Simplistic controls can be a positive and a negative, and in this game it is both. Mario Super Sluggers lets you swing the Wii Remote to swing the bat and control of your favorite Mushroom Kingdom characters, but does it have enough to keep you playing? Let’ s find out.
Graphically and audio-wise, the game captures the Mario style and theme very well. Since this is a follow up to the 2005 Mario Baseball game, it is a bit sad that graphics match that of what we are used to on the Gamecube a few years back. Nothing Earth shattering has been done to tweak the graphics of this game.
The controls are very simple, as I mentioned, but they are perhaps too simple. You swing the Wii Remote to hit pitches but it does not mimic your real swing and flicking the remote will do just fine. Running on the base pads is achieved by wiggling the remote back and forth quickly, but you can’t really control sending or holding runners and stealing a base is non-existent. Throwing is also achieved by flicking the Wii Remote, but again sometimes you will end up throwing a pitch prematurely if you are trying to wind up. You can bunt and hit for power, which is a nice addition but does not make up for the lack of control when fielding and running.
Expect to hear and see all of your old favorites from the Mario universe showing up to play a game of baseball with you. Each player has strengths and weaknesses depending on their size, typically. Bowser is very strong so hits for power while Toad is very small and runs very fast. The larger characters like Donkey Kong and Bowser are so powerful that you are almost guaranteed home runs every at bat with them.
There are bonuses for putting teams together that get along, so if you put together a team of Koopas or Turtles this will provide some fielding and hitting bonuses for the entire team. This dynamic makes picking a team a bit more interesting but unfortunately you cannot save any team configurations. You also can’t save your created team, which is terrible, making you have to choose your teams over and over again. The only thing that speeds the process up is picking a random team.
There is a Challenge Mode that is a bit more like an RPG that makes you play through a series of mini games. Unfortunately, Challenge Mode has many mini games that aren’t full baseball games. Exhibition mode is really where the game shines and lets you just play around on different fields and with different characters. Each field has a theme and different things that can happen to you while you play like getting hit with a barrel on the Donkey Kong stage or getting hit by Chomp.
There is no online or season modes, which is a great shame for the title. Mario Super Sluggers is fun with buddies, but not worth getting if you are looking for a real baseball game with replay value. Once the charm of playing with the citizens of Mushroom Land has worn off, you are stuck with a hollow game.
Unfortunately, the motion controls are pretty quirky at best and the lack of any online or a decent season mode hinders this from being a great title. This game comes up short and is relegated to rental status unless you have friends over constantly that really enjoy to play cartoon baseball.
Overall: 6 out of 10
