September 30, 1991 — Super Bases Loaded

What’s surprising about a lot of these early games is their difficulty — and the fact that you need to read the manual to understand how to play.

I’m surprised that an entire month into the SNES launch and there’s only been a single side-scrolling, level-based game. It really must have been uncharted territory for developers considering the dozen releases have mainly been made up of spaceship shooters, sports, and ports from older systems.

Super Bases Loaded is rudimentary baseball.

For baseball fans, maybe it’s fun. I’m not a fan. Though I will note the music is about as good as we’ve seen thus far. No Major League Baseball teams lent their name to the title, which would become fairly obligatory in later years.

It’s tough to get a handle on but once you understand what needs to be done it’s a lot easier. Really, the replay value would be figuring out the timing and just tapping your way to the end.

Bonus points for offering an incentive. It’s not enough to win, getting a perfect rating is the true challenge. Though, it feels like they should offer that challenge after a successful win. It’s just mocking me as I help the computer pitch a no-no.