Baseball, the American version of rounders with way more rules and regulations, has always garnered my interest. I’ve never really understood the terminology used within the sport or exactly why it’s so popular but when it comes to video games you can often get by without much knowledge. Why am I telling you this? Because there’s a new game on the block, Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings and it looks to have taken the not so serious route which could be ideal for the casual market.
Looks can be deceiving though; this isn’t just a silly baseball game using oddly designed characters that’d be better suited to a cartoon. No, this is so much more. The developers, Metalhead have created a finely balanced baseball offering that sits on the metaphorical fence between realism and light-heartedness. Thus meaning that, although visually it’s rather comical, it still manages to bring in some decent physics for the actual gameplay.
There are just the two modes to experience this in though and they are Exhibition and Season. Exhibition is just the standard one-off game against the computer or with up to three of your friends playing locally in 2v2, 2v1 or 2v0. You’ll find nothing in the form of online play which is a real shame in an era where online is the norm.
Season mode may lack in the way that you can’t tackle the league with a friend but it makes up for this when you realise the amount of detail included in relation to the stats and attributes. Across a season it’ll keep a log of Runs Batted In, Hits, Home Runs and Strikeouts to name just a few. Whereas the attributes covered include fielding, power, contact, velocity and junk. All that probably sounds like mostly useless jargon, it did to me, however Metalhead have explained it all in their How To Play section where I also actually learned about baseball abbreviations that had always previously gone over my head.
Back to the Season mode itself and the length of an actual season comes in three duration options – Short, Medium and Long, where the medium still lasts a rather lengthy 33 games not including playoffs. It’s enjoyable facing off against a variety of teams in the league, each with their own strengths such as being power hitters or pitching experts. Anything of note that you do during a game will earn Starpoints towards your overall player level and by increasing these you’ll unlock things like better staff to hire to help boost player’s attributes. I do have one issue with this though, it doesn’t tell you how many Starpoints are needed to level up and even when I had earned 30,000+ which was a career best, I only went up one level with none of the Starpoints carrying over.
One of the most unique features of Super Mega Baseball is its 99 levels of difficulty, known as the Ego levels. Ranging from 1 to 99, with the lowest number being the easiest difficulty, it allows the gamer to start off where they feel is the most comfortable for their ability and then increase/decrease it as much or as little as you wish to over time. I did try Ego 99 and it’s literally impossible, so when you can even hit a ball on this one then you must be a legend of the game!
Aesthetically it bears a similar, fun look to the baseball game found in the original Wii Sports but thankfully this uses a controller and has far more dimensions to its gameplay. You can even customise all the players on the strangely named teams (Sirloins, Beewolves etc.), meaning all your family and friends can have a character or you could even change the player names to other sportsmen and women; no one has to be left out as there are a mixture of males and females on each team with quite a few options for changing their looks.
Considering it isn’t a sport I’m overly familiar with, I took to Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings like a duck to water. Thanks to the Ego levels, the controls which are simple enough for a casual gamer and a How to Play section that covers pretty much everything you’ll need to know without being a chore to learn, this is extremely easy to pick up and play. It’s pretty impressive that a game can offer a multitude of pitching options and great physics when batting whilst making it accessible to a mass market. Kudos to Metalhead.
Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings on Xbox One almost hits a homerun but slightly stutters on its way to third base due to a lack of an online side. If that doesn’t bother you then it’s a must buy!
This game is terrible, don’t let this kid lie to you.
Everyone has their own opinion. I can however tell you I like the Ego system due to the fact I can manipulate it to make things easier whilst I got used to the mechanics, Then I raised it over and over again.
Each to their own and all that jazz but I do have a question….
If it requires no skill to play, and you’re lumping COD/casual gamers into that bracket as well, what exactly DOES require skill to play? Some of the COD players I’ve seen own a battlefield have skills way beyond my wildest dreams – and I’ve been playing games for the best part of 40 years.
Could you also explain a little as to why Super Mega Baseball is ‘terrible’? Surely a sliding difficulty level can’t make something a terrible game?
CoD is for Childen, Battlefield is for Teens.. Let me know when you play a FPS made for Adults.
The slider is excessive, they could have just had 4 or 5 difficulties, not a slider that goes to 100, it is unnecessary..
The hitting is by far the worst part of the game, it feels completely akward compared to pretty much every other Baseball game to ever come out.. Like you’re swinging at the ball before you actually would/should be, otherwise you’ll miss it.. It’s something you could get used to eventually but why would I when RBI and MLB: The Show do it properly and offer much better experiences.
Children, teens, adults – can’t everyone just enjoy a game no matter how old they are? I’m currently playing a game firmly aimed at the younger market but am still enjoying it. Is that an issue?
As for the game in question, if there is no online available (which there isn’t), why does it matter so much how big or small the difficulty scale is? If one person wants to beat the game on level 1 and another on level 100, then it makes little difference to each other. If you’d prefer to only have 4 or 5 difficulties, split the slider into that and go with the flow. No-one needs to know 😉
At least the numerous options allow all players, no matter what their skill level, to take part.
That is, in my eyes, a bloody good thing.
I am sure you’re enjoying your Angry Birds.
Casuals will be casuals.
Nowt wrong with casuals.
Except for when developers cater to the masses of casual gamers when developing games.. That’s what has been ruining gaming.
I’m taking a guess that gaming has never been in a more healthy state. It’s not exactly on the path to ruin
Out of interest though, what games are you currently playing? You seem to hate on CoD and Battlefield, whilst disliking games that are geared towards kids, teens, casuals and the mass market.
That doesn’t leave an awful lot left to enjoy.