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    Mario Superstar Baseball

    Game » consists of 2 releases. Released Aug 29, 2005

    Mario and friends head to the field in this crazy baseball game. Play through several games against iconic captains in the highly replayable single player mode or play with friends in a baseball game, minigames, or on the Toy Field.

    tissueshoe's Mario Superstar Baseball (GameCube) review

    Avatar image for tissueshoe

    MSB is easy to pick up and rewarding to master.

    Mario has proven himself to be a diverse character in the world of video games. Not only does he save Princess Peach repeatedly, he also races karts, embarks on grand RPG adventures, and even participates in many sports. Mario Superstar Baseball (MSB) is one such sport game in which everyone's favorite plumber goes head to head against other characters from his world. The first baseball outing for Mr. Red is quite awesome, and it's sheer fun all the way through.

    MSB starts off with a cutscene that basically explains the gist of the story. Baseball is the popular sport in the Mushroom Kingdom at the time, and Bowser sends out a challenge to all the major characters of the Mario universe. The challenge is basically to beat all the other teams, and then beat the Koopa King himself. This is the back-story behind the challenge mode, and while it isn't exactly intriguing or interesting it provides a background for the game, which is what it's meant to do.

    The Challenge mode is the game's main single player mode. It has four difficulty levels to play through like all Mario sport games. That's about the only thing about MSB that's similar to other Mario sport games, though: the rest is very unique. You pick one of the major captains (Mario, Peach, Yoshi, DK, or Wario) and play the other four you didn't pick, making their players join you along the way. This is done in an especially interesting mission template; where throughout a game missions will come up and for each completed mission you earn a flag, and earning enough flags for a character makes them join your team. This character element is one of the standout features of the Challenge mode, but even more so is the ability to make characters reach Star rank. You have to perform certain tasks with each individual character to earn them stars which, when you've earned them all, upgrades them to the Star rank, which in turn makes them better, more skilled players. These challenges range from hitting the ball to pitching a perfect game to reaching a certain score on a minigame, so it's easy to see the range of difficulty and variety of missions offered. You can even keep the stars you've earned by saving over the file you used after you beat the game to play through again and get more stars, encouraging many replays.

    Although the Challenge mode is MSB's main attraction, the game offers a few other diversions as well. There are a few minigames, none of which are particularly great but they're decent enough to enjoy and incorporate the game's elements nicely. There is also a unique Toy Field mode where the four participants (human or computer controlled) try to collect the most coins by various means. This mode is pretty solid as well, but it still can't divert much attention from the actual baseball games.

    Playing MSB is simple, which makes the game easy to pick up and play. Everything moves very smoothly, whether it be positioning a batter in the batter's box or running to catch a ball. Batting and pitching is as simple as pressing or holding A, and running involves mashing B to speed up and Y or X to advance a base or turn back. This all works great, but there are some control issues that are outside the realm of the controller. For example, a runner on base will sometimes go when you don't want them to, and some fielding situations are done incorrectly because you take automatic control of the wrong character. Issues like that are really annoying but not too frequent, so it doesn't hinder the experience much.

    MSB's simplicity makes it easy to jump in and play, but there is also some depth to the game. Advanced players can play the game more strategically, especially since there is a very wide variety of characters with unique skills. Making proper use of characters that can catch balls from farther away, jump extra high, and run extra fast takes more time to learn, but is very rewarding. Each character has a special Star ability too, where they hit a fireball or bullet bill, for example, or throw pitches similar to their special hit. Using all these techniques also deepens the actual gameplay, because you have to have a deeper skill in controlling the characters. So while MSB is easy to play, it's rewarding to look deeper and enhance your knowledge and skill.

    MSB is also a great looking game. The typical 3-D Mario graphics are at their finest for the time, with everything looking sharp and smooth. Character animations are fluid and fairly realistic, although occasionally a player will catch a ball without their glove in front of them. The menu interfaces are also nice; switching positions is a cinch and changing up the batting order is just as simple. The animated cutscenes, though, are the finest graphical points in the game; they look simply fantastic.

    The game also sounds just as good as it looks. All the sound effects, whether it be hitting a ball or characters making noise, are all great. The sound of hitting a ball is particularly satisfying, especially when you know you've hit one out of the park and it goes flying up into the air. The music tracks are also very good and fitting to their respective stadiums. The only problem with the sound is the two songs in the game that have lyrics in them: they're really lame. "Let's play baseball every day! Let's play baseball every night!" and "Let's play a baseball game!" just don't sound very original; in fact they sound extremely juvenile. I could see a little kid enjoying the songs, but anyone over the age of seven won't appreciate these two jingles one bit.

    Overall, Mario Superstar Baseball is an awesome game. It stands out within the Mario sport series with its deep challenge mode and simple gameplay that offers some good strategy and skill for advanced players. Most importantly, though, MSB is just plain fun. It's really easy to just kick back and play a game of baseball with this title without worrying about loads of complications and realism, and that's why MSB earns itself such a positive review and loads of play time.

    Positive:
    + single player Challenge mode is great
    + vast selection of characters
    + plenty of depth for advanced players
    + simple but fun gameplay
    + sharp visuals
    + satisfying sound effects

    Negative:
    - some confusing control issues

    THE FINAL VERDICT: MSB is a fantastic sport game that's simple enough for beginners but deep enough for advanced players, and the Challenge mode will keep anyone playing for hours. Above all else, though, it's just plain fun.

    FINAL SCORE: 9.0/10

    Other reviews for Mario Superstar Baseball (GameCube)

      Put Down the Racquets and Putters, It's Time to Hit the Diamond 0

      I've been looking forward to this game for quite a while.  First off, Mario Baseball is not MVP Baseball 2005.  This Namco-developed baseball game is a throwback to the classic games of 15-20 years ago.  It has a simplistic surface, but features the depth and addictive multiplayer we've become accustomed to in Tennis, Golf, and especially the Kart series.  Mario Superstar Baseball does come with its own set of flaws that hold it back from being a truly great arcade baseball game, but with o...

      0 out of 1 found this review helpful.

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