#27: Base Wars

Released In: 1991
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Ultra

      In a dystopic future, the sport of baseball is played by vicious fighting robots with short tempers who decide close calls with weapons rather than umpires.

Syd Lexia: Personally, I prefer Bad News Baseball to this. Sorry, but I like my baseball games to have anthropomorphic rabbits as umpires. Base Wars is a fun game, but it suffers from Konami Sports Syndrome. Much like Blades of Steel isn't really about hockey, Base Wars isn't really about baseball; it's about fighting enemy robots. And while fighting enemy robots is fun, I actually happen to like baseball.

Valdronius: Sports games are arguably the worst type of video game. Baseball is one sport that translates especially poorly to console gaming. Even with these facts working against it, Base Wars still somehow managed to become one of the best games for the NES. Instead of crappy humans, teams consisted of four types of robots: Cyborgs, Flybots, Tanks, and Motorcycles. Each robot had a special attack, and strengths and weaknesses. Whenever there was a non-forced out, (such as stealing a base), instead there was a battle between the runner and the fielder. Between games, you could purchase various weapons to equip your robots with, along with different upgrades such as throwing, catching, and speed. You also had to repair your team if they sustained any damage. Did I forget to mention that if a robot suffered enough damage it would explode? If a team lost three robots in one game, they had to forfeit, so you could hit every batter with the ball, be down 40-0 on walks, but eventually the opponents would blow up from being hit so much and you’d win. The only bad thing about this game is that there is no 1-player season mode, so if you didn’t have any friends, it wasn’t much fun. Of all the video games ever made, this is the one I most wish they would make a sequel of.

greeneyedzeke: Killer robots playing baseball. Let that sink in. Everyone loves robots. Everyone loves killer robots. Baseball is America’s pastime. When said pastime includes the aforementioned killer robots, the awesomeness gushes forth in quantities heretofore unknown to mankind.

I mean, come on. If Killer Robot #1 (the batter) slides into first base and Killer Robot #2 (the baseman) goes for the tag, no sad little umpire makes a call on the play. Instead, Robot #1 and Robot #2 arm themselves and fight to the death. It’s like the violent button mashing euphoria of Blades of Steel but with fucking robots. And you can upgrade them.

I have said my peace.

BACK                              NEXT