Mario takes to the diamond once more for another season of crazy arcade baseball. Is the plumber-turned ballplayer on a hot streak, or is it time to send him to the showers? Below I carefully analyze on a scale of 10 this new sports title for the Wii.
Gameplay: Score at the bottom of this section
Mario Super Sluggers is an arcade baseball game, and playing baseball is what you’re going to do. The game is more oriented towards hitting than pitching; it is relatively easy to hit line drives, and pitches can only be curved left and right, not up and down, making it much easier for the batter to connect. But fans of well-pitched games should take heart; with the ability to change speeds and curve pitches sharply, pitchers still will be able to send batters back to the dugout shaking their head.
This game’s main mode is Exhibition, where you’ll play a single game against another player or the CPU. First you pick the team captains – major characters from the Mario series who each have special moves. Then you’ll pick the remaining eight members of the team, determine the batting order and starting fielding positions, and then it’s time to play ball! You also determined how many innings you play, and whether some of the special gameplay elements discussed below will be in play.
Sluggers more or less follows the true rules of baseball, but with many a twist thrown in. One such twist carried over from the first Mario baseball game, Mario Superstar Baseball for the GameCube, is that most stadiums have obstacles in them. These hazards are located in the outfield and can impede the fielders or redirect a batted ball, the result being many surprises and unusual plays. Another element borrowed from Superstar is character chemistry, in which characters who are denoted as friends perform well with one another. As in Superstar, players will hit better when there are friends on base, and throw more quickly to an ally. Sluggers increases the benefits of character chemistry by adding special fielding techniques for getting the ball back into the infield lightning fast, and even being able to rob towering homerun balls. Additionally, if the hitter and on-deck player are friends, the on-deck player can fire a weapon onto the field after the ball is struck to obstruct the fielders.
Another major element taken from Superstar is Team Stars, which allow players to hit the ball with special power or to throw special pitches. This can have a major effect on the outcome of the game if you use your Stars to your advantage. Although this concept is similar to that of Superstar, the execution is very different. In Superstar, you started the game with a certain number of Stars based on your team chemistry, and then could earn more at specified times by getting a hit if you’re on offense or an out if you’re on defense; or the offense could occasionally get a Star by hitting special spots on the field. In Sluggers, both teams start with no Stars, and Stars are earned based on performance all the time rather than at specified moments. The offensive team can earn Stars by bunching hits, stealing bases, and scoring runs; while the defensive team earns Stars by getting strikes, getting outs, and making great plays.
Since performance gains you more Stars, and Stars improve your performance, this actually has the affect of creating a momentum system that can allow players who are earning Stars to really turn it on and continue doing well. It’s an interesting element that could, in a way, be said to mirror real baseball, which often seems to involve an element of momentum. That said, the momentum in Sluggers also can shift very quickly. If you hit the ball using a Team Star, but the other team makes a great play, then you’ve made an out and are down a Team Star, while the other team probably is going to earn a Star for the defensive gem. Suddenly they have the momentum!
I like the momentum system the way I have described it up to this point, I think it’s clever and has a good effect on gameplay, even as you scream in frustration when you hit a line drive with a Team Star only to watch it sail right at a defender and get caught. The problem this system has, however, is that it also creates a major home field advantage. When the visiting team comes to bat in the top of the first, they have no Team Stars, so they only can use regular power to get hits. It’s difficult to get a Team Star on offense without already having one to help you get hits, while it’s easier to earn them on defense. If you strike a player out, you’re pretty much certain to get a Team Star, not just for the K but also for the strikes along the way. But I’ve hit a homerun and not earned a Star for it. So essentially, the visiting team won’t have any Stars in the first. But when the home team comes to bat in the bottom of the first, they could already have 1, 2, maybe even more Stars from pitching, and could use them to really jump out in front early. This gives the visiting team a serious disadvantage, and forces you to bat very carefully in the top of the first. You don’t want to swing and miss much, you really don’t want to strikeout, and good luck to you if the home team manages to make a great defensive play. Then they will really be in business with Stars.
