Wii Sports Baseball, while enjoyable, doesn't capture America's pastime because it lacks depth and nine-inning games, two key features Nintendo hopes to include in its recently announced Wii video game, Mario Super Sluggers. Due out in Japan this June and the U.S. later this year, Sluggers expands on the Wii Sports game with added features, a wide variety of players and signature motion controls, which should make it the ultimate Wii baseball experience.
Although Nintendo hasn't revealed much about the game, Sluggers appears to be a combination of both Wii Sports Baseball and Mario Superstar Baseball for GameCube. It has the same, real time motion sensitive pitching and swinging found in the Wii game, and blends it with all of the Mario characters and over the top special moves. As such, expect to see such faces as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, the Hammer Bros., Wario and Donkey Kong, each of which has a signature bat. For example, the Hammer Bros. use (fittingly) a giant hammer to smack the ball, while Donkey Kong strolls up to the plate wearing a boxing glove.
If the game is anything like Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii, it'll contain multiple control schemes, but for now, Nintendo wants to showcase the motion sensitive mechanics. Pitching works the same way as in Wii Sports Baseball, with you casting your arm forward, except the game packs more depth, allowing you to throw special pitches such as curve balls and twisting the remote to put spin onto it. Conversely, batting has you bringing the remote behind your head and then following through. You can even bunt for added strategy.
Similar to Mario Strikers Charged, the game features captains that you'll select and then build your team. In addition, Mario Super Sluggers retains the cute, cartoon appearance associated with all Mario games. It looks attractive, but disappointingly similar to other Nintendo games on the market. We only saw brief snippets, but it appears Nintendo isn't taking advantage of any special graphical effects to make this stand apart from Mario Superstar Baseball.
With Mario Super Sluggers' June release quickly approaching, we expect to get our hands on the American version sometime this summer, most likely at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). For now, it appears to be a light-hearted, over the top baseball game, and providing it has good controls, we foresee this being bigger than opening day at Yankee Stadium. Play ball!
Reader Comments (0)