NES Game of the Week "Bases Loaded"
Or as I like to call it, "The Reason why my first child will be named Paste."
He was, and still is the most dominant hitter in any baseball game, even surpassing Ken Griffey Jr. in his self-titled PS2 game. I think Paste's line is something like .467, 67 homeruns and 198 RBI's. Walk him? Then you find yourself up against Bay with his 40 homeruns a year. What a dynamite duo! Reminds me of the old McGwire/Canseco 1-2 punch. Except Bay is black.
On to my review; remember we are judging on basic concept, glitches, re-playability, multi-player ability and influence on modern games.
Basic Concept
Baseball is a relatively boring game to watch..sorry, replace relatively with extremely. But playing the game can be entertaining. Nintendo gave us some great baseball games i.e. SNK Baseball Stars, RBI Baseball, Baseball Stimulator 2000 and the cream of the crop, Bases Loaded. Where else can you have legendary hitters like aforementioned Paste, Oko, Fendy, Agua and Norkus and not one memorable pitching ace? Seriously, this may be the most unrealistic of all baseball games and that could be the main reason why it is so much better than the rest. (15 out of 20, its just baseball, we aren't talking about saving the world from large spiders and a huge heart-shaped...heart)
Let's look at some of the great glitches in this game.
First off, you can pitch a no-hitter every game against the computer by following the process listed here. There is also the 100% chance of Roid Rage after you hit any of the clean-up hitters twice in one game.
Some of my favorite glitches include the home run bunt against the computer. With a little luck you can bunt the ball barely past the infield and, since the ball doesn't come to a complete stop until after it hits the wall, you can round the bases with ease as the outfielders chase very slowly after it. On defense, you can also wait until the ball hits the outfield wall, this causes the computer to run to second automatically and can be an easy putout.
The hidden racism is off the charts. There are latino and black hitters and pitchers, granted. But once the hitter makes contact, every fielder in the game becomes white. This blatant disregard for racial unity is rivaled only by the all-white crowd in Tecmo Bowl (which by the way, looks straight ahead then to the right, then repeats in unison...its hypnotic). (17 out of 20, you really have a distinct advantage over the computer if you know what you are doing)
Replayability
The incredibly long innings leads me to give the re-playability rating a measly 12 out of 20. There is nothing lightning quick about the graphics. Home run celebrations are drawn out as are pitching changes (who comes out of the bullpen in a golf cart these days?). You can easily see 22-12 games with 60 combined hits lasting hours. The password concept lets you build a "Franchise" until you kick your nintendo or accidentally blow too hard in the system and all data is erased. Overall, I can play this game about once every 36 hours and be extremely fulfilled.
Multi-player action.
This is a much better two player game especially if you have develop a Yankees-Red Sox type rivalry with one of your buddies. I remember back in college, I beat my roommate John a record 157 straight times. Needless to say, he is not very good at sport, nor hand-held gaming. If you are playing against a human opponent, it is almost impossible to strike anyone out bc the pitching is so slow and the catcher's mitt gives you a "heads-up' on pitch location. Other than that, this is a great two player game (16 out of 20)
Influence
All recent baseball games are incredibly life-like and carry little to no BL-based traits. That being said, any game that incorporates bean brawls, home run celebrations where people pat their knees and wave their hands in the air, and a pinch hitter named Romeo with a porn mustache has to claim some credit for the modern day game. (16 out of 20...I am starting to feel like Stat Boy on Around the Horn, just randomly assigning points for no good reason...its fun though).
Overall: since we are talking about baseball, the score can't be too high. (76 out of 100) For what its worth*, the next best baseball game for NES would probably rate no higher than 40 on my fictional scale.
* - probably not that much
He was, and still is the most dominant hitter in any baseball game, even surpassing Ken Griffey Jr. in his self-titled PS2 game. I think Paste's line is something like .467, 67 homeruns and 198 RBI's. Walk him? Then you find yourself up against Bay with his 40 homeruns a year. What a dynamite duo! Reminds me of the old McGwire/Canseco 1-2 punch. Except Bay is black.
On to my review; remember we are judging on basic concept, glitches, re-playability, multi-player ability and influence on modern games.
Basic Concept
Baseball is a relatively boring game to watch..sorry, replace relatively with extremely. But playing the game can be entertaining. Nintendo gave us some great baseball games i.e. SNK Baseball Stars, RBI Baseball, Baseball Stimulator 2000 and the cream of the crop, Bases Loaded. Where else can you have legendary hitters like aforementioned Paste, Oko, Fendy, Agua and Norkus and not one memorable pitching ace? Seriously, this may be the most unrealistic of all baseball games and that could be the main reason why it is so much better than the rest. (15 out of 20, its just baseball, we aren't talking about saving the world from large spiders and a huge heart-shaped...heart)
Let's look at some of the great glitches in this game.
First off, you can pitch a no-hitter every game against the computer by following the process listed here. There is also the 100% chance of Roid Rage after you hit any of the clean-up hitters twice in one game.
Some of my favorite glitches include the home run bunt against the computer. With a little luck you can bunt the ball barely past the infield and, since the ball doesn't come to a complete stop until after it hits the wall, you can round the bases with ease as the outfielders chase very slowly after it. On defense, you can also wait until the ball hits the outfield wall, this causes the computer to run to second automatically and can be an easy putout.
The hidden racism is off the charts. There are latino and black hitters and pitchers, granted. But once the hitter makes contact, every fielder in the game becomes white. This blatant disregard for racial unity is rivaled only by the all-white crowd in Tecmo Bowl (which by the way, looks straight ahead then to the right, then repeats in unison...its hypnotic). (17 out of 20, you really have a distinct advantage over the computer if you know what you are doing)
Replayability
The incredibly long innings leads me to give the re-playability rating a measly 12 out of 20. There is nothing lightning quick about the graphics. Home run celebrations are drawn out as are pitching changes (who comes out of the bullpen in a golf cart these days?). You can easily see 22-12 games with 60 combined hits lasting hours. The password concept lets you build a "Franchise" until you kick your nintendo or accidentally blow too hard in the system and all data is erased. Overall, I can play this game about once every 36 hours and be extremely fulfilled.
Multi-player action.
This is a much better two player game especially if you have develop a Yankees-Red Sox type rivalry with one of your buddies. I remember back in college, I beat my roommate John a record 157 straight times. Needless to say, he is not very good at sport, nor hand-held gaming. If you are playing against a human opponent, it is almost impossible to strike anyone out bc the pitching is so slow and the catcher's mitt gives you a "heads-up' on pitch location. Other than that, this is a great two player game (16 out of 20)
Influence
All recent baseball games are incredibly life-like and carry little to no BL-based traits. That being said, any game that incorporates bean brawls, home run celebrations where people pat their knees and wave their hands in the air, and a pinch hitter named Romeo with a porn mustache has to claim some credit for the modern day game. (16 out of 20...I am starting to feel like Stat Boy on Around the Horn, just randomly assigning points for no good reason...its fun though).
Overall: since we are talking about baseball, the score can't be too high. (76 out of 100) For what its worth*, the next best baseball game for NES would probably rate no higher than 40 on my fictional scale.
* - probably not that much
posted by Eric at 3:06 p.m.
1 Comments:
The depth of my research is what is lacking, not my disrespect. I don't have RBI Baseball so I was basing my statements on memories of the game when i was a young lad. Considering I can't remember what I did two nights ago due to heavy binge drinking for 4+ years, I would say the Bases Loaded review was scrumtrulescent indeed!
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