Now, the astute among you might say, “Ok, so the visiting team has no Stars to hit with in the top of the first, but the home team has no Stars to pitch with either, so it’s fair, right?” Well, in a single word, no; and I’ll explain why. I have two answers.
The more complicated answer is that Team Stars are much more useful on offense than on defense. On offense, they can be used to hit powerful blasts that can be of great help in getting hits with weaker players; while stronger hitters like captains can really wreak havoc with them. On defense, a Star will only get you a strike. If could cause the batter to hit the ball weakly for an out, but at least when I’m playing, I almost always take those pitches for a strike without offering at them. I’d only swing if there was 2 strikes. “Aha!” you say. “But then you can use the Stars to get strikeouts!” Yes you can, but unless you use three Stars to get a single hitter out, you’d have already had to get two strikes the normal way, so you may very well have been able to get a third strike normally, too. Star Pitches simply are not as useful as Star Swings, even given that if you miss with your swing, you’re out a Team Star for nothing.
The simpler reason is that because the offensive team rarely earns many Stars without already having some to help out, the visiting team probably will enter the bottom of the first still without any Stars. Granted they’ll have a partially filled meter for getting one Star, but still, they won’t have much help with pitching in the first, either.
Just as momentum is an element in real baseball, so too is the home field advantage. But in a game where the home team is determined randomly and games may only be a few innings long – making the first inning even more critical – this unbalancing of the teams can be very disruptive within Super Sluggers. Arcade baseball does not need to mimic real baseball, and so while I like the momentum concept, this home field advantage is not a good development for Mario’s baseball series. To combat this situation, the option should have existed to start the visiting team with 1 Team Star, maybe 2. Getting that leadoff man on could make all the difference. And look, if you swing and miss and waste your Team Star, then hey, you messed up, now you’re going to have to deal with it. But I think this would be a decent way to handle the imbalance.
Anyway… So, that’s the major aspects of gameplay you can expect to see on the baseball diamond. The result of all this is often a crazy ballgame where every at-bat is critical and that, despite frustration when things don’t go well, is often very fun. Gamers looking for a realistic baseball experience will not find it here, but those who like the arcade could find this kind of gameplay addictive. Exhibition mode offers a good game, the only problem being there’s no kind of season mode that would offer stakes other than your own personal pride.
In addition to Exhibition mode, there’s also a Challenge mode. Superstar also had a Challenge mode, but this one is quite different. In Superstar’s Challenge mode, you picked a captain and the default team that goes with him, then go around playing the other teams and getting other characters to join you by meeting certain challenges when called on. Then eventually you would make your way to Bowser for the final game.
Sluggers also finishes with a game against Bowser, but the lead-up is very different. This time you walk around Peach’s new Baseball Kingdom using the team captains to talk to other characters and examine things. When you find characters, many will ask you to meet a challenge before they’ll join your team. Sometimes these challenges are minigames or puzzles, but most are quick baseball missions, and can range in difficulty from just getting an out on the easy side, to spraying hits to left, right, and center field, as indicated, on the hard side.
At first Sluggers’ Challenge mode may seem unique and interesting, but before long I found it to be disappointing. Superstar’s Challenge mode may have been criticized for centering too much around the ballfield, playing just as you would in Exhibition; but really, what else would you like to do in a baseball game? Sluggers’ Challenge mode, aside from the quick scouting missions, actually includes very little real baseball. You’ll play a few very short games against Bowser Jr’s team, and then the final game against Bowser… but really, there’s not a lot of ball-playing. This mode isn’t very difficult, they couldn’t even bother to make all the scouting missions unique, and when you finish it once, there’s hardly any reason to play it again, like you might in Superstar.
