Bases Loaded II: The Second Season Review

After having finally mastered Bases Loaded, I was curious to try the sequel, Bases Loaded II. It generally seems to receive unfavorable reviews, so I expected the worst. However, though by no means perfect, Bases Loaded II is easily the best game out of the four for the NES. I’ll explain where some of the complaints come from, but a lack of practice seems to be behind the majority of it and in my personal opinions, this is the most realistic baseball title on the NES.

Bases Loaded II hasn’t changed much from Bases Loaded graphically. You have the ‘behind-the-pitcher’ view, but more color and detail. Overall, this gives Bases Loaded II a more complete look. The animations are as fluid as Bases Loaded, so they definitely kept what was good. One big change, other than some cut scenes, is the field layout. Bases Loaded took the same approach as Baseball, but Bases Loaded II went for an interesting sideways view of the stadium, and the character sprites are meant to look more realistic in their movement. Sure, they’re damn tiny, but their movements are clearly more real. Can’t expect much out of characters no bigger than your thumbnail. Plus, Bases Loaded II eliminated a ton of silly errors, such as the legless umpire in the main pitching/batting view and the floating catcher’s mitt.

The sound in Bases Loaded II is also a definite step up from Bases Loaded. The music has more drive with a quirky, metallic beat and a ‘take me out to the ballgame’ sound. The effects have been toned down slightly for more realism, but the cool stuff like the digitized voices remain. Some gamers have complained about the music because it plays endlessly with only occasional variation, but I didn’t find it bothered me too much. Overall, Bases Loaded II rounds itself out nicely in the sound category.

Bases Loaded II doesn’t play much different than Bases Loaded. They’ve changed some things that needed it and tweaked others, but the majority of the original is here. As before, your batter has nine spaces to swing at, you can use pinch hitters and relief pitchers and so forth. But, there are a lot of things they changed. First, the pitcher moving to the left or right of the mound was removed. All control of the ball rests on moving it after you throw it, with general direction and pitch style determined by what you press. Pitching is vastly improved since you have more control. In addition, though it’s not clear how, the batting has been made more user-friendly. Hitting the ball is simpler and does not require the extreme practice of Bases Loaded. This time around you feel like you have greater batting control and an easier time getting to the bases. Plus, they added a biorhythm feature so you can track how your players are doing through the pennant race. Here’s a glimpse before I explain some problems:

The big complaint you’ll hear about Bases Loaded II is fielding. The sideways view is rather strange. The controls are the same, but you might have the tendency at first to determine throws based on the view. Also, they still didn’t fix the fly ball issue. When a ball is hit high, you won’t see it until it’s pretty much on top of you. However, most gamers are unaware that Bases Loaded II is programmed with automatic fielding. The computer will move your closest player to the general position of the ball, giving you a few moments to adjust once it’s in range. This actually makes fielding easier. Still, would have been nice to adjust the screen for flies. Another issue is that the computer really likes to work the plates. This can be exploited for easy outs because it bases movement on your characters’ positions. Say an outfielder close to second catches a grounder. The computer will run from first to second, and then inch back and forth, never going one way or the other. Move up a little, and it will move up a little more. Do this until it makes a run for second, throw to second, and then quickly to first. Easy out. But other than this, Bases Loaded II eliminated glitches from Bases Loaded for more solid play. The sideways view is disconcerting at first, but once you get the hang of it it’s actually more balanced than Bases Loaded.

Bases Loaded II didn’t set out to do much more than Bases Loaded. You have the necessary tweaks to gameplay and design from its predecessor, and that’s about it. Can’t really chide them for that, because when it comes down to it the only way to really make a baseball title from this era different was to add gimmicks. For solid, realistic video game baseball, Bases Loaded II delivers above and beyond Bases Loaded and the competition.

Bases Loaded II is more playable than the original. And just like its predecessor, you have the same pennant race with a password feature. They’ve cut the total number of games down so it isn’t as long, but still didn’t increase the difficulty. Play one team and you’ve pretty much played them all. Playing the same group of players a few times is still tedious because they never get more difficult. Learn their quirks and it’s all a matter of beating them again and again. Games are essentially the same length as they were in Bases Loaded, there was no need to change that. I would have personally changed the arrangment of the pennant race, but again, if they were going for realism, which they were, mission accomplished.

Bases Loaded II is a wonderful sequel to the iconic Bases Loaded. I never played it when I was younger, and honestly if I did before Bases Loaded, I’d choose Bases Loaded II any day. The sideways view deserves some of the criticism it receives, but it’s not nearly as difficult as people make it out to be. It’s rather easy, in fact, to get the fielding down in this game and once you do it’s ten times more intutitive and fun than Bases Loaded. As far as sequels go, Bases Loaded II did it right. Now let’s see what the other two have to offer, which I can tell you now isn’t much. This is pretty much where the series left off for me, so if you’re looking for a legit, realistic baseball game for the NES, Bases Loaded II is the one for you.