My first Mario sports game Review. Not the first one I've played, but the first I've reveiwed. There's nothing much to say about this, it's just... Mario Baseball. Is it a no-star strike out or a four-star grand slam?
Graphics: ***1/2
While the graphics aren't really something that's important, they are for the most part very good. I can't complain... it all looks right. The map of Challenge mode is bad, but that's not a major problem. Yoshi's field wasn't my cup of tea either, but... it's not important...
Sound/Music: **1/2
The music's all right. The classic Mario
theme is here and I like the music for Wario's field, which I think comes
from Wario World. The menu music isn't bad either. The music isn't great,
it is "not bad". The voices are good. Except for Lakitu's, which I don't
like. It's not Lakitu's voice really, and it's annoying in its own right.
Difficulty: *
I can rarely think of his game being
hard, even on the hardest level. Surely there's some times (or more like
a 1/10 chance) where you're having trouble getting a hitting game going
for your team, and the other team can hit the ball whether you like it
or not. Sometimes baserunners will steal bases when you can't help it.
Some Challenge mode missions for certain characters are hard due to the
randomness of baseball. But that's the end of any difficulty. Sometimes,
it's so easy to get the other team out, whichever way it is, that I would
throw easy pitches to give more chances for a certain character to clear
a mission in Challenge Mode. And they still miss. Comebacks are very easy
to make, and winning by mercy isn't hard either, to the point where I've
had an outstanding score against Bowser's team in the Special Cup! This
game shouldn't give you much trouble.
Controls: *
The controls are obviously not good,
and they're easy to mess up on. It's hard to base-throw, as I sometimes
throw to the wrong base and a baserunner ends up scoring. It's hard to
pull off a special move in the outfield sometimes. It's hard to control
one baserunner instead of controlling them all. Pitching is all right,
I would give it the least complaints becasue it's easy to learn the timing
for the fastest pitches. Batting is not the best. Sometimes my character
will swing automatically when he or she is up to bat, which makes it near
impossible to pull off a charged swing right afterwards. However, the charged
swing is nice, as I know that could be worse. Basically, the controls mess
up or don't do what you want them to do in a few cases.
Characters: **
While the game has many characters
from the Mario world, it feels like for baseball, it's not enough. I like
the charcter selection, as the characters have differences where selecting
a team is important, it's not just picking whatever character you want.
However, it's only four characters short of 36, which would mean a Mario
baseball tournament. Seeing how the character selection screens are designed,
four more characters would've been put in easily. But no... I would
give an average mark here.
Exhibition Game: ***1/2
The main mode of the game, this is
basically a versus mode between two teams. It's very good, as it's fun
and always worth playing. I also like the team names given when they have
certain characters on it. There's not much to say, but it's very fun.
Challenge Mode: **1/2
The challenge mode is good, although
winning against teams is very, very easy, what's better in this mode are
the certain Star missions for each character. That's what makes this mode
good. Some Star missions are very hard (becuase of some normal luck involved),
which makes this mode last for a while. The missions, in fact, save this
mode from being bad. If it was just beating easy teams, it would be no
challenge. It's an all right mode, but it could still be better.
Fields: ***1/2
The baseball fields were made well.
I like them a lot. They're unique, putting the Mario in Mario Superstar
Baseball. I don't feel like explaining each one, but they are creatively
made. One problem: there's not enough!!!
Toy Field: no stars
I hate this. It's randomness. It's
hard to get a hit without the CPUs catching the ball for an out, and it's
hard to field the ball because you have to guess where the ball will land.
Pitching is a little harder because the computers are better at hitting.
It's not even worth explaining, it's a useless mode.
Mini-Games: 1/2
The mini-games were overall below average.
But, then I don't know how to make some better. Some of them are too random,
others are too... bland and, well, it all doesn't work out well. Yet they
seem to be easy at the same time. They're not fun, to tell the truth.
Replayability: ***
The replayability is good, as it takes
a while to get all the character bios and even longer to get all the Superstar
characters. The Fun Factor helps out too.
Fun Factor: ****
This game is very fun, yes. It's fun
when you're trailing by 5 runs and you make a big comeback. It's fun when
you score over 10 runs in a game. It's fun when you finally get that Superstar
character. It's sometimes even fun if you lose. The bad parts of the game
don't hurt this at all.
Overall: ***
This is a good game, but not perfect.
It's doesn't earn the ***1/2 "very good" rating either. It's a good game,
but honestly, it could improve in a lot of ways. I'm glad that this game
turned out good, though. You should buy it, as it is pretty fun to play.
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