In Superstar characters could become, well, Superstars by managing various stunts in Challenge mode, liking getting a hit, scoring multiple runs, or even in one case pitching a perfect game. These Superstar characters would gain increased stats both in Challenge and in Exhibition, this giving a reason to replay the Challenge mode as you continued to try to improve players. This feature has been all but removed from Sluggers. Superstars exist, but there are no stunts to complete – the character must just be on a team that beats Bowser’s – and these characters will not be upgraded. So again, there’s no reason to replay Challenge mode once you beat it once. You’ll want to play it once to unlock some characters and stadiums, and it’s not so terrible that it’s a real hardship to play through it that one time, but relative to Superstar, it’s a big disappointment. It should only take you about 5 hours, I’d wager, to beat Bowser and get all the courses and characters. Then you may never play this mode again.
Sluggers also has a bunch of minigames, as Superstar did… but it doesn’t really matter. I have not been interested enough to play any of them yet and will not be commenting on them, except to say that if you buy this game for the minigames, you’re probably doing it for the wrong reason. They’re a diversion at best.
So finally, here are the scores.
Exhibition: 9
Challenge: 3
The Rest: Who
cares?
Overall: 7
Controls: Hard to say… Read on and I’ll explain
I’ll do controls next because they’re a highlight of this game, which is billed as using motion-sensitive control not entirely unlike Wii Fit. Indeed, this game can be controlled by swinging and shaking the Wii-Mote, in two styles: Wii-Mote only, or Wii-Mite with Nunchuk. This game can also be played with more traditional control by holding the Wii-Mote sideways, so there are several control schemes available. What’s not available, though, is the GameCube or Classic controllers, which probably would be more effective than the sideways Wii-Mote, and more familiar to those who have played Superstar. I was happy to see traditional play as an option, but the omission of those controllers was disappointing.
After having had the game for just three days, I have only used the Wii-Mote with Nunchuk control scheme, so I cannot speak with personal experience about the other methods. You might think that the fact I have used only this control method means that it works very well, and it does work… But whether it works well is something still to be considered.
If you’ve played the baseball portion of Wii Sports, you’ll already be familiar with the basics of using the Wii-Mote on its own in Sluggers. You swing the remote to pitch and to swing. You can also now pull back and wait to use a charged pitch or swing, and tilt the Wii-Mote to curve pitches. You also shake the Wii-Mote to speed up runners and fielders and to make throws, but in the Wii-Mote only method the CPU controls the movement of the fielders and the batter in the box, as well as the direction of throws. This control method seems like it would work well with what it does, but leaves some parts of the game out of the player’s control.
For those gamers that want a more complete experience, the Wii-Mote with Nunchuk is the way to go. With it you can curve pitches with the control stick rather than leave it up to your wrist, slide the batter around in the box to line up your swings, and play defense. You also can fire weapons onto the field when your batter and on-deck hitter are friends – assuming, that is, that you can quickly point the Wii-Mote at the screen after swinging and fire the weapon before a defender gets the ball. It’s a difficult maneuver that the CPU sometimes seems to be able to do unreasonably quickly, even managing to knockout infielders on reasonably hard-hit grounders.
Hitting and pitching work well with the Nunchuk – better, I suspect, than with the Wii-Mote alone. Fielding, however, is a mess, because you’re completely on your own. It can be very difficult to determine how you need to move to make the play, and balls can easily slip through the infield as you try to figure out where your defender is. Sometimes the game has you controlling the wrong fielder, like the shortstop when the ball is really much closer to the third base line. You can press the Z button on the Nunchuk to switch the player you’re controlling, but by the time you realize you’ve got the wrong player and remember what button to push, it’s probably too late. It’s hard to explain what this game fails to do on the defensive end that other games have done right, but the fact is that, with the Nunchuk, pretty much every play is an adventure.
