Mario Super Sluggers (Wii) Review

Posted by Drew Robbins on 09.04.2008

Mario returns to the diamond for another baseball outing, but this time with the added twist of motion controls! 411's Drew Robbins takes you into the land of poorly designed controls with his review of Mario Super Sluggers on the Nintendo Wii.



Mario Super Sluggers
System - Nintendo Wii
Developer - Namco-Bandai
Publisher - Nintendo
Waggle? - You bet, kid!

Three years ago, Nintendo threw something fresh into the Mario sports mix. Instead of hitting around a little golf ball, or hitting a green ball back and forth, now you were playing the American pastime, Baseball. Considering how I dislike baseball, it impressed me how much I ended up liking the original Mario All-Star Baseball. It was more arcade-styled, and was a nice break from the ultra serious simulations out there like Baseball Mogul or MVP Baseball. Naturally, with the announcement of a new system (especially considering the fact that it had motion controls), there was going to be a sequel made. Now it is here, but does it recapture the magic of the original? Will the motion controls rock your world?

Well let me answer those questions, in their respective order. Kind-of, and dear sweet lord NO!

Gameplay

I’d love to sit here and say that Mario Super Sluggers throws a curveball (ba-dum-psh) with the gameplay, but it doesn’t. This is almost a complete copy and paste of the same game we played three years ago. The only things that have changed at all are the controls and the story mode, which I will dedicate the rest of this section to.

Just in case you have not played the original, I’ll sum up the basic gameplay. Mario Baseball is very arcade in style. Pitches travel in 2 dimensions, as you can only swerve the ball, as opposed to throwing some strange looping ball downwards into the strike-zone…but wait, you can do that! Yes, you heard it here; Mario Baseball has added a new pitch. Unfortunately, these pitches are entirely useless. These pitches are so easy to hit, that I have never missed a single one. As a matter of fact, I’ve probably even hit a few home runs off of these pitches.

The batting is extremely simple, you hit the ball, and then you are off running. Running is where a big problem in the game resides. Even though the base running in the last game was imprecise, this one took it to new levels, especially if you use the controller tilted sideways style. There are two running abilities, running to a base (jam rapidly, or waggle rapidly, to run faster) and base stealing (which is…self explanatory), and these are mapped to the SAME BUTTON. I could sit here all day and list off moments where I got an out because I was jamming on the run button only for my guy to leave his base and run straight into an out. This wouldn’t be such a huge problem if your characters didn’t run miserably slow when you aren’t button mashing. Throw-outs at first after a line-drive shot to right field become expected.

With the basic play ran down, I’ll take some time to review the newer features. Namely, the motion controls. Heed my words, these controls are awful. Never before had I played a game with such clumsy motion controls, and this is especially bad coming from a game that was published by Nintendo. When you are at bat, the slightest motion will make your character swing, which is made worse by the fact that your character can swing only once per pitch. To make matters worse, if you so much as bring your remote back to prepare for the hit, it will activate the power swing. How does this feel like baseball? How often does the batter hold his bat at his side, and then just flail it when the ball comes at him. It never happens!

The next problem with the controls is the pitching, which is possibly the worst of the controls. Honestly, I don’t know how they screwed it up. On my first game, I brought the Wii-remote up, as instructed, then swung it back down to deliver a pitch. Nothing happened. I kept flailing at my motion sensor, praying that it would recognize my pleas to just pitch the stupid ball. When all was said and done, I probably flailed twenty times before Waluigi let go of the ball.

Everything about the motion controls reeks of casual. It doesn’t stop there though, the casual gameplay becomes a part of every game, even if you don’t use motion controls. Your pitchers will get tired after THREE innings, sometimes they only even last one. This, of course, encourages you to use the default 5-inning setup, which is just crazy. There are yet more casual elements, including a cursor that tells you the best spot to hit a home-run ball. If you hit it in the right spot, boom, out of the park home run. They could not have made this more casual if they tried.

Mario Baseball’s last feature (relevant, that is) is the story mode, which I will sum up quickly. It is a waste of your time. Last time it was important, because it was the only way to unlock any of the characters. But this time? You can unlock almost everyone by playing exhibition games, so there is literally no reason to play the horrible campaign mode.

All of that aside, the gameplay is pretty decent, but some of these new concepts really bring it down. If I see Waluigi laying on the ground after two innings of pitching again I might just break my TV.


- Mario is hanging up the pitching glove after two innings of hard work!

Graphics

Mario Super Sluggers takes a graphical approach that is very similar to the last outing in the series. Last time, Mario All-Star Baseball was released during the surge of Mario Sunshine-esque cel-shading techniques. This time the models can mostly be compared to Mario’s superb (see: almost perfect) outing, Mario Galaxy. However, the models look a lot less detailed, especially Bowser, then there counterparts in Galaxy. More or less, the graphics are what Galaxy would have looked like on the Gamecube.

Not that any of that is bad, the graphics aren’t terrible, and they have a certain charm to them. The big graphical effect of this game is the new addition of night games…which just look fantastic. Playing under the lights of Mario Stadium is really cool, and makes some of the games just seem more grand.


- Stadium looks pretty cool right? Well, too bad its broken as heck.

Sound

Now that I think of it, the soundtrack is pretty similar to that of the original. The character select screen has a similar ultra-fast medley, and the games have the looping theme of stadium you are playing in.

Considering the greatness of Mario Galaxy’s soundtrack, I would have loved to see some of that work accompanying my games, but I guess Nintendo thought the casuals wouldn’t like the orchestral music from Sweet-Sweet Galaxy.

Lasting Appeal

Replay value for this game really depends on the person. For me, this game will probably last quite a while, because I have friends who enjoy the series and playing games against them is a blast, and I’m sure they will prove to be great fun down the road like in the last game.

If you don’t have friends that enjoy Mario Baseball though, this game might only last you a couple of days. As a matter of fact, if this is the case, then don’t, under any circumstances, buy this game. Playing against computers is a horribly boring experience.

As an added “What were they thinking,” this game has no online play. Come on Nintendo, if Strikers gets it then why not Baseball?


- Double Jeopardy: A feature missing from Mario Baseball. What is, online play?!

Fun Factor

Once you get past some of the new features, and let me clarify, when I say get past I mean turn them off, the game is pretty fun. Though, that fun comes from the almost unchanged gameplay of the last game, as all of the new additions can be categorized as “not fun” or if you like words that don’t exist, “unfun.”

The 411

After the universally better Mario Strikers Charged, I thought it was safe to assume that this game would be much better than the past iteration. I assumed wrong, and was surprised to find that Mario Super Sluggers is the same game with slightly better graphics, and a great roster (which, by the way, has King K. Rool). While the roster additions were enough for me (come the heck on, KING K. ROOL!!), most people will probably wonder why they spent $50 on a small upgrade. It is almost like they are buying Madden…

Graphics	7.5	The graphics are actually pretty nice, but nothing to write home about.
Gameplay	7.0	Its fun provided you turn every feature off, but it is basically the same thing as last time.
Sound	6.5	Forgettable soundtrack, but not really that horrible. It just, you know, could be better.
Lasting Appeal	8.0	Local multiplayer is still great, but online really would have helped this game.
Fun Factor	7.5	Good times will be had if you have friends who enjoy Mario Baseball games!
Overall	7.4   [ Good ]