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When starting up their first game of baseball, gamers will quickly notice that this isn’t the typical baseball simulation. “Mario Superstar Baseball” was built for the sole purpose of knocking off those slow moments of more realistic baseball games such as “MVP Baseball” and “MLB 2K5” while making it a much quicker paced arcade experience.
The default selection for how many innings are played is 5, but that of course can be altered to fit how long the gamer wants to play. Gamers with nothing better to do than sit and play video games the majority of the day (guilty as charged) can choose to play a full 9 inning game, while gamers that are on a quick homework break can also sit and knockout a quick game of 3 innings. The other reason “Mario Superstar Baseball” is such a fast paced game is thanks to the pitching system.
When pitching, the only buttons gamers will need to worry about are the A button which pitches the ball, and the analog stick which moves the ball in the direction and speed desired. Although holding the L and R shoulder buttons when pitching the ball will result in the current pitcher’s special pitch.
These special pitches are all different according to what character is pitching and are extremely tough to hit, thus they are a good idea when ahead in the pitch count for an almost guaranteed strikeout. But don’t think it’s possible to go into this game constantly firing special pitch after special pitch, as it requires star power to throw, and star power is limited.
Batting is almost identical to pitching. Batters swing with the A button, and move around the batter’s box with the analog stick. The analog stick is also helpful when batting to choose what side of the field to smack the ball in. This comes in handy when you have base runners on the corners and you want to advance or score them with an opposite side of the field hit. The only other button gamers may use during batting is the B button, which lays down a bunt for those squeeze plays and bunt-and-runs.
While the pitching and fielding mechanics are near perfect in every way, the game really hits some rough spots with fielding and base running.
The problem lies in the layout of the Gamecube controller, which wasn’t intended for playing baseball games at all. The PS2 and X-Box have 4 buttons on their right side which very much resemble the bases on a baseball diamond, and pressing one of the corresponding buttons allows gamers to throw the ball to that base. However with Mario Superstar Baseball, throws to bases require a quick jab of the A button and moving the analog stick in the direction of the base. While there is nothing particularly wrong with this system, it’s possible to accidentally throw the ball to the wrong base because of the analog stick not being completely in the right direction of the base.
The other problem with the fielding is the jump and dive button both being assigned to the A button. This makes it very annoying when the game decides whether the character is close enough to dive for a ball, or if they’ll jump over it instead.
As far as base running goes, the same complaint applies. The layout of the Gamecube controller hinders the ability to successfully run bases without eventually getting two runners tangled up on one base or out in no-man’s-land. Pressing X to advance a runner to the next base and Y to return to the previous base is quite annoying, especially if there is more than one runner on the base path.
All is not lost though, as once gamers get used to moving base runners around with this system, it will become second nature.
Overall the game is a blast to play, particularly with friends. Baseball fields are loaded with surprises not usually seen on conventional fields and keep the game fresh and fun. There are numerous mini-games and extra items to unlock, which includes more characters to play with and fields to play on, and the season mode is surprisingly in-depth for a Mario sports game.
If gamers are able to overlook the few flaws that hinder this game from being perfect, they will find another Mario gem just waiting to be enjoyed alone and with friends for months to come.