Base Wars

THE BAD:
Slightly unresponsive controls. It takes some time to learn the game at first.

SUMMARY:
Base Wars, which was to be the first of a series of sports games featuring robots, gave us a look at the darker side of baseball. In fact, Basebrawl might have been a better title here. You control a team of robots playing baseball-it's like the real game but with one difference-if it's a close play, the robots involved (runner and defender) instead fight it out to determine whether the runner is safe or out. And you can mix it up with weapons like swords, machine guns, etc.
The graphics are pretty good-not much to speak of most of the time but in the fight scenes, the robots show excellent detail and the action moves along quickly with no slowdown. There aren't many sound effects to speak of but the robotic effects during play and battles are really good, and the music's not too bad either.
Like in most baseball games, the controls are rather complex at first, becaus you have to learn to press the pad in a certain direction to throw to a certain base. Additionally, controls are different during the fights so plan to spend some time getting the hang of everything. The gameplay really stands out just because of the differences from traditional baseball, like the fighting and being able to powerup your robots. A 2 player option lets you beat up on your friends too.
Just the plotline and addition of fighting makes this a great title for sports fans and anyone looking for something different. The gameplay nicely backs it up though, and makes this a great predecessor to the street/urban, hip-hop themed sports games of today.