Jeff and I ventured into San Frantastic earlier today for Nintendo’s spring media summit, where they showed off a number of upcoming first- and third-party games for the Wii and DS. We can’t talk about most of the stuff we’ve seen so far, though you can expect a deluge of hands-on stories and a bombcast chock-fulla Nintendo talk this coming Tuesday. One of the things we can discuss right now is Mario Super Sluggers for the Wii, which we got to see in action for the first time today.
The gameplay definitely appears to take a lot of its cues from the baseball minigame in Wii Sports, using the same sort of motions for batting and pitching. It will expand on those concepts as well, letting you perform special pitches by holding both the A and B buttons while you throw, though it’s safe to assume there will be plenty of other ridiculous twists on the action as well. There will also be a little fielding in the game, though it seems to involve little more than waggling the remote.
Still, Nintendo’s Bill Trinnen was very clear that this is not intended to go up against serious baseball sims, something that was made more apparent by the game’s Nintendo-mascot-heavy line-up. We got to see the Mario Fireballs go up against the Peach Royals, with characters like Wario, Donkey Kong, a Hammer Bro, and Baby Mario stepping up to the plate. Probably my favorite touch was the fact that DK didn’t bother with a bat, opting instead to just strap a big red boxing glove to one of his hands. It also seems worth noting that Namco Bandai was listed at the bottom of the press release for Mario Super Sluggers, which could mean that either we’ll finally get the Soul Calibur/Nintendo crossover we’ve all be waiting for, or that Namco Bandai has some hand in the game’s development.
Maybe it’s just because there’s so much damn baseball on TV right now, but Mario Super Sluggers looked pretty good to me, though it also looks like it won’t offer too many surprises for those already familiar with past Mario-themed sports games. Mario Super Sluggers is set for release later this year.
53 Comments
Stealing is not cool. Cyber anti-theft mascot does not approve.
It was only a matter of time because Mario and co. would venture to America’s pastime.
before*
Damn you no edit function!
Seriously though, I mean, if you already have Wii Sports, what’s the point of making a rip of it and putting Mario in it? Sure, the Nintendo fanatics will flock to it, but I just don’t see anything good coming of this.
I know man, we so need an edit button.
come on…serious, thats it?
http://www.warp9gaming.com
Is it too much to ask for a good and serious baseball game for the Wii? I know there are two more “playable” games out there , but if its going to be a new one, please, not another mascot thing…
I’d say Mario Baseball or whatever they called it on the GameCube was definitely one of the lesser sports. But Tennis and Golf were great, so maybe this has potential.
moving up giant bomb. you got hands on from nintendo. job well done
Hopefully there will be some good stuff Tuesday.
Why must it always be sports? Why can’t they do cooler spinoffs like…um…uh a Mario RPG? Oh wait, they did that already…but that was awesome! Why can’t they just do another one of those!? Honestly, how many arcade sport spinoffs does Mario need?
Mario Super Sluggers is gonna have to be pretty great and really bring something fresh and new to the table to not be made obsolete by the outstanding MLB Power Pros for me.
I’m big on Punch Out, Mario Kart, 1080 SB and Wave Race. I’m not that big on Mario Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Tennis and Golf. Golf I guess is alright… it’s the original Mario sports game.
I know a lot of folks enjoy them so it’s all good just not my styles.
Can’t wait for this year’s E3 where Nintendo fanboys will be Ooohh-ing and Aaaahh-ing over this title. ✌
ok let me guess, mario tennis is coming next
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They tooks it, they stole the internet from me, Gollum! gollum!
Filthy little hobbits!
Yeah, Ryan, I hope you remember the Mario Baseball game for the GameCube. It was pretty good, and DK used a boxing glove there too.
Sounds pretty cool. Hopefully we will be able to see your hands-on post sometime soon.
i hope its not another mario sports game. i love baseball and nothing is better then mlb the show, but i just got a wii (yesterday0 and i want to use it as muc has i can since all i got it for is SSBB and Mario Kart. my lil one will love it too.
Looking forward to more DS news on tuesday.
Bring back NES Baseball!
Rollie Fingers wins!
Mario Baseball on the GameCube was actually developed by Namco. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were involved in this one, too.
I hope it plays a little like MLB Power Pros, because after playing that game it felt like a better version of Mario Superstar Baseball, which probably copied Power Pros. Power Pros is a great game by the way. I have to say, I’m ready for all the Nintendo sports games, especially tennis, I thought Mario Power Tennis was a lot of fun, but a little shallow. Online play for these games would help a great deal. Time will tell.
