Perhaps this sounds bizarre to you, but this stuff’s old hat for Mario, who’s seen it all before on the GameCube in Mario Superstar Baseball (maybe you have, too; if so, forgive my retreading of some familiar territory in this review). Fortunately for us, however, he’s gotten better with practice. Mario Super Sluggers, the follow-up to Superstar, seeks to improve upon its predecessor in a number of ways—better mini-games, more playable characters, and increased depth, for starters. Of course, Super Sluggers also employs the venerable Wii motion control, which predominantly works well, with a few exceptions. Is this game worth the ticket price?
There’s No Crying in Mario Baseball
Nintendo has promoted Mario Super Sluggers as a multifaceted experience: it’s easy for beginners to pick up, they claim, but conversely, it also boasts plenty of depth into which experienced gamers can sink their discerning teeth. By virtue of the complexity of the included instruction manual, it’s easy to validate that statement. Of course, a large part of that is due to the fact that there are also three different control schemes to choose from—Wii remote sideways, upright, and Wii remote with nunchuk—but there’s no denying that there is a deceptive learning curve at play here. Kids and less-experienced gamers may be satisfied simply using the Wii remote method, but seasoned gamers will immediately appreciate the additional precision provided by the nunchuk attachment. Comparatively, the other two methods seem rather shallow. By including the option, however, Nintendo has provided an opportunity for multiple players to go head to head without having to purchase additional hardware, such as an extra nunchuk or three.
“We want a pitcher, not a giant turtle”
Regardless of your choice of control, in recognition of the game’s complexity, the developers have provided a nifty training mode which takes you through the basics—and the not-so-basics—of Super Sluggers play. While the single-player adventure does an adequate job of holding your hand in times of need, it’s still a good idea to begin in Training, where you’ll receive multiple opportunities to practice each technique. Here, you’ll find nineteen different tutorials covering everything from the fundamentals—batting, running, fielding, and pitching—to the more advanced techniques such as Error Items and Buddy Plays. Completing all of the tutorials unlocks something as well, so there is additional incentive to work your way through it all. Roughly 45 minutes later, you’ll be a Super Sluggers veteran.
That’s when you move on to the single-player adventure, called Challenge Mode. Mario and friends have traveled to an island where baseball is all that matters. On this island, nine different themed fields are available, each with its own unique quirks and obstacles (though a few must be unlocked). But Bowser isn’t interested in playing nice; instead, he wants to take over the island and govern all of the fields for himself. So when he arrives with his unsavory gang in tow, Mario and friends vow to travel the lands in search of teammates to stand up against his frightful band of baseball baddies (captivating, isn’t it?).
This search takes place in the surrounding areas of five of the fields, where you’ll run across dozens of prospective teammates. Most of them, however, will want to see you prove your stuff before they’ll join you, and so they’ll challenge you to a Scouting Mission. These missions are short sequences where you’re provided a specific objective—catch three fly balls, hit a homerun, or throw the specified type of pitch—and rewarded with the character in question as a teammate once you succeed. While the missions are indeed challenging, some of them are overly tedious; for example, I’m not sure how trying to achieve three base hits out of ten into right field could ever be considered fun (Pink Yoshi can go play ball somewhere else for all I care). They also repeat over time, so redundancy is a factor. But with 71 total teammates to acquire, the incentive is definitely there.
Granted, 30 of those 71 playable characters are mere variations of a particular type, but all characters share different attributes. These attributes include Pitching, Batting, Running, and Fielding proficiencies (and deficiencies) that determine a character’s usefulness in each corresponding situation. Characters also possess Special Abilities, which can be summoned for use during play after your Star Meter has risen to a sufficient level. Most characters have just one of these, but the mainliners typically have three. For example, Mario has a Fireball pitch, Fire Swing, and can Enlarge while running the bases. On the other hand, King K. Rool has but one special ability: the Laser Beam throw (Wario and others also have this), which results in a super-fast throw from the depths of the outfield or wherever else. You can purchase items with coins that can be equipped to characters to enhance their abilities. Many characters also share chemistry, meaning that when they’re playing near each other (whether in the outfield or the batting lineup), buddy techniques and error items can be used. As you can see, there are quite a lot of variables at work here.
The Process of Slugging
But what about the actual gameplay? Sluggers is loyal to the Wii philosophy with its motion-based control scheme(s). To pitch, you raise your arm and then swipe downward. To swing the bat, you cock your arm back and then swing (one-armed when playing with the nunchuk attached). You can charge a hit or a pitch by holding the stance before performing the gesture; releasing at just the right time produces a powerful result. Throw the ball after catching by, well, throwing with your arm. Running can also be expedited by wiggling the Wii-mote, an implementation that is always controversial, but seems to work well enough in Sluggers considering its heavy emphasis on multiplayer.
