Looks like it's the MariOlympics up in here. Last year it was Mario Golf. Then earlier this year we got Mario Tennis, later on it'll be Mario Soccer, and now Mario Baseball. I wouldn't be shocked if there was a MariOlympics in development somewhere. Nintendo once again goes back to the well and trots out its familiar line-up of characters from Mario Kart and puts them in another wacky sport game.
Mario Power Tennis didn't exactly cut the mustard, and from what I saw at E3, Mario Superstars Baseball was going to be a pretty shallow title as well. I hadn't trotted out the GC in a while, so I figured now was as good a time as any to play ball.
Story
Mario and his friends have gotten really into baseball. Apparently, they got so into it they all took a bunch of money they had lying around from royalties off their game appearances and used them to fund extravagant theme stadiums. They started having friendly contests against each other, and then Bowser said that their teams were all number two or less, and Mario and friends wouldn't stand for that. After deciding who the best 9 players on the field were, they rounded up a team, and challenged Bowser.
Gameplay
As you start out in single player mode, you'll get to choose a team captained by one of 5 Nintendo staples; Mario, Peach, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and Wario. You have to choose one of those 5. Once you get settled in, you can then play a game against a rival team.
Games are played pretty simply. A is your basic version of an action. Holding A will do a charged up version of your action. So, if you're pitching, A throws a regular pitch, while holding A throws a fastball. Holding R and charging up will use one of your team's stars and perform a specialized charge-up, like tossing out a Yoshi Egg for a pitch, or Peach's disappearing changeup.
Baserunning is a bit convoluted. X will advance your runners, and mashing B will make them run faster. Y sends them back, with the button mashing of B providing the same effect. Now, if you want to just control a single runner, you can move the analog stick towards the base that the specified runner would be heading to, and hit X/Y depending on which direction they were heading. It's tricky to get the hang of, and you wonder why they didn't just have you tap the directions for the bases instead of making it this complex.
Here's where things start to get Mario-ized. In the midst of a game, you'll get Scout Missions. Certain players on the team will have Scout Flags. If you succeed in that number of Scout Missions, those players will be jump onto your squad, and you'll be able to field them in your next match, and use them in the mini-games.
Each of the character is categorized into one of 4 types of players, Speed, Technique, Power, and Balanced. They also have stats in the 4 categories Speed, Batting, Fielding, and Pitching.
Mini-games are used to help hammer home the gameplay basics, and they're also used to unlock powers for your teammates. Succeed at the mini-games, and you'll be able to buy items to buff your team up. You can hold up to a maximum of 999.
Each field has its own cornucopia of random field effects like Chain Chomps that bite you in the outfield or invisible blocks that redirect long fly balls. I found these to be more annoying than anything else, interfering with a decent novelty sport experience, rather than enhancing it.
Graphics
Probably the high point of the game. The intro is nice, but doesn't reflect any of the actual gameplay in the least. Still, it's always nice to see accurately rendered 3D likenesses of Birdo and Toadsworth.
While the maps' obstacles are annoyances, the stadiums themselves are pretty visually appealing. Animation is ok, but I wish they would have selected more characters that were actually capable of playing baseball, for a more internally consistent game of baseball. Sure, the Piranha Plant's funny when it's playing first base. It's not quite as laughable when you're trying to hit the ball with its stubby foliage.
Audio
All the familiar noises and music is back. Either a good thing or a bad thing in your book, but there isn't much different here to make you sit up and notice.
Gripes
First off, this selection of characters is weak. The limiting of the game to all Mario cronies severely limits the nostalgia factor, because surprising as this may sound, some of us don't necessarily like Mario all that much. Seriously, Baby Mario and Baby Luigi? Is there really a need for all these versions? You should have opened this up to be Nintendo Superstars Baseball, and thrown in more of the popular characters. Mario doesn't have the Q rating necessary to support as many games a year as he used to.
Because of problem #1, you get into a bit of a pickle when it comes to having enough team members on the field. The majority of your infield consists of generic characters. Princess gets a bunch of minion Toads, Yoshi gets a bunch of Shyguys, etc. Then you get some of the "star" players who can't even hold a bat properly. DK punches the ball, making it really hard to figure out where his contact point is. Bowser crowds the plate so much, his bat extends out of the batter's box. Goombas don't even have hands, how can they be part of this? Seeing as how this was being done by Namco, you guys couldn't have found 54 anatomically correct participants to field for a baseball game in between the two of you?
2-player mode has problems all its own, though. Instead of giving you a "draft" where you'd pick one at a time, like you do in any game of pick-up sandlot baseball, you and the 2nd player get to play quick draw to select your team. Meaning if you've played the game before, and your opponent hasn't, guess who's getting stuck with the crappy people? Bad move on Namco/Nintendo's part. It's never fun to put your player in a situation where they're in a situation where they at a severe disadvantage before the game has even begun.
Then there's the baserunning. Man is this ever annoying. Instead of intelligently keeping your runners on base when a fly ball is hit, the game sends your runners immediately. Since the baserunning is handled in an inordinately complex way, this means that you will almost never get a sacrifice fly to work properly. You can't manage your runners to have them tag up and run properly without a boatload of patience, and a whole lot of trial and error.
Take out these flaws, ditch the gimmicky maps, and add in internet play, and this could have been a real winner.
Overall
The game is fun for about 10 minutes, but in either single or multi player mode, you aren't going to get much more mileage out of it than that. I took this over to my friend's place and we played 3 games in span of about an hour. Neither one of us cared to play anymore after that point, because we'd both basically figured we'd seen everything the game had to offer.
Single player lasted a little bit longer, but the coffin's nailed shut more permanently on that version, as after you beat it on one level (the only one available to you from the beginning) you're told to go through the game again, where you can build your characters up to a new power level, but you're done caring by that point. Why should I play through this game 3 times, just to unlock more skills? I didn't see the point, and you aren't likely to find one either.
The game is worth a purchase if you're looking for a decent new party game, but it isn't anything more than a weekend rental if you're not.
