Retro Gaming Australia

Triple Play 96 is the first game in EA’s Triple Play Baseball series, which lasted until the release of Triple Play 2002, after which it was replaced by the MVP Baseball series. Prior to Triple Play, EA had flopped around on baseball, first licensing the Tony La Russa Baseball game from Stormfront Studios, trying to develop their own game with MLBPA Baseball, before going back to Stormfront for La Russa 95. Triple Play 96 boasted all kinds of things that hadn’t been done well in baseball games before – most notably huge sprites in the batting screen and competent fielding controls.

In the modern era, sports game updates are relatively incremental affairs – the sheer time it takes to develop a game from the ground up doesn’t gel with the annual release schedule. In the 16-bit era, it was a different story – one year’s sports update could be substantially different from the previous. FIFA ’95 was EA’s second crack at a soccer game, and it offered numerous improvements over the first game, including domestic club teams, vastly improved graphics, control and animation.