| Intro: Intro: Out of the seemingly infinite abyss that video game ideas seem to come from emerges Mario Superstar Baseball, a game in a class by itself. The game’s developers hoped that the game would follow in the footsteps of other Mario sports titles, but many are sitting on the fence with this one. Is Mario’s latest sports outing a smash hit, or are you better off with your MLB-licensed titles? Read on to find out.
Graphics: 10/10 The graphics for this game are superb! They evidently seem to follow in the footsteps of every other Mario title for the Gamecube which are top-notch. The characters are well-designed, the various fields you can choose from are beautiful, and the special effects activated by a Star ability are dazzling. Mario’s latest sports title is eye candy, even if you are not a fan of Mario, baseball, or video games at all. Sound and Music: 6/10 This is where the disappointments start. I wasn’t too pleased with the sound and music in the game at all. The sound effects are annoying and I mean ALL of them. I can’t express the crappiness of the voice-acting used when a character charges up a swing or pitch. When a character makes a play in the field, you hear their voice, and hearing a bunch of characters screaming the one saying given to them over and over again can get on your nerves. Finally, the stupid announcer that says “ball”, “strike”, “take your base”, etc. in a stupid high-pitched voice can make you want to turn down the volume. All of these things seem petty and unimportant at first glance, but after you’ve been playing this game for awhile and experienced what everything sounds like, you’ll see what I mean. The music was bouncy, cheerful, motivating, and good in arousing competition in the heat of battle. My major complaint about the music is that no classic Mario tunes were used. The musical score would’ve been improved a great deal if at least a few recognizable themes were thrown into the game. Controls: 9.5/10 For the most part, the controls in this game were basic and easy to master. The longer you hold the A button, the harder you hit or pitch the ball. Likewise, the faster you tap the B button while moving, the faster you go. Stealing bases is pretty simple; Y advances, X retreats. Throwing is based on an analog system where A plus the base you want throws it there. Executing “big plays” or getting a “perfect” is not that difficult once you have mastered the controls. The only issues regarding the controls are that it is easy to get confused when moving multiple runners on the bases, and that sometimes when you dive, it is easy to overshoot your target and ram into a wall, knocking you out for a few seconds. Challenge: 10/10 This game is hard as hell and I’m not just saying that. Sure, it might not seem like that if you set your computerized opponents to Weak or Normal skill level. Even Strong might not be that formidable. But it is near impossible to win against an opposing team on Powerful skill level. Just try it. You will have the challenge of your life and you will lose. That is because your opponents will smash almost anything out of the park and catch almost everything you hit, a deadly combination that will lead to you losing the game unless you’re really good. But not many people are so good luck with this one. As for outplaying human adversaries, that is extremely easy (at least for me it was anyway, depends on your ability). The average gamer couldn’t conquer the computer on Powerful. Replay: 7/10 So you’ve played through Challenge Mode on Powerful and beaten it. What is the point of doing it again? That’s just it, there is none. Once you’ve beaten this game, you don’t want to play it again unless it is with your friends. Mario Superstar Baseball makes a decent party game, but it is not Super Smash Bros. or Mario Party. It is really no fun playing a 4 player game with only 2 teams. You don’t even have control of the entire team and coordinating moves is difficult at best, impossible at worst. You could play through the whole game to unlock all the characters. But what is the purpose; they’re pretty much the same in ability, strengths, and weaknesses of their defaulty-available counterparts, they just look different. If you want to unlock them all, be my guest, but honestly don’t see the point. Gameplay: 9.5/10 This is a really good game with excellent gameplay. Everything works exactly as you control it and there is no lag between you pressing the button and the event actually taking place. Hitting, pitching, and running the bases are all fun and easily performed. The game offers a variety of activities from playing baseball games freely with your friends to building up the best team to challenge Bowser. Various mini-games have been included and most of them are fun to play. The only comments I have are that hitting a homerun is somewhat too difficult, and there should be an option to simply walk the batter (I know it is possible, by hitting them or by throwing 4 balls, but having a walk button would save so much time). *Story: .5/1* Like most Mario games, the story is extremely cheesy and mediocre and is not original at all. The premise of Mario’s latest sports game is that baseball is becoming popular with Mario and his pals. Bowser sends the others a challenge to play his team and everyone sets out to build the strongest team. Although it is not the best storyline, it is one that works and that I enjoyed to some extent. Sports games really don’t need storylines, so I’ll include this as a bonus category. ** Multiplayer: 1/1 ** Another bonus category because multiplayer is not needed in a game, but having it sure helps. Mario Superstar Baseball gets the full point here because it offers a wide variety of game modes from 2 to 4 players. Exhibition allows you to play a full game with your pals, and Toy Field allows you to play with 1 to 4 player accomplishing tasks cooperatively or independently, your choice. You can also play a lot of mini-games and the games on this disc are quite amusing. This is good stuff multiplayer wise. Graphics: 10/10 Sound and Music: 6/10 Controls: 9.5/10 Challenge: 10/10 Replay: 7/10 Gameplay: 9.5/10 *Story: .5/1* ** Multiplayer: 1/1 ** Total Score: 8.9/10 Score Explanation: I have mixed feelings here. I thought this game would do much better prior to its release, but it shows that the hype surrounding a new type of game can make it seem overrated. On the contrary, I think I was too generous in the scoring of this review by including the Story category as a bonus. If it were a regular category, the 5/10 it would’ve gotten would’ve brought down the average a great deal and the game would’ve scored in the low 8’s/ high 7’s. But then again, sports games don’t really need stories and I think the inclusion of Story as a bonus category was quite fair. I recommend you rent this game to take it for a test drive to see if you like it before you spend $50 on it because this game is not for everyone. If you are a diehard Mario or baseball fan, then you might want to consider buying, but chances are diehard baseball fans wouldn’t be interested in a title that is not MLB licensed. The final decision is obviously yours, but the worst that can happen is you rent it, don’t like it, and you’ll never have to play it again. |
| Mario Superstar Baseball Reviewed by IngRaider |
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