With the most unlikely World Series outcome ever, baseball fever has suddenly sprung up around my area. Most people, completely unaware that a professional sports franchise actually existed a mere 10-15 minutes away on the freeway, are now snapping up any kind of Angels merchandise they can find. Hell...the Rally Monkey might even be a contender for the gubernatorial race of California.
Not me. I don't really like baseball. I mean, look at some of those guys. Some of them make offensive linemen look trim! However, in a phenomenon that nobody has ever really tried to explain, I'm one of those gamers who doesn't like the sport, but enjoy playing games based off of it. Same goes for hockey. Since I enjoyed NHL Hitz 2002 so much, and Red Card 2002 was fun, I figured that I may as well give Midway's new baseball franchise a try.
In Slugfest, just as in Red Card, it seems like Midway tried to actually create a game that sort of resembled the sport, and then added their touches to the game later on. Slugfest actually plays fairly much like the old Hardball series from Accolade. You have your pitcher, he's got his 4 pitches (which, of course, will vary from pitcher to pitcher.), and as a batter you've got your 4 different things you can do, The ball will be thrown into any of the 9 sectors of the strike zone, or you'll get beaned.
As the batter, you can try and just make contact, or swing for the fences, bunt, or signal for a runner to steal. The Midway 'tude comes into play when you're running the bases, or catching routine line drives. Your position players apparently love to show off, and will catch the ball in any number of ways. While you run the bases, you can slug the the guy holding you on base to try and jar the ball free to steal an extra base. Or you can just hit him for fun. You, the pitcher, have the option to bean the batter. It's a risky maneuver, though. Pop him good, and there's a chance that you decrease his power and other stats.
On the other hand, there's the chance that he becomes engulfed in flames, and beats the tar out your pitcher. Then the player-turned-baseball inferno will get bonuses to his stats. Oh, that baseball...truly a double-edged sword.
As always, you've got the gamut of Midway codes as you start up the game. You can unlock stuff like Big Heads, the 16" softball, and the ever-so-popular Todd McFarlane team, who will watch Barry Bonds' ball sail over the fence, and then pay millions of dollars to the guy in the outfield who caught it. While shallower than most baseball games, the game for me is actually more fun than most of the other baseball games of late, which have turned into these huge super, hyper, realistic looking things that all come with a different huge flaw.
If it weren't for my outfield moving like they were tracked in mud (yes, you can turbo to speed them up...but they should have some speed of their own, no?) I'd probably recommend this over all other baseball games out there.
The graphics aren't anything incredible. They spent time developing the looks of the stars and then some players seem like they were "inspired by" whichever player they're supposed to be. Also, if your favorite player has any signature stances when they go to bat, they aren't going to be there. Ichiro's pre-swing ritual isn't there, and neither is anyone else's. They do, however, pay a lot of attention to the details. Stadiums are very faithfully recreated with working scoreboards and marquee signs.
Audio is probably the most developed of any Midway game. The announcers chatter non-stop. I suppose that was to make it feel more like a real baseball game where there is so much dead time in between anything that's going on that you need announcer filler to make the broadcast mildly interesting. Unfortunately, the color commentator guy they hired to do the voice-overs is lamer than a boy band, and he's just a constant source of annoyance.
The rest of the audio is pretty good. Hit a screaming foul ball into the crowd, and you'll hear one of the fans yell in pain. All the fun sound effects for the fights and random punches add a little to the game, too. All in all, Midway's attempt to put the fun back into video game baseball is pretty good. I don't know if it will find a market though. The hardcore baseball game fans won't like it, and I don't know how many other people like me are out there who are just really, really tired of dealing with the seemingly decreasing value of gameplay in these baseball games. I liked it though, and to me, that's all that counts.
