Bases Loaded

A port by Mebius and Clarice Games for the PlayStation 4 was released in Japan in 2015. The game is the first installment in the Bases Loaded series, followed by seven sequels across three generations of consoles. There are three more video games in the Bases Loaded NES series, Bases Loaded II: Second Season, Bases Loaded 3 and Bases Loaded 4. There was also a Game Boy version of Bases Loaded. The series continued onto the SNES platform with Super Bases Loaded, Super Bases Loaded 2, and Super Bases Loaded 3. The final entry to the series was Bases Loaded '96: Double Header, released for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation. Also the first in a series of sports games by Jaleco known in Japan as Moero!!. Baseball games were localized in the Western markets as the Bases Loaded series while the basketball game was localized as Hoops, the tennis game as Racket Attack and the soccer game as Goal!. Two titles went unlocalized: a baseball game Shin Moero!! Pro Yakyū and a judo game Moero!!

• Title — Bases Loaded • Developer — Jaleco Tose (NES version) • Publisher — Jaleco • Designer — Nobukazu Ota (NES version) • Programmer — Tetsuji Tanaka (NES version) • Composer — Kouji Murata, Akihito Hayashi (NES version) • Platforms — NES, Game Boy • Released — NESJune 26, 1987July 1988Game BoyJuly 1990 • Genre — Sports (baseball) • Modes — Single-player, Multiplayer • Illustration — Bases Loaded screenshot

The game allows the player to control one of 12 teams in either a single game or a full season. For single games, there is also a two-player option. Bases Loaded featured a television-style depiction of the pitcher-batter matchup (previously seen in Intellivision World Series Baseball and Accolade's HardBall!), as well as strong play control and a relatively high degree of realism, which made it one of the most popular baseball games of the early NES. One unique feature of the game is that the pitcher can provoke a batter to charge the mound. Each team has only one batter (usually the team's best hitter) who can be provoked in this manner, however; it is up to the player to discover who it is. At the time Bases Loaded was released, few video games were licensed by North American major league sports. Therefore, the league depicted in Bases Loaded is a fictitious league of twelve teams.

One of the trademark images of the Bases Loaded franchise was the disembodied catcher's mitt, also referred to as the "phantom paw", that would catch pitches that were thrown extremely outside. Developer Heep Sop Choi claims it was programmed to show the catcher making some terrific snatches without any bodily movement.

A defective chip was found during manufacturing, delaying the Nintendo Entertainment System version's North American release. A port for the Atari Jaguar was planned to be developed by Jaleco, after being signed by Atari Corporation to be a third-party developer for the system, but it was never released. Bases Loaded was re-released to Steam, PS5, and Nintendo Switch in 2025 as part of the Jaleco Sports series, with porting and development by Sickhead Games and publishing by Rock It Games. The release included Bases Loaded for NES and Super Bases Loaded for SNES, with original manuals and box art viewable from inside the game.

The game saw three sequels on the NES: Bases Loaded II: Second Season (released in 1988 in Japan and 1990 in North America), Bases Loaded 3, released in 1991, and Bases Loaded 4, released in 1993. The game also had two arcade sequels: Moero!! Pro Yakyū Homerun, released in 1988, and Jitsuryoku!! Pro Yakyū, released in 1989. Japanese game magazine Game Machine listed Jitsuryoku!! Pro Yakyū on their September 1, 1989 issue as being the eighth most-successful table arcade unit of the month; the magazine has listed it in English as Bases Loaded. Super Bases Loaded was released for the SNES in 1991, and saw two sequels: Super Bases Loaded 2, released in 1994, and Super Bases Loaded 3, released in 1995. A 32-bit installment was also released: Bases Loaded '96: Double Header, released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1995.