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 Bases Loaded is one of those NES
games that is fondly remembered.
Often times it is named as one of the best sports games on the
system. But anyone who has
actually played the game recently should know that this game’s legacy far
exceeds its actual enjoyability.
Jaleco released this game in 1988 as their premiere sports release and
one of the very first games they released for the NES. Their status as newcomers in the NES
world was made obvious to all when Jaleco placed the name of their
company on the top of the cart instead of the name of their game. While this was annoying to gamers it was
a sly move as most automatically became aware of what company released Bases Loaded while they remained
ignorant about most of the other companies releasing games for the NES.
At the time Bases Loaded was
released there were already three other baseball games on the NES but two
of them were awful (Baseball and
Major League Baseball). Its main rival was Tengen’s R.B.I. Baseball. The two games were seen as polar
opposites: R.B.I. features cartoony players, fast, yet unrealistic
gameplay and most importantly real players. Bases
Loaded features realistically rendered players (at least on the
pitching/hitting screen) and tons of little touches that add realism to
the game. Unfortunately the game
is incredibly slow and does not have actual Major League players. For some reason that I never figured
out most people preferred Bases
Loaded over R.B.I. Baseball. Now there are a lot of great things
about this game but the insane amount of time it takes to play a game
(let alone a season) just sucks a lot of that fun right out.
Bases Loaded turned out to
be a great success and led to three more NES installments and three
additional titles released on the Super Nintendo. The success of Bases Loaded also led to many more sports releases by Jaleco
over the span of the NES (Racket
Attack, Hoops, Goal, Cyberball, Pro
Sport Hockey…). Over time,
though, people figured out that the games weren’t that good and the
series (and Jaleco) quietly disappeared for many years (finally making a
comeback on the PlayStation 2).
Positives:
There are a lot of positives to say about Bases Loaded. As soon
as you start a game you will notice Bases
Loaded’s trademark – the unique view you get while pitching or
hitting. Almost every other game
features this part from the batter’s view but in Bases Loaded you get the view from behind the pitcher. The pitcher looks very realistic all
the way down to facial hair for some of the pitchers. You have lots of cool  pitches
you can throw, the most deadly being any pitch that starts up high and
sweeps diagonally through the strike zone only to end up as a low
ball. As the batter you mainly
have to watch the catcher’s mitt to decide where to aim your swing. You can pretty much aim your bat in any
direction so you have a lot of freedom at the plate. This part of the game is very fun and
the main reason for the success of the entire Bases Loaded franchise.
There are lots of great graphical touches that Jaleco added to the
proceeding. Once nice touch is the
deep bench at your disposal – you have a wide variety of pinch hitters
and relievers to choose from.
Whenever you bring in a reliever, he rides in on a little cart –
just like relievers did before gas prices skyrocketed. This is also the only game on the NES
where players sometimes charge the mound when they are beaned! The first time this happens you will be
very excited – until you find out that your batter has been ejected. Those kinds of touches give the game
some serious personality and were the talk of the playground in 1988.
While it is very disappointing that the game doesn’t feature real
players, Bases Loaded has some
of the most memorable fake players ever created. This is partly due to their outrageous
stats (Paste has an average of .467 with 60 homers!) and partly due to
the fact that the stars are the players that will charge the mound when
beaned.
It is also cool that you can use a password to continue your
season. According to the
instruction booklet, the season lasts 132 games but once you win 80 games
the season ends and you can pat yourself on the back for having played Bases Loaded for an extreme amount
of hours.
Glaring
Negatives:
Obviously the major negative for this game
is that it is S-L-O-W. The main
reason for this is that you are shown the scoreboard after every single
batter. Now this might not seem
like a big deal but it really adds a lot of time to the game. It isn’t like you can speed things
along at all either; you have to sit through the whole process every
time. That isn’t the only slow
area of the game either. Remember
before when I said Jaleco put a lot of realism into the game?  This
includes having to watch every strikeout victim walk back to the dugout,
watching an extra-long homerun celebration on the scoreboard after every
homer, waiting for the catcher to throw the ball back to the pitcher
after every pitch and sitting through tons of foul balls.
Another problem with the game is the
fielding. For as good as the
pitching and hitting are; the fielding is just as bad. The game goes to a bird’s eye view for
fielding, which means the players are small and slow. Fielding is so tough that the computer
auto-fields for you although you can usually move the players a little
faster yourself. Just like in R.B.I. Baseball because the
fielders are so small, if you aren’t careful the ball will bounce right
over your head. To make up for the
slowness of the fielding all the players have rocket arms. It is almost always a mistake to try
for an extra base or a steal.
Triple plays are possible even on grounders while double plays are
automatic.
In addition to how long each game is, the
only season option is to play out an entire year! The strange thing, though, is that as
soon as you hit 80 wins the season ends and you are given one of the
worst celebration screens I’ve ever witnessed for a game that takes so
many hours to complete.
Graphics
and Sound: Nice
The graphics are top notch in every area except fielding. The pitchers are graphically among the
finest out of all 21 baseball games on the NES. The batters are tall and the stadium
looks great for an early baseball title.
The umpires have very clear voices, which comes as a big surprise
to me and the music is catchy but way too repetitive for how long it
takes to finish a game.
Gameplay
and Controls: OK
The controls are great for hitting and pitching but the fielding is
very tough to master. I like that
you have deep benches but it is very annoying that you can’t make any
changes before the game begins.
Plus, you have no idea what position each of your pinch hitters
play and if you pinch-hit an infielder for an outfielder you will have to
replace him after the inning ends.
Features:
Password
You are in for a long season and will definitely need your
password. Luckily they aren’t very
long and are hard to mess up.
Fun?:
Somewhat
There are a lot of fun parts to Bases
Loaded but it is way too slow and doesn’t have actual Major League
players. When it was one of four
baseball games on the system it was great but there are just too many
games that are better than it now.
Challenge:
Not hard to win one, tough to win 80
You have to have to have a lot of determination to win the 80 games
required to be  considered
a Bases Loaded champion.
Replay:
Not Much
There are just too many better games on the system that take half as
much time to play.
2
Player: Of course
Instead of watching the uncut version of Lord of the Rings you could play a double header with a
friend.
Online
Manual?: Yes at Nintendo Age
You can find all the NES manuals
at Nintendo
Age.
Bottom Line: Too slow to be considered a
good game
Bases Loaded may have been
fun in 1988 but it pales in comparison to Baseball Stars 1 &2, the R.B.I. Baseball series, Baseball
Simulator 1.000 and many others.
It doesn’t have real players and the gameplay is frustratingly
slow. I guarantee that you will
have more fun playing some of these other baseball games over the Bases Loaded series.
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