As the genre evolved over generations, sports video games became more and more complex as they added more wrinkles to their team management tools and added depth to their on-field action. . Super Mega Baseball 4 harks back to mid-90s sports games, offering streamlined gameplay and an incredible level of customization while introducing novel concepts. But while the opposite approach sounds reasonable in many ways, it comes with some concessions.
Stepping onto the field in Super Mega Baseball 4 is a welcome one. I like the arcade style approach gameplay. Through rock-solid mechanics, you can get through the game in no time, all the while feeling like you have a huge impact on every play. Metalhead Studio has done a great job of turning it into a rubber hit that feels as good as throwing a ball into the stands from a hitter’s box. However, the blocking made some people undesirable, because the diving feeling was not accurate and I sometimes had trouble predicting where to place my midfield.
The hitter and pitcher automatically lock the ball, while pitching and pitching are determined by quick mini-games. While it has grown in me over the dozens of games I’ve played, I’ve always wished I could change up the game of pitching, which requires you to align a cell with your target.
Each of these can be tweaked by changing your “I”, essentially making up your difficulty sliders, but I’m disappointed I couldn’t change any of these further. In fact, that’s one of my main complaints about Super Mega Baseball 4: The options are so simple that they basically just let you tweak the game’s audio and visuals, not the original version. game body. If you want a different camera angle or change the control scheme, you’re out of luck.
In contrast, when it comes to team management, Super Mega Baseball 4 perhaps shines brighter than any other sports game to date. With hundreds of fictional players and real legends, the game had a respectable roster even without an MLB license. However, I wanted to pay homage to the ’90s baseball era that this game was inspired by, and Super Mega Baseball 4 has allowed me to do more of what I wanted, allowing me to customize my game. tweaks every player’s skins, equipment, animations, music, and abilities, plus my team’s uniform and logo.
I took the time to create my own roster of some stars that weren’t in the game, and when I was done, the investment of that time was well worth it because I had a team full of favorite players. My favorite from the era when I was most obsessed with the sport that I could then participate in every mode. The customization options in Super Mega Baseball 4 are nothing short of remarkable, and if you’re like me and do virtual tee shots in games like Triple Play Gold Edition or Tony La Russa Baseball 2, you’ll be fine. absolutely love this game’s ability to control the optional squad.
You can take any team into one-on-one matches, single-player seasons, framed tournaments, online tournaments, or my personal favorite: Franchise. I love the new Shuffle system, which deals you eight cards from players still on the board. After you select your player for that round, the remaining seven cards are returned to the deck, the other teams go through the process and you are dealt eight more cards until the list is full. This offers an interesting twist on deck building on the traditional draft conventions of sports games. On a few occasions, I did a random Draft for no other reason than to see what kind of team I could make.
While in Franchise mode, you’ll make management decisions after each match. These range from where a player gets the last pair of socks to who to blame for a bad loss. While they get tedious at times, these decisions affect player loyalty, which will come into play during the off-season when it’s time to re-sign them. Free agents play an important role, as the contract is only one year long and I appreciate the ability to make simple direct decisions on a position-per-season basis. However, I am disappointed by the lack of available deals. Even in the old baseball videogames, trading is one of my favorite activities to do in long-term mode, so its absence is a disappointment.
Despite some disappointing options and feature exclusions, Super Mega Baseball 4 is a strong alternative to Sony’s annual sim-faced MLB game. Fans of the classic arcade baseball game will love it, and fans of customizing their new gold standard lineup.
