Kotaku
I am somewhat hesitant to mention this week's updates to the Wii Virtual Console, mainly because I have a good friend who, were I even to whisper the name Yoshi's Cookie with thoughts of her in my head, would transform into a slavering, cookie-puzzle craving beast, hell-bent on spending hour after hour matching up semi-colorful cookie tenuously tied to the Mario Universe. It isn't pretty, so I will gloss over said title for the NES (500 Points) and move on to Bases Loaded for the NES (also 500 points). My NES baseball game of choice, Bases Loaded was originally part of the generic Japanese sports series Moero!!, which also brought us the basketball game Hoops. It's a damn fine slice of primitive baseball, with 12 generic teams vying for the title of most generic team. Go generic Philly!
Wii-kly Update: Two New Classic Games Added to Wii Shop ChannelThe arrival of April means springtime fun is officially back in season. To get Wii™ Shop Channel patrons in the spirit, we're pleased to offer a pair of lively NES® favorites. One is a breezy, puzzle-busting fantasy, the other a classic baseball title to keep sports fans fired up for a new season of nine-inning excitement. Whether your tastes run toward cookies or ballpark snacks, you'll find hours of gaming enjoyment right at your fingertips.
Nintendo adds new games to the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii™ owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week's new games are:
Yoshi's Cookie™ (NES®, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): Take one part puzzle game, combine with intuitive game play, add a pinch of multiplayer action and top with a layer of everyone's favorite dinosaur. Mix together and let set for roughly 100 stages' worth of time. If that sounds like a winning recipe to you, then step into the kitchen and get ready for a batch of fast-paced puzzle action. Hunker down to move rows and columns of randomly placed cookies in an effort to align all the cookies of the same type. Successfully assemble a row or column to make the line disappear, then move to a new one. If you're good enough, you may even be able to make a Yoshi cookie appear! Feel like taking on a friend? Fire up the two-player mode, where you can attack your opponent while competing to match as many cookies as possible. Be careful, though—if your timing is off, you could end up attacking yourself. Who knew dinosaurs had such a weakness for puzzle games and sweets?
Bases Loaded (NES®, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points): Bases Loaded is a baseball game with an arcade feel and plenty of options from which players can choose. Select one of 12 teams, set your lineup from the 30 players available (each with different strengths), then play a single game or try to win the pennant. During game play, the screen shows two different viewpoints: one from behind home plate as you're batting, and the other from the pitching mound in a television-style shot (unique for its time) as your team plays in the field. Strong play control and excellent graphics add to the excitement as you decide what pitch to throw (you can even try to provoke the opposing batter into charging the mound), control all positions on the field, or do your best to get a hit. So step to the plate and find out why this is one of the most popular baseball games on the NES. Can you pull through in the clutch?
Comments
Yoshi's Cookie kicked ass! The multiplayer was so fun!
Bases Loaded ain't bad either.
I am still undefeated in yoshis cookie! I WILL ACCEPT ALL CHALLENGERS
Oh man I remember Yoshi's cookie now. I can't believe I forgot all about it.
@RazorandBlade: I challenge noob bring it ON!! ... until I get used to it :P
Bases Loaded brings all kinds of innuendo to the game name table.
Yoshi's Cookies rocked. And probably still does.
On the other hand, every baseball game is irrelevant until BaseWars is re-released.
Out of spite towards the absolutely abysmal MLK 2K8 demo, I am downloading the hell out of Bases Loaded when I come home. I miss the days of a simple, user-friendly interface for baseball games.
I thought those were cereal boxes. I would eat Yoshis Cookies, they sound chocalicious
Bases loaded probably averaged out to be the game me and my brothers played on our nes the most behind mario and megaman. we havent touched a sports game since. I wonder what that says about it.
Bases Loaded is good... I still have it for the NES. They should just refer to it as "JALECO" in the VC menus since that's all the label on top of the cartridge says. I think the "free Wilson sports poster" was of the box art. Not sure why anyone would've wanted a poster of that.
