Everytime I go back to this game I enjoy it. And that's just single player.
IT's an old school baseball game. You aim left and right, no up and down. And you know what? That's works just fine.
Another great thing about the game is the whole cast of Mario Universe characters are here. And they are each rated in about 4 or 5 catergories ranging from pitching to fielding to hitting and running. There's plenty of combinations you can monkey around with. Putting certain players together in the lineup gives them bonuses to hitting.
The barrel minigame is a blast. I played that one with a bud for probably over 6 hours alone over a couple of nights. The homerun minigame is also a pretty darn good one.
The 4 player baseball party minigame is alright. Nothing special.
The other minigames are ok.
The game itself rocks. Fielding is a bit quirky. Baserunning is something that folks complain about, but it seems to work fine for me. YOu have control over your runners. If you don't like to control them put baserunning on automatic.
The rpg challenge mode is kinda dumb. This is the 'career' mode I guess. It's just not too interesting. I don't want to walk around a little gameboard.
For single player this is the kind of game I fire up every week and play a couple. Single player definitely isn't something you play for 6 hours at a time. But everytime I go back and play a game it's very enjoyable and relaxing. It just puts a smile on the face.
For multiplayer this is a great great game. I give the 2 minigames I mentioned above a 10. The barrel and the homerun minigame. Those alone in multiplayer gave me hours upon hours of enjoyment.
The game itself is fun stuff in multiplayer. IT's just an easy to get into game when you have a bud over.
I think they could maybe provide a handicap system to make a competitive match out of different skilled players. I guess you can pick a crappy team and your friend who sucks at it could pick the better players.
Also they should let you play a league or something where you can keep track of your stats. That's a big part of baseball. Stats. So yeah they could improve the 'career' mode that they have and add some stat keeping to it.
All in all an enjoyable game. Suprisingly good. Suprising depth to the baseball game. You can bunt, throw to first and your pitcher even gets tired among other touches. Great multiplayer and fun single player altho not a single player game you'll send down and place all at once. It's best savored an hour at a time every few days.