I knew it, I knew it , that greaseball always had an “abnormal” amount of hair growth in my opinion.The only question is was it the clear or the cream…..I guess will all find out when his dealer ,FBI code name “Luigi” testifies before congress next month………
I’ve never really liked mario sports, and i won’t care, so, they can copy whatever the f*** they want to copy from another game cuz i don’t really give a s**t.
Meh, I have never really been that into Mario sports games.
I liked Mario Superstar Baseball for the cube. Of course there wasn’t much replay value, it was fun.
We need a mario baseball game for ds pl0x lol
Another casual game for the Wii. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
Another Mario game. It will be a hit with casual gamers, but not to the hardcore.
I personally really liked the first Mario Baseball game. I’m curious to how this one turns out but since I don’t have a Wii it doesn’t really matter does it?
I always knew Mario was juiceing.
^^^^^
DK uses a GLOVE, I’m pretty sure he’s the one juice-ing.
If it like like the the baseball minigame in Wii Sports then I am in, that was a lot of fun to play with people. If it will be the same but with Mario on it I think it will sell well.
Jeff: The A and B pressing to cahnge pitch type was available in wii sports as well! There were 4 pitches in total
wouldn’t be at all surprised if namco had a hand in the dev process - they development mario kart for arcade, so it would make sense.
Hmm, I thought that the Wii sports edition of baseball was rather underwhelming. They have to greatly improve the gameplay if that game should appeal to me. Mario and friends aren’t enough of a justification to buy it.
Whoa, let me get this straight. Nintendo is going to take characters from existing franchises, put them in the same game, base said game on a popular sport, and then make it super crazy with all kinds of special teams and crazy gameplay mechanics? This my friends is a revalation!!!!
Okay, for those who could not detect my sarcasm, that previous paragraph was a joke. This one is not. How long are people going to allow nintendo to continuously produce the same game over and over again before people notice their getting ripped off? We call EA on their shit when they tread out a product, iterate on it slightly year after year, and expect to be happy with something that isn’t ‘new’ anymore. We should be demanding more from nintendo as well. And yes I vote with my dollars, as much as i want a wii for SSBB, or Mario Galaxy, I can’t support a system with so many terrible games.
(P.S. Innovative is not a synonym for fun.)
^Agreed
every console pushes out the same old crap all the time, but i agree that we dont really need another mario sports game, if they just keep mario kart, and a mario platformer and rpg and brawl it would be cool. what i want is a new pikmin game, or a new luigi game. well heck they have loads of franchises they can work from, i just dont understand why they only choose mario.
Normally I’d agree, but the Wii-mote changes everything. How can you compare any Nintendo/Mario game before this to the Wii version?
- First of all, you really don’t know anything about the game other than it’s an extension of Wii Sports baseball.
- Seccond, Nintendo hasn’t exactly been dishing out motion-control sports games. Wii Sports, Mario Strikers, and now this.
- Third, it’s obviously a ‘casual’ game, but apparently that automatically makes it bad.
You “call EA on their shit” and yet millions still buy their games every year. Nintendo releases a series every 3-5 years and are in the same league as EA? That’s pretty unfair if you ask me. How is this game ripping people off? There is, and I’m going to be explicitly clear about this, NO GAME LIKE THIS other than a relatively shallow chapter in Wii Sports. So if someone wants more of the baseball sim in Wii Sports, this is really their only option.
And c’mon, let’s be realistic for a second here. Nintendo releases a lot of games every year and they can’t all be Super Mario Galaxies. The Wii library is surprisingly strong for the type of approach they took with the system, so I won’t complain every time Nintendo makes a ‘casual’ game.
On the game itself, I found tennis and baseball the most enjoyable Wii Sports sims. Depending on how “in depth” they make the experience, and how well the expand on the motion controls, I will certainly check this game out.
I’m hoping some good stuff is announced on Tuesday for the Wii.
Another well designed Nintendo title with shit online functionality, but will trample all other 3rd party titles.
i’m looking forward at hurting my arm over this game, the mario sport titles have always been of great quality
Enough with the Mario games already. This E3 they better announce a new Star Fox, a new Pikmin and a new Animal Crossing.
Choosing a character other than Mario is also choosing not to make as much money. Sadly.
That said, I would totally play a cover-based third person shooter with Mario and a chainsaw.
“It’s a-me, bitch.” -=KAPOW=-
I got a joke:
There are two muffins inside an oven. One says: “Oh boy, it’s hot in here”, and the other one answers: “Holy Shit, a talking muffin”.
xD SO DAMN GOOD!!!
I’m over the mario sports games. I want better BRAWL online. Seriously.
Uh oh!
I just hope there’s more meat to the single-player than Mario baseball had.
weak…
I loved wii baseball. So this game will be a definate pick up for me. thanks for the inside information