Screw Bases Loaded, I demand Base Wars! Robot baseball fistfights FTW!
I may gift Bases Loaded to my Dad...we always use to play that when I was a kid. I may pick it up as well just for notalgics sake.
@Guizzy: "Yoshi's Cookies rocked. And probably still does.
On the other hand, every baseball game is irrelevant until Baseball Stars is re-released."
/fixed ;)
Thanks for the horribly VC updates nintendo
Thanks for the greed nintendo
The wii may get good games and I do own two wii's BUT I find it disgustging how psychotic nintendo is behaving - horribly VC updates totally destroying what could have been a glorious marketplace for nintento, 480p supprt, and online multiplayer that is so god awful I might as well be playing multiplayer via the sega saturn.
Way to screw up everything you touch nintendo. Thanks!
PS selling well DOES NOT mean they havent screwed the wii up. The wii is only 1/10th as good as it could have been since nintendo screwed up almost every aspect of it.
... and Nintendo shows Microsoft how to _really_ load down your online service with trash. Where the hell is Smash Bros for N64? Where's Earthbound?
Does the bases loaded download come with the free poster???
@Erwos: More importantly....WHERE THE FUCK IS CHRONO TRIGGER!
@Jcnet: Hyperbole much? Psychotic? Sure, some of these recent VC updates are "disgustging" but you can still get some pretty rad VC games (Super Mario Bros. 3/World, Link to the Past, etc.).
I remember borrowing Bases Loaded for the Game Boy from a friend, then giving it back...five years later. I hope the excellence translates across platforms (never had a console back then).
NES Baseball Stars....plz.
ERRRRRRRRRRRAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! DAMN IT NINTENDO! Stop this! Put out something mainstream already? The Crystal Shards was like....the last thing that counted! WHERE THE HELL IS KIRBY SUPER STAR! WHERE IS SHINNING FORCE 2! AHHHHHHHHH!
Bases Loaded was awesome...in 1987. I remember being able to bean a batter twice in a game to trigger a brawl. The batter would then be ejected. Whenever I'd play against a friend, he'd try to get my best hitter ejected by constantly beaning him. Memories.
Two games that can easily be found for a $1.99 or less anywhere NES games are still sold/traded. You can still get sealed copies of Yoshi's Cookie on eBay for $9.99. I suppose I understand paying $5.00 for it if you don't still have an NES lying around....
The money issue works out against the consumer sometimes but for the consumer most of the time, particularly if that person is interested in rarer or import titles on the VC.
"... and Nintendo shows Microsoft how to _really_ load down your online service with trash."
You've got to be joking. I guess you'd rather play Yaris than Super Metroid.
@Doomstink: Yet again, thanks for proving that gamers are the down right cheapest people on the whole earth. It's $5. Really.
Bases Loaded is awesome. i forget what team he was on but the one player named Paste he hit homeruns constantly.
Yes...Norkus was the man on Boston.
Why the NES version of Yoshi's Cookie instead of the SNES one? If they're doing this just so they can release the SNES one later, that's pretty low.
@Guizy - So TRUE! Base Wars was awesome. Video game baseball games were always boring to me because its pretty much like actual real life baseball, which is already familiar. However, ROBOT baseball - far more interesting. Especially since you can blow each other up!
Oh no...
Yoshi's Cookie.
Must Resist...
Urge To...*ugh*...
Waste untold amounts of time playing it...
pass
@dowingba: I'm just saying, for the negative three dollars it costs to get tangibility with my games. It totally seems like a better deal.
Hoops was epic. I'll wait for that one to come out.
I'm tempted to dl Bases Loaded... but I think I'll wait and see if they release Bases Loaded 2, since I enjoyed that game more.
Oh, and I'm still waiting for Super Spike Volleyball and World Cup Soccer by Tecmo. Those games were classics, especially when you had the 4-player adapter for the NES.
I still have Yoshi's Cookie for my SNES. It is the crapiest game I have ever had the displeasure of playing.
I am bewildered why they would release that on VC.
