Play Furuta Atsuya no Simulation Pro Yakyuu 2 (Japan) Online

Ever stumble across an SNES baseball game that actually makes you think? Furuta Atsuya no Simulation Pro Yakyuu 2 is one of those—no mindless home run spamming here. You’re managing lineups, adjusting player stats (down to stuff like bunting skills, which I totally ignored at first), and calling plays that actually matter. The pixel-art players have these little animations—catchers shifting stance, outfielders scrambling—that make it feel alive despite the 16-bit limits.

It’s named after Atsuya Furuta, a legend in Japanese baseball, and you can tell it’s made by people who know the sport. Not just a reskin of some American title. The first game was decent, but this one tightens everything: smoother fielding, smarter AI, even the way rain delays look. Yeah, there’s weather. Of course, it’s all in Japanese, but if you’ve played enough baseball games, the menus start making sense. Or you just mash buttons and hope for the best—worked for me until I figured out how to stop my pitcher from collapsing in the 7th inning.

If you’re into deep retro sports sims, this is the kind of game you lose an afternoon to without realizing it.