Super Slugfest
Though twenty bones may sound a little steep for a game that most closely resembles a higher resolution Backyard Baseball, Super Mega Baseball is a surprisingly addicting and rewarding experience in a genre in desperate need of games like this. Playing this bridges the gap between the Golden Age of baseball classics such as Ken Griffey on SNES or Tengen's RBI Baseball and the more modern simulation heavy dynasty of the MLB: The Show.
Super Mega Baseball definitely leans more towards the arcade friendly approach, with the option to have either incredibly short seasons to a maximum of 54 games. Other than a few modifiers (earned through winning games in the Season Mode) that make small alterations to players, the game's level of customization is aptly bare-bones. The real meat of the game is in the actual on-field shenanigans. Batting is a simple choice of power or contact, with power being the clearly more in-depth in the long run. Either using the right analog stick or holding down the square button, you learn to time hitting the pitch along with moving the cursor over the ball for maximum effect. It's a simple but addicting system that only gets better the more you master it.
And mastering the game comes with the very welcome addition of being able to adjust the difficulty. Called ego, your difficulty slider begins at the infantile fifteen and can be stretched all the way to 99. My first handful of games were spent utterly dismantling my opponents until I had adjusted my ego nearly all the way to 60. Hanging pitches in the zone isn't quite as forgiving as before, and simply relying on power isn't going to net you an instant home run any longer. And while it is a very wise feature for Metalhead Studios to include, the rather puzzling decision to leave the number of innings locked in place for an entire season is incredibly frustrating. I had set out to play a 32 game season with the standard, simulation focused setting of nine innings of play. A few games in and I realized a standard 9 inning game in SMB approaches nearly a half hour, compromising the rapid, arcade-friendly experience.
Maybe it’s expecting too much out of a budget title, but Super Mega Baseball could have really benefitted (and bumped this game from a great downloadable into the stratosphere of instant classic) from a story mode. The ludicrous team names (Beewolves, Wideloads, etc.) and player names, along with their zesty attitudes on the field, scream personality. Maybe limiting the player to one default team would have been enough sacrifice to ensure I understood the motivations behind everything. My best hitter, Buster Bigs, is a man of excess, with his flowing blonde hair and seventies porn star moustache, but all I knew about him after 32 games was 17 home runs, 41 runs driven in, and the first person since Ted Williams to hit a .400 batting average.
The aesthetic is translated well on the diamond, with colorful umpires screaming the balls and strikes with hilarious changes in pitch and tone, and players begin to sop with sweat as the pressure sets in late. Home runs are followed by honest to God pummeling metal riffs that gets adrenaline appropriately kicking in. Character models do tend to veer too close to the edge of self-parody, however, hearkening back to the ultra big head mode abominations of the late 90's.
If Slugfest never truly felt like it captured the spirit of Blitz in baseball format, Super Mega Baseball is the closest we may ever get. It’s a shame this game will fly so low under the radar and miss that audience, because this does remind me of Midway sports at its zenith. Just dumb, goofy, fast, bombastic, and most importantly, fun. And fun goes a long way for baseball, hell, any game in 2015.