I thought that defensive play in Superstar Baseball was one of the strengths of that game. It used a partially automated system whereby fielders would start running toward the ball on their own, but would seamlessly switch over to player control in order for characters to run the rest of the way to the ball and use special moves. Plays would not be made without the involvement of the player, but this seemed to be the ideal blend of player involvement and CPU assistance, the result being that the player would be interested in the defensive elements of the game and be in a position to make good plays. Every now and then a grounder would slip through or a pop up drop in, but most of the time, apart from errors made by characters in the game, defense was solid. But with the Nunchuk and Slugger’s completely manual defense, that’s suddenly no longer the case. It’s really a problem, and a big disappointment relative to the quality of defensive play in the prequel.
So, if I’m griping about the Nunchuc’s effect on defensive play, why don’t I switch to one of the other control schemes? Well, the Nunchuk really does improve the other aspects of the game – hitting, pitching, and running – so I sacrifice all three if I use the Wii-Mote on its own for motion control. I imagine that method’s defensive play to be closer to Superstar’s, and what I really need is an option to play with the Nunchuk for pitching and hitting and still have all, or mostly all, automated defense, as I would without the Nunchuk, but there’s no such luck. I hear that the traditional control with the Wii-Mote, while functional, has problems of its own, like buttons being inconvenient or the fact you can run past a base because you use the same button to run faster and to advance to the next base. But more importantly, I’m into motion control right now, and think it would be less interesting to use traditional controls for this game. So I’ve been putting up with the Nunchuk, and like I said, it works well in the other aspects of the game, but when I allow hits and runs off balls I feel I should have been able to get to with a little more assistance from the game, it’s very frustrating.
I hope now that
you understand why I felt it was hard to give the controls a single rating.
There are three control schemes, each with their strengths but also with
their problems. None of the problems destroy the game, but it doesn’t
seem like it would have been that difficult to allow players to use the
GameCube controller for traditional play, or to get defensive assistance
when using the Nunchuk like you do when you only use the Wii-Mote.
Right now I think a 6 or 7 is an appropriate score, but just wait until
the next time I lose a game due to a botched play, and that score may drop
to 2 or 3.
Characters: A score up front for a change! -- 8
I do this section next because it may be the final wordy one, and then it should be pretty quick the rest of the way.
The playable roster in Sluggers consists of 41 noteworthy characters from the Mario series, including all 32 from Superstar and 9 new ones. 41 players still isn’t really a lot for a baseball game where matches consist of 2 teams of 9, but after getting used to Superstar, the roster in Sluggers seems much more respectable. It also helps that “stock” characters that come in different colors now can be on a team more than once, in those different colors; as well as be on both teams. So while opponents may still squabble over unique characters, there’s still a better chance of getting who you want since some characters can be used more than once. Characters also have more friends now than they did before. Although some of these alliances may be questionable in the eyes of Mario vets, the effect on gameplay is a good one, especially with the increased importance of team chemistry, since if you are not able to get a player you want, you’ll now have a better chance of finding another character who fits well with your chemistry.
That’s the good, now here’s the bad. Of the 9 new players, 5 are really from the DK series. So you’re going to be very happy if you are a fan of DK’s games, but if you’re more of a Mario fan like I am, you’re going to be less interested. The 4 true Mario characters they added are good, 2 of them even being surprising, I’d say; but Nintendo didn’t exactly dredge up anyone from the distant past, with nearly all of these characters appearing in recent games. And there are still some obvious choices they left out, including all the recommendations I made in my Review of Superstar Baseball… which I never finished or posted, but here’s an excerpt:
Despite this hurdle, 32 characters is really just too few for a baseball game; and even keeping within the GameCube era of Mario games, there are a couple of obvious choices that were inexplicably left out. Where is Nintendo's favorite inventor, E. Gadd, popular enough for a cameo in Superstar Saga and all sorts of references, but not enough to be a player here? Why are Ukiki and Penguin limited to just a random appearance in the audience at the end of the intro? While I agree that Lakitu is a great choice for umpire, that role is little more than a voiceover anyway; he could have been a great, high flying fielder instead. Similarly, Bob-omb could have been a player instead of the ball in Bob-omb Derby. Not a single character who originated in a Paper Mario is in this game. Kammy could have been an easy addition to Bowser's team, and Kamek too; he's been getting appearances in the Mario Parties and Superstar Saga.
