Base Wars

Cyber Stadium Series: Base Wars
Cover art
Developer(s)	Konami[1]
Publisher(s)	Ultra Games[1]
Composer(s)	Shigemasa Matsuo Tomoko Sumiyama
Platform(s)	Nintendo Entertainment System
Release	NA: June 6, 1991[1]
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single-player Multiplayer

Cyber Stadium Series: Base Wars (commonly shortened to Base Wars or BaseWars)^[1] is a futuristically-themed sports game, released for the Nintendo Entertainment System on June 1, 1991.^[2] Set in the 24th century wherein baseball team owners have grown tired of paying outrageous player salaries, they decide to replace their rosters with cyborg robots.^[3] This was the last NES game released by Ultra Games independently (although it did release several other games developed by other companies for another year afterward for both the NES and Game Boy).

Gameplay

General gameplay

While maintaining basic baseball elements of pitching, batting, fielding, and base running, Base Wars adds a fighting element to the game featuring four robot classes; a traditional cyborg that looks more like an android, a tank, a flybot, and lastly a motorcycle. A player's robots can be upgraded with new and advanced weaponry and repaired with money earned for game wins during tournaments.^[3]

Fighting

While fighting is a rare occurrence in traditional baseball, fights are an integral part of the game in Base Wars. As explained in the original game manual, any close put-out or force-out results in a battle. The fights between the runner and the robot tagging him are fought from the side-view. The result of the fight determines whether the runner is safe or out. Fielders start fights with a 100% energy bar while the base-runner's energy bar is directly proportional to the distance traveled from one base to the next (for example, a runner who leaves base while the baseman has the ball will have to fight with a minimum amount of energy and will get knocked out in one hit).

A robot can lose hit points not only by fighting or being hit by a pitch; attacking with a "Laser Sword" or "Laser Gun" drains HP too, and prolonged use will leave the robot manipulating it with the smallest possible life bar but won't knock him out. A robot that has lost all its hit points in one game, or a batter with low HP who gets hit by a pitch, will explode and leave its team with one less robot (and the explosion can damage the winning robot too). Three robots lost on a team results in a forfeit, thus a player can win a Base Wars game by fighting alone.

Teams

Base Wars features 14 teams, 12 representing cities and two customizable "edit teams", one that uses "Laserguns" and one that uses "Laser Swords". Players can select one of four types of robots for each edit team roster slot: a cyborg, flybot, mcycle (motorcycle) or tank.

Reception

Entertainment Weekly gave the game a B- and wrote that despite the gimmick of mechanized players, the game plays mostly the same as human baseball.^[4]

See also

• Super Baseball 2020

References

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