Gamevil's Pro Baseball series, also known as the Baseball Superstars series in the United States, is a mobile baseball game series. The first game came out in 2002, and the series have had 30 million downloads in total (first in Korean history).
The selling point of these games is the "My League" mode (beginning from Pro Baseball 2006) which allows the player to raise a baseball player and induct him to the Hall Of Fame.
Also, from Pro Baseball 2010 onward, a story line has been added where the protagonist of My League mode could meet "heroines" (who appear as special playable characters in the game) and develop a relationship with them.
The series chronology goes as follows:
- Pro Baseball 2002 (2002)
- Pro Baseball 2004 (2003)
- Pro Baseball 2005 (2004)
- Pro Baseball 2006 (2005)
- Pro Baseball 2007 (2006)
- Pro Baseball 2008 (Baseball Superstars 2009) (2007)
- Pro Baseball 2009 (Baseball Superstars 2010) (2008)
- Pro Baseball 2010 (Baseball Superstars 2011) (2009)
- Pro Baseball 2011 (Baseball Superstars II) (2010)
- Pro Baseball 2012 (Baseball Superstars 2012) (2011)
- Pro Baseball 2013 (Baseball Superstars 2013) (2012)
- Pro Baseball 2020: Superstars (Baseball Superstars 2020) (2019) note
The Korean website for Pro Baseball 2010 can be seen here
, and the Korean website for Pro Baseball 2011 can be seen here.
This game series displays examples of:
- Accidental Athlete: Medica and Psycher started out as this in 2008. Same for Luna the maid in 2012.
- A.I. Breaker: It's possible for the player to manually move runners around bases, which can confuse the fielding AI and give a runner or two extra bases. With fast enough running speed, it's possible for the player to hit an inside-the-park home run, every single time. It was no longer possible in 2020 due to an Obvious Rule Patch that makes runners unable to go back and forth between bases once they slide into one.
- Alternate Continuity: While 2010's Roze arc ends with the little heiress going back to her own country, in 2011, we learn that it was the protagonist that had gone "far away", leading the players to think that he died; that is, until the happy ending of 2011's Roze arc, where we learn that he actually went to the Majors.
- Captain Ersatz: Except for the Gamevils and the Swallows, the other eight teams and the players of the teams are based on the eight professional baseball teams of Korea (
at least, that's how it is in the Korean version...). - Continuity Nod: Several of them:
- In 2010, Medica says to the protagonist that she "has been close to Psycher for three years". Both Medica and Psycher debuted as special characters in 2008, and appear in 2008, 2009, and 2010.
- In 2011, a certain exchange between the protagonist, the baseball team's characters, and Medica, is directly copied from 2010's exchange (the protagonist even lampshades it).
- Crossover: Three other franchises at least make appearance as crossover:
- The crossover with Zenonia has two notable characters appearing in this game series: Chael (as "Camelle" the Nature Shaman in BS II, but later uses his canon name and appearance in 2020), and Regret (unlike Chael, he is reclassified as a Pitcher instead of Batter in 2020).
- Baseball Superstars 2020 later has a collab with River City, and then with Summoners War. The former is still it's own scenario and team, while the latter is re-integrated into the Perfect Lions team. Later in 2023, it has collaborated with Minigame Party (another game developed by the same developer company, much like Summoners War), and A Daunting Team (a Baseball comic series published in Korea).
- Demoted to Extra: Leony, one of the "heroines" of 2010, has only been mentioned once by her papa Leon in 2011, and Valentine, another one of the "heroines", is simply not mentioned at all.
- Dub Name Change:
- Strangely enough, Sohyang was previously dub-named Yuna in Baseball Superstars 2012, but this was reverted back in 2020 to be the same as her Korean name in the previous appearance.
- Even earlier before that, In the English version of 2010, King Tiger was redubbed as "Tiger KO". Like with the above example, he reappears with his original name in 2020.
- Also from 2010, Valentine was renamed "Erocia" for that installment's English release, but in 2020 she uses her original Korean version name as well.
- The original name for Boomsta/Boomstar/Boomiger was "Bung Bung Machine" in the Korean version. Unlike the above examples, this dub rename actually stayed true for the English version.