Those six characters whose names I underlined are just as deserving of a spot on the roster now as when I wrote that unfinished Review (although Lakitu is now actually visible on the field of play), and there could easily be more. With the release of Galaxy, where’s Rosalina, who has already appeared in Mario Kart Wii? I’m no Rosalina fan, but I’d rather see her and some Lumas on Mario’s default team, and some of the multicolored Piantas and Nokis could be removed. (Or really, all Piantas and Nokis could be…) So while there has been definite improvement since Superstar, there still is room for more.
There is one other character not in the 41 who I need to speak about. It’s Mii… er, I mean you… I mean… Oh, you get it, don’t you? That’s right, any Mii’s that you have on your Wii can be added to the teams in Exhibition. It’s a fun idea, and for those Mario nerds who would like to spend a day with Mario, having their Mii play baseball with him is probably as close as they’ll ever get.
I like the Mii
option – so much so that I would have liked to see them do more with it.
All Mii’s have perfectly average stats, making them decent players in all
areas. But I think it would be cool if there were ways to enhance
the stats of an individual Mii. Whether there would be a new mode
for this, or the game would just say “You drove in a run in this Exhibition
game, now your hitting stats will improve”, I think it would be an exciting
feature, even if it meant that Mii’s start with worse stats than they do
now. Mii’s have chemistry with the real characters seemingly at random
(What, are those characters known to be fan favorites or something?), and
it would be cool if your play could determine who your Mii is friends with.
Finally, unlike all the other characters in the game, Mii’s make no sound
effects. I’d love to be able to record my own sound effects (like
you could in Diddy Kong Racing for the DS) that would play at appropriate
times. So, this is a fun feature, but as with the whole roster in
general, Nintendo could have done more here had they wished to push the
envelope.
Stadiums: 9
Super Sluggers has 9 stadiums – 3 more than Superstar did, and that’s not even including the fact that most stadiums can be played by day or by night with some differences between them. All the stadiums except Mario’s have obstacles that can obstruct the fielders and redirect the ball. These hazards are interesting, but usually not as much of a factor as they were in Superstar, where courses like DK’s (with the barrels knocking down outfielders left and right) and Peach’s (where any fly ball might hit a block in the air) were heavily under the effects of obstacles. In Sluggers, I’ve played games in stadiums with obstacles and never had them come into play. Players who don’t like obstacles will appreciate that, but they already have an obstacle-free stadium; so if you’re playing one of the other stadiums, it’s probably because you want to see some obstacles! On the other hand, the weapons that can be fired by allies are already an obstacle in their own right, and help to make up for the lack of influence from the stadiums’ own hazards. So maybe it works out after all.
There, ya see?
Finally a short section.
Graphics: 6
Well, I’ll start with the good. I like the character models; they’re not that much better than on the GameCube, but there is some improvement. Superstar Baseball came out fairly late on the Cube, and the Wii is not known for its great graphical advancements, so I really didn’t expect more than this. On the other hand, characters did look better than this in Bowser’s stadium in Superstar, where the lighting created a very nice contrast and made all the characters look better. I didn’t see a counterpart to that here.
The stadiums are lovely to look at, but here’s the problem. The colors of the hitting target are similar to the colors surrounding a hard-pitched ball, both of which may be complicated by the colorful floor of the stadium especially when it’s transparent. The result is that there’s a lot of colors in the hitting zone, a lot of distractions from the ball, and sometimes it can be hard to track a pitch as it’s thrown. I pretty much can’t play Peach’s course here at night because it’s too hard for me to see the pitches. There are enough stadiums that don’t have this problem, and you can fight through it, but it’s an annoyance that I never had to put up with in the prequel.
