a break, sports fan".