Once you become familiar with the primary motions, you can then vary things up with a few concurrent button presses. While pitching, you can use the analog stick to specify how to curve the ball, or you can hold the A button to toss a sinker. If two characters sharing chemistry are near each other, you can press the Z button and point your Wii-mote at the screen to fire an error item (shell, Bob-omb, Green Shell, etc. — thanks kingofn00bsu23 for catching my error here), or if you’re fielding, you can perform buddy techniques (such as the Buddy Jump, which piggybacks one character so high into the air that you can even pick off homeruns in flight!). On the other hand, if their chemistry is bad (e.g., Mario + Bowser), the incidence of errors and inaccuracy rises.
Running bases is similar to other baseball games; you press the analog stick in the direction of the next base and then press A to run toward it or B to run backward. Normally this works well enough, but one gripe is that the game is far too trigger-happy when it comes to automatically running your teammates—on every pop fly, they’ll go sailing toward the next base unless you stop them in time. While in the field, the analog stick moves your character, selected (often impractically) by the computer. The landing point of the ball is indicated by an animated circle on the ground; simply standing within the circle will earn you a catch, provided you aren’t hit by an opponent’s error item (if you’re quick enough, you can neutralize these items with a quick press of the Z button, however). Pressing A while fielding initiates a jump or a dive toward the ball. Or, as previously mentioned, if you’re near a teammate with chemistry, you can make use of a buddy play to really mess things up for the opposition.
Lastly, in the event of a close call (say, a player and the ball both approaching home), the game briefly slows the action and displays either the A or B button on-screen. The first player to correctly press the button wins the showdown and determines the outcome.
Couple all of this with the chaos of some of the ball fields and you’ve got yourself a regular Mario Sports title. Sluggers’ fields range from the decidedly tame (Mario and Daisy’s fields) to the outright treacherous (Peach’s Castle with its ubiquitous Freezies). There’s even a Toy Field (first seen in Mario Superstar Baseball) that is specifically meant for multiplayer that twists the rules of the game into something entirely different. Here, outfielders play a quick slot machine each at-bat to determine which item is at their disposal. Once the batter gets a hit, the ball bounces across the field, earning coins for crossing panels in the process, and the fielders battle it out for possession of the ball. For the next few seconds, you can attack your opponents and toss your item at them to try and grab the ball for yourself. Whoever’s left with the ball at the end of the sequence is the next batter. While this is improved over last time, it’s still not much more than a short-lived diversion in the presence of a much stronger traditional baseball multiplayer component… though I presume with the incorporation of intoxicating beverages my opinion on the matter may change (though I haven’t yet tested this hypothesis).
Bowser Jr. exhibits some familiar narcissistic tendencies in Sluggers.
Searching for Friends (*)
All of this will come in handy in Challenge Mode, although you may be surprised as to how much baseball you aren’t playing. A good portion of the time is spent roaming the land, searching for friends, and completing the consequent baseball-related missions that earn you the teammate’s services. That isn’t to say this is a bad thing, however. As is usually the case, playing against the CPU in Mario Super Sluggers just isn’t that fun; it’s a multiplayer game through and through, so if you’re planning on getting it for the single-player content, you’ll want to consider that.
Nevertheless, the challenge mode adventure is respectably deep for a sports game. Each of the several “captain” characters that reside in their respective lands possess a unique ability to help you in your quest. DK can smash barrels and climb vines, Yoshi can pound his way down manholes and shake down trees, and Mario can… er, well… he can smell flowers to search them (okay, he can make use of pipes as well). Once you manage to find every teammate in a particular area, you’re congratulated for completing that specific team, which is nice.
As you chase down Bowser Jr. and prepare to battle his dad (who is practically impossible to beat — unless you’re a Sluggers guru like WiseWarrior101), you’ll have plenty of conversations with characters from all across the Mario and Donkey Kong universes, and while the dialogue is invariably age-appropriate, it’s generally pretty funny, too. You’ll also run into the occasional mini-game (nine total), some of which are really quite fun. A couple of my favorites are:
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Blooper Run – Guide your character around the bases, collecting as much treasure as possible, while avoiding the tentacles of a giant Blooper.
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Gem Catch – Run around the field, catching as many gems as possible as they come from the launcher. But watch out for the second player (or CPU), who is launching items at you in the meantime.
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Castle Pinball – Bat the spiked ball into the lines of coins to collect as many as possible within one minute.
All of the mini-games have four difficulty levels. The first couple are pretty easy, but things can get really hairy during the last two.
Bringing it Home
If you’ve got some friends who are willing to play, Super Mario Sluggers delivers. It’s not a grand slam by any means, but it provides ample party-centric entertainment on the level of previous Mario Sports titles nevertheless. The weakest point of the game is its single-player component, which feels a lot like a chore at times thanks to the repetition of the challenges and the robotic and merciless nature of the CPU opponents—but once you’ve unlocked everything, the multiplayer is great. Just keep in mind that if you were a fan of the original and you’ve already played it to death, Super Sluggers is only a marginal improvement; you might find the deja-vu overwhelming. Nevertheless, it’s still a solid social experience.