IGN: Mario Super Sluggers an “all-star effort”
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 1:18pm by Derek
After prematurely slamming Mario Super Sluggers for weeks, IGN has posted two hands-on previews of the Japanese version.
From IGN AU’s Monday article:
“Namco Bandai has clearly done a great job of re-imagining the Nintendo world as this place called Baseball Island. It looks as good as any first-party Wii effort so far, moving at 60 frames-per-second, and it’s easy to pick up and play.”
Mario Super Sluggers offers players three control schemes. First is a Wii Sports-esque, casual-friendly scheme that allows players to use the Wii Remote alone by shaking and swinging to perform every action in the game. As with the baseball portions of Wii Sports, according to IGN, this cedes much of the control to the CPU.
In accordance with the Wii Sports legacy, batting and pitching is achieved through realistic motion control. Players need simply swing and throw as they would in a real game of baseball.
Experienced Wii gamers looking for greater control can attach a nunchuck to control character movement with the analog stick. This also allows for button combinations in conjunction with motion controls, which enable players to pull off super swings, bunts and even different pitches. As a third control option, players can hold the Wii Remote horizontally, NES-style, for a motion-free experience.
Mario Super Sluggers offers a single-player challenge mode similar to that in the GameCube original Mario Superstar Baseball. Players must build their team from a roster of zeroes to a group of heroes by moving around the map, this time showcasing Baseball Island, and challenging other marquee Mario characters. By achieving certain objectives during the game, players can convince certain opponents to join their team. Because players are moving across the map, conquering opponents and stealing their players, challenge mode essentially becomes a game of baseball conquest.
There is also an exhibition mode for free play and character selection and a self-explanatory baseball mini game mode. Finally, fans of Mario Superstar Baseball will be pleased to know the challenging toy field mode has returned for Mario Super Sluggers, a competitive four-player game that somewhat combines the ideas of baseball and pinball. Players try to hit the ball to specific parts of the field to earn points, but if another player fields their hit, the batter earns no points and loses their at-bat. Swing timing is crucial on the toy field, one of the game’s biggest multiplayer draws.
Unfortunately, the game does lack online multiplayer. How Namco Bandai could develop a game of this nature and not include an online mode is simply beyond my understanding.
Mario Strikers Charged and Mario Kart Wii added more items to the mix, and Mario Super Sluggers will do the same. In a first for the series, players will be able to use classic Mario items during gameplay to obstruct their opponents’ fielders. The original game’s power-up pitches and swings have also returned.
Like in Mario Superstar Baseball, players choose a team captain from a list of chief Mario characters; Mario, Luigi, Peach and the usual suspects are included. Remaining positions are filled from a roster of Mario series B-listers including Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, King Boo, Boo, Toadette, Toad, Toadsworth, Piranha Plant, Paragoomba, Goomba, Pianta, Koopa Troopa, Magikoopa, Lakitu, Monty Mole, Koopa Paratroopa, Shy Guy, Dry Bones, and Noki. Players can also choose to use their system’s Mii characters on the field, as well.
Mario Super Sluggers released Thursday in Japan, and a North American release is scheduled for Aug. 25.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
To be fair, it was the LA/SF IGN teams that slammed/are still slamming Mario Super Sluggers, and their feeling remain unchanged.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
why no online?
come on nintendo, this game needs online
June 24th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I can understand no online for this game. It could be fun, but i don’t think it would be very widely used.
June 24th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I think it’s fine that online isn’t present in this game.
It would be cool, yes, but you do need to consider the limitations of internet, as well as the audience’s internet limitations.
As stated in the article, sometimes a game can take a while (I seriously doubt 30 minutes), thus hogging up a lot of bandwidth, and causing a huge drag/slow-down on one or both player’s sides.
Not every game needs online, in reality.
It is definitely awesome to play Brawl online, but most people get the most enjoyment by crowding around the Wii at the friend-who-has-a-61-inch-TV-screen’s place shouting and duking it out.
This same mindset seems to apply to Sluggers as well.
We shall see.
June 24th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Looks as good as any first part wii effort?
This looks nothing like Brawl or Galaxy. It looks like exactly like the previous Mario baseball entry.
June 24th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
it’d be gay if it was the same as the other
June 24th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I’m still not convinced. When the first footage surfaced, I wrote an article (for submission as a writing sample) about how the video made the game look like a missed opportunity. The motions demonstrated in the video did not show a baseball experience anywhere near on-par with Wii-Sports. Sure, swinging the remote swings the bat, but what is the relation between how you swing the remote and how your avatar does? This is the question I have not found an answer to. In Wii-Sports, the angle at which you hold the remote directly effects how the character on screen holds the bat. The force with which you swing the remote is also directly proportional to how hard the avatar swings the bat. When I saw the footage, it seemed that this was not true of Mario Sluggers – it looked like swing power was based on how long you held the wii-remote back for, not how quickly – or hard – you swung it forward. The game looks fun, and i’m sure it’s okay, but unless it has controls comparable to wii sports, or beyond, it’ll just feel like a missed opportunity to me. A wii exclusive baseball game should have a control scheme that can’t be replicated on a controller.
I’ll wait for more in depth reviews before I get myself excited.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
The grumpy looking banana is back?! YES!!
June 25th, 2008 at 3:19 am
Sporty Peach is looking good! Game is hanging by a thread (for me)!
June 25th, 2008 at 5:27 am
this game is very much an improvement over the gamecube game, graphical comparisons have already been done and i think even posted on this site.
stop fiding nothings to complain about and be happy for a change, dang
if you dont like the game then fine, if you do, enjoy it and stop making stuff up
June 25th, 2008 at 7:48 am
I’m still waiting for a game that isn’t a remake of a game from the last 10 systems, come on Nintendo!!
June 25th, 2008 at 10:35 am
NINTENDO LISTEN TO ME
gamers want online play
thats all. thanks.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Call the game whatever you want Nintendo….I’m going to call it Mario Baseball.