I’ve heard complaints
about the camera when you’re pitching, which, when you’re not playing another
live opponent, is situated behind the pitcher’s mound. That makes
it harder to see exactly where your pitches are going to cross the plate,
and it’s not as comfortable. I thought this camera view had gone
by the wayside back with the NES, I hadn’t seen it in a more modern game
until this one. Well, except for Wii Sports, but then, that’s not
nearly as competitive, is it? And like in Wii Sports, since you’re
actually making a throwing motion like the pitcher would, it makes sense
to do it from the pitcher’s perspective. So I think in this case
this view has some merit, and I have mixed feelings about whether this
is a good idea or not. I don’t want to take off points for it, but
then, Nintendo could have provided the option for putting the camera behind
the mound or behind the plate. Plus, since it makes since to throw
from the pitcher’s perspective, it also makes sense to hit from the batter’s
perspective, and so I wish I could make all batters hit left-handed as
I do. But now we’re getting far astray of graphics, aren’t we?
Music: 9
Very good. Many of the stadiums have remixes of familiar tunes, including Bowser’s, which has a very nice remake of the castle theme from New Super Mario Bros, a song I very much liked originally and was happy to see here. Even the intermission-type music, like at the start of the games and between innings, is mostly well done, and I found it usually got me going. I really don’t have any complaints here.
Please understand that this score of 9 doesn’t indicate that I like the music here better than I did in Super Mario Galaxy, where I gave an oft-criticized score of just 8/10. Galaxy’s music is better, but I expect more from a major title than from a spinoff baseball game.
… And Galaxy doesn’t
have a remix of NSMB’s castle. Oh snap!
Longevity: 3
Ah… Well, there’s not a lot of meat to this game. As I said, Challenge mode can be completed pretty much for good in about 5 hours, and within another 5 hours or so you could probably play in every stadium in Exhibition, both day and night. Then, with no stakes to any of the games, the only reason to play is for fun. Which you will have if you play, but then, you could stop at any time and not be missing out on anything further.
I acknowledged
in my score the extra stadiums relative to Superstar as well as the day/night
feature, which add a little more to look at; but with a disappointingly
short and not replayable Challenge mode, as well as the continued lack
of a season or series mode, this game is even shorter than Superstar, and
you’ll see almost everything there is to see in a very short time.
Fun Factor!: 8
Well, as a Mario
fan and a baseball fan, I did find this very entertaining, even possibly
addicting- when I’m not getting frustrated over bungled defensive plays
or losing 3-inning games when I’ve had the misfortune to be selected as
the visiting team, that is. It’s still good arcade fun, and the new
controls, characters, and stadiums make this game stand out from its prequel
even as some aspects are not as good as before. I enjoyed playing
this and want to continue doing so.
Recommendation:
Fans of the Mario series should get this because it does have a lot of Mario charm in it. I think they would appreciate this game even if they are not baseball fans or are worried about the control. I also would actually recommend this game to the type of non-traditional player who may have gotten into Wii Sports, because if you’re familiar with and fond of the baseball game there, the motion-sensitive controls here are similar, and you get here a more complete package with fielding and running as well. Those players can start with just the Wii-Mote, which doesn’t give them as complete control but is more similar to Wii Sports, and can maybe graduate to the Nunchuk later on.
I hesitate to recommend this game to baseball enthusiasts who are not Mario fans, because apart from the Mario charm, I think there are better baseball games out there. Superstar Baseball was good enough that I would recommend it to baseball fans as well as Mario fans, but some of Sluggers’ control issues, the weak Challenge mode, and other aspects that are worse than in the prequel make me feel as though baseball fans can find better elsewhere.
Mario may be slumping a bit after his power surge with his first baseball release, but this still brought something new to the table and was fun to play even as there were many things it did not do so well. I had some concern over whether another Mario baseball game was needed, but with a good framework that has a number of things in need of improvement, I’ll be looking forward to the presumed next go at this sport. Batter up, Nintendo!
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