Bases Loaded 3 Review

And now we begin to enter the downward spiral of the Bases Loaded toilet. Bases Loaded 3 took a very strange approach to the overall concept of the ‘baseball’ game and changed some things when, well, they just didn’t need changed. It’s a good example of a company messing with stuff for the hell of it. Wasn’t Bases Loaded II enough?

Bases Loaded 3 hasn’t really changed much from Bases Loaded II. There are some different cut scenes and such, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same game. The only thing they really changed was the field. For some reason, Bases Loaded 3 was programmed with second base facing you, the player. So, home is where second usually is in every other baseball game. The players have been made bigger much like Baseball Stars, but one can’t help feeling very awkward at the layout here, it just doesn’t feel right. And it doesn’t work right either, but I’ll get to that. Other than this, it looks pretty much like Bases Loaded II.

The music in Bases Loaded 3, on the other hand, does its job pretty damn well. The in-game music is pretty fun and has enough variety to keep things moving, other than the odd between-innings toodle that sounds like someone messing around on a broken kazoo. The effects have that 8-Bit feel to them, kind of fun like Baseball Stars, so no problem there. This is easily Bases Loaded 3’s strongest category. The one thing they fixed that could have used a bit of fixing or upgrading.

Bases Loaded 3 is yet another baseball title. Things have changed this time around, however. First off, batting is now easy to the point that it presents no challenge whatsoever. Before, you had to be quick and smart to hit the ball. Now, as long as you swing at the right time it will go somewhere. You don’t have to swing at one of nine locations anymore, though you can. Simply swinging will hit the ball regardless. Pitching is generally the same as Bases Loaded II. However, I noticed in this one that if you throw a low ball the computer consistently hits it so that it’s easy to get them out, so in fact this little glitch makes it pretty pathetic. But that’s not the worst of it. Here’s a quick look:

The worst thing in this game is the fielding. Wow. I have no clue why they opted to change the field view because it plays horribly. You can barely get your fielders to the ball and the controls are reversed. It’s flipped now and the view is just atrocious. You’ll never get a good feel for fielding and you’ll never want to. This, and you can’t even play a full series. You only need to play two games to win. First, get a high score against an easy team, and move on to the hardest, your goal being to play the ‘perfect’ game and get 100%. All of your stats are tallied up when you win and you receive a percentile score. That’s it, done. For extra hilarity you can also ‘watch’ the computer do this by itself. Why would I want to? Talk about boring. You can also edit teams, but it’s just kind of pointless in the end.

I’ll admit, the different approach to baseball is kind of novel, and really, compared to playing like 162 games of Bases Loaded, Bases Loaded 3 does provide a more relaxed environment. In fact, if they kept the field view natural, it wouldn’t have been half bad. That, however, is not the case. Sometimes creativity can be a bad thing, especially when it leads programmers to change things that don’t need fixed.

As for game length, if you’re looking for a short baseball game that you can actually complete in under thirty minutes, well, then Bases Loaded 3 is for you. If you’re looking for a tournament and more involved play, look elsewhere. I guess you might come back to it a bit more if you want to really achieve that 100% score, but really even if you did you probably wouldn’t have a reason to try it after that. Problem is, you have to find a way to enjoy the god awful fielding in the first place. Just don’t bother, trust me.

Bases Loaded 3 attempted to do something new with baseball, but in the end it ruined a potentially good idea with horrible fielding and design. It’s really amazing that companies back in the NES era did things like this. How in the hell were they able to actually market this snore? I guess that explains the lame player they got to endorse it, Ryne Sandberg. Anyone even remember that guy? I like how it says ‘Ryne Sandberg plays…’ on the cover. Yeah, right, I’m sure he did. And then they followed it up with another one? Bases Loaded II is plenty, and it’s where this series should have stopped.