"i forget what team he was on but the one player named Paste he hit homeruns constantly."
Paste played for Philly i think. And yeah, if you golf-swing at anything with him its instant home run. God, I loved that game. Really REALLY doubt it will stand up sans retro goggles though.
Bases Loaded II and Super Bases Loaded were so cool. They're probably terrible now, but I still treasure my memories of playing them when I was young.
@gstaff: Yes, though if memory serves, Norkus was relegated to pinch hitter in BL III.
Really quite amazing after the numbers he put up in II.
Oh Bases Loaded, I remember playing this when I was like oh, 7 or 8 with my mom and dad, and they would always just get pissed because I could never explain to them how to throw to bases cause I always just did it instinctively, it usually ended something like 20-0 and my parents being like, this game sucks, learn the controls.
I was also so young I thought higher ERAs were better so I always had the worst pitchers in lol
In my opinion nintendo would be better off offering only the best VC titles available and should stop watering down and cluttering their shop channel with garbage titles.
Not referring to yoshi's cookie here or bases loaded here, but the last 3 months of garbage games for the VC. There are so many excellent AAA titles to offer and nintendo is shoveling out stinkers/stuff no one has heard of on a continual basis.
For example, I would like to see the original smash bros, super mario RPG, Super mario World 2: Yoshi's island, Super Mario Kart SNES, Super Mario All-stars, Zelda: Majora's Mask, Donkey Kong 64 etc.
My sister and mom were obsessed with Yoshi's Cookie. We actually own both the NES and SNES versions because they couldn't get enough of it
Ok seriously. Mario RPG. Thats all I want! Nintendo, if your reading this, if you have to make the game more expensive so as to pay off rights to squeenix,then do it!
If you give a yoshi a cookie, he's going to ask for some milk.
@kylenalepa: Agreed, Super Bases Loaded might've been my most played game growing up. The "K" team was the greatest baseball team ever assembled
Super Smash Bros. 64 anyone? Anyone?? v.v ...
@Jcnet: VC uploads are almost completely dependant on what the publisher of the game wants to do with it. Sure Nintendo could upload a AAA title more often, but if it was on Nintendo alone, the content would run out right quick. Why am I the only one that remember when Reggie said "VC games depends on who owns what?"
@Phantazmo:Super Mario RPG will come out in time. Shining Force 2 however is not a Nintendo title. It's up to Climax to do it.
@Erwos:Both services have good games and crap, deal with it.
@fenderfuel08:Again, Nintendo simply provides the service, it's up to the various publishers to provide the content. Stop bitching at Nintendo, bitch at Konami/Capcom/SE/Namco/Koei/Sega/Treasure/etc.
Baseball stars? Please Nintendo?
@Doomstink: "Tangibility"? I'm not sure what you're getting at but used NES games are iffy at best. I've bought tons of used NES games and maybe 60% of them actually work.
So you can spend $10 and get a sealed copy off Ebay (+ shipping, + the ridiculous hassle of using Ebay) and then wait a week or two for your game or spend $5 and get a convenient copy right on your Wii's dashboard. Or you can spend $2.99 and get a used copy from some hock shop and hope that it works. It's your choice!
But only one of those options has 100% odds of you...playing the game you want to play.
@statnut: SNK is who you want to talk to. They already released it last year didn't they?
aside from Baseball Stars, Bases Loaded was one of the best early baseball games I ever played.
@fenderfuel08: I've still got a few doubts on Super Mario RPG; would the fact that Square owns the rights to the non-Nintendo characters like Geno and Mallow (as indicated by the credits to Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga) be an issue? I'm sure it'll be out eventually, but I don't think that one's completely up to Nintendo.
The two games a week is a bummer, but keep in mind that they're trying to stretch this over two or three years (and apparently singlehandedly, given that most of the non-Nintendo consoles haven't seen new titles in ages). Sooner or later, we're bound to get Earthbound and the rest of the titles that most of us are waiting for.
Also, Yoshi's Cookie kicks ass. That is all.