#064 – Bases Loaded II: Second Season

With options to renew for a third

PLAYERS: 1-2 simultaneous

PUBLISHER: Jaleco

DEVELOPER: TOSE

GENRE: Sports

RELEASE DATE: January 1990

Bases Loaded II spits a full-throttle loog in the face of its predecessor. The original Bases Loaded was an early NES baseball game that dared to be different. Camera behind the pitcher? Madness! Human-sized players? Surprisingly well animated. These outside-the-box features distinguished Bases Loaded from the cluster of baseball games. Bases Loaded II might keep these features, but it also adds needless ones, like a broken camera and my never ending rage. When you or the computer scores a hit, the camera flies away like a bird that just hit a window. Bizarre camera angles obscure the game at play, and left me frothing. The other large problem is the too-fast field play. If the opposing team gets a hit and you don’t catch it right away, good luck throwing it back in time because that runner is going home, or at least to third. Perhaps the speed wouldn’t have been that great of an issue, were it not for the already-disorienting camera. When you finally catch the ball and throw it back, it’s a crapshoot as to where it will actually go, and the runner probably already scored a point anyway. You can now switch out players between different teams. All the other options – 1P and Versus mode only – remain the same. The robotic announcer is back, although he sounds more congested than in the last game. He should have taken this Second Season off.

D-