- Excuse Plot: 2009 did have a rival plot, but the rivals appeared few and far between.
- Expy: YMMV on this, but 2013 girl Haley seems to have the combined personality of Erin Andrews, Deadspin, and a stalker, rolled in one.
- Fanservice: All of the female special characters. The coach in 2012 and 2013 is this as well.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: During the eighth year of My League mode, the protagonist lampshades this, citing that his romantic overtures, in no way, should have taken place over eight years. Interestingly enough, the 2013 version has amended this, with the girlfriend subplots taking about three years to complete.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The protagonist in "My League" mode.
- Hospital Hottie: Medica, a recurring character in all Baseball Superstars titles, depicted in every appearance as an overall very attractive nurse.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Senior until 2012. Then he and the Captain switch roles and bodies. Also 2012 PB girl Bora, although it's because she's still emotionally distraught over the loss of her parents, and only acts this way to the protagonist because he apparently says stupid things.
- Older Than They Look: Psyche (spelled as Psychey/Cycii in the earlier titles), insist that she isn't a child in 2011. She can even be legally married with in her ending, too, implying that she's at least a young adult in actual age.
- Put on a Bus: Psycher in 2011, where we learn from his little sister Psychey that he enlisted in the military after he "broke up" with Medica in 2010. Then he returns in 2020.
- Rank Inflation:
- Fairly frequently used in grading for game performance, where it does have standard grades such as F for a really horrible performance that lets down the team, D for a poor performance overall, B for a relatively average/decent performance, A for a good performance in the game. Some games in the series have a rank above A, such as 2012 having A+ and 2013 has the S rank grade. The manager's look also varies from this, such as clearly angry for low performance grades. Conservely, the manager will look satisfied and happy with the A-grade performances.
- The grades for player and team ranks in 2020 are a staple for measuring how powerful are the team overall and it's players, which becomes even more exaggerated with future updates that add a new rank due to constant buffing of player development scenarios and trainers. It started with a grade of F to A, then followed by S, SS and SSS in the original release. Then, an update in February 2021 added the R, RR and RRR tiers, followed by an update in August 2021 adding the M rank, with the MM and MMM ranks added a few months later. Then, at October 2022, the Z rank was added (and back then, it was very hard to achieve), and ZZ and ZZZ were added in February 2023 (which is followed by the "superboost" update that makes pitchers can be upgraded even further with even higher development bonuses for players). In April 2023, the W tier is added into the game. On late July 2023 the WWW tier is added, and as of September 2023, the Master tier is added, although it doesn't follow the pattern of 0-5 on players and the minus/plus on teams, rather, Master goes from I to IX for teams and 1 to 18 for players.
- The Rival: Several notable batter and pitchers are particularly rivals to each another in BS II. For example, Leon is the rival to King Tiger (which was kept in 2020), Hellfire is this to Sairoux/Seiryu, and Medica is also considered a rival to Cycci/Psyche.
- Robot Buddy: Pitching Machine MK-3 debuted in 2008 as something similar to R2D2, appeared as a "friend" for Roze in 2010 in the form of a pitching tank, and then appears again in 2011 as a humanoid robot (again in the service of Roze).
- She's All Grown Up: Roze's artwork has changed from "little girl" to "young lady" in 2011.
- Spell My Name With An S: Some of the most notable characters in the older titles have different spelling of their names, compared to Baseball Superstars 2020:
- Leoni (in 2010), then Leony (in 2012), and finally her name was correctly spelled as Leonie in 2013 and 2020.
- Psyche was originally written as Cycci in 2011 (and "Psychey" in 2010)
- Similarly, her brother, Psyker, whose name is written as "Psycher" in 2010 (Cyker as mentioned by his sister in 2011).
- 2011 has Ahra and Roze/Rosie, later spelled as Ara and Rosie, respectively, in 2020.)
- BS II also has Boomsta (later known as Boomiger in 2020), and Sairoux (later known as Seiryu in 2020)
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Kao Joe, who has appeared from 2008 to 2010, and even had some screentime in 2010, is gone without a trace in 2011. Roze has also mysteriously vanished from the series, with her last appearance being in the Americanized BS II.
