The 'Shroom:Issue XXIII/Good Game, Bad Game
Ello' Mates! Heh Heh Heh..... now before all the members of the wiki from Australia gang up on me and beat me to death with cro-bars, I'd like to congratulate Stooby for winning the Director election. Kudos to you, I am now lifting my Capri Sun in your honor! But enough of that, let's get to the article. Love is in the air as Valentine's Day is approaching (either that or the upcoming release of Mario & Luigi 3). And, for some reason, February always makes me think of Baseball. It's my favorite sport to watch, my favorite sport to play (even though I suck at it) and is overall my favorite sport. So that's why today we will delve deep into the world known as Mario Baseball.
Good Game:Mario Superstar Baseball
Old-school Mario Baseball, Waluigi's 10 feet tall.
When Mario Superstar Baseball came out, I didn't know what to expect. I had read about it in Nintendo Power once, but never really thought alot about buying it. So I did buy it one day, and I didn't leave the room for 37 hours. This game is that fun. It has all the characters you'd expect in a Mario Spin-Off game, plus about 20 more! You use nine of these characters on your team, so the combinations you can create are endless. Each of these characters are divided into classes depending on their skill level: The all-around good charcters are in the balanced category, the characters that hit the ball hard enough are in the Power category, the good fielders are in the technique category, and the characters that run fast are in the speed category. Among these characters are the team captains, you know, the main characters (Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, etc,). They lead a team and can perform special Star Pitches and Swings. To use these, you need star energy, which fills up faster the better you play. Any player can use these, but the captains can execute special ones. The gameplay itself is just like regular baseball, and if you don't know about baseball (whether it be because of your country or because you never leave the computer) the goal is simple. Just hit the ball, run around the 3 main bases to home base, score a point, rinse and repeat.
This game was even kind enough to throw in a story mode. It's nothing too diffrent from the regular game, but it's still nice to have a goal to strive towards. In story mode, you just pick one of 5 captains, run around defeating each of the other captains at least once, challenge and defeat Bowser, and your done. It may seem easy, but it's pretty hard the first time. You can also change the difficulty to tickle your fancy. there are aalso mini-games and such, but you won't need them if you enjoy the original game. If you've never played this game before, I reccomend finding it at your local game store, and enjoy the fun ride.
Bad Game:Mario Super Sluggers
More like Mario super, sluggy, game. Yeah, I'm out of witty retorts
After the monumental success of Mario Superstar Baseball, I was almost certain there would be a Sequal on the Wii. I then read on this wiki that because of Wii Sports (God, I hate that game!), chances were there weren't going to be anymore Mario Sport games. After reading this, I prayed (and this isn't a metaphor. I literally got on my knees and begged got to let us have a Wii Mario Baseball game) for a sequal, and God decided this would be a good time to teach me a lesson. Which one? How about, "Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it."
In October 2007, they announced a sequal to Mario Superstar Baseball. This seemed like the ultimate gaming year: First Super Mario Galaxy (okay, technicly a 2007 release, but most of us got it near 2008), then Brawl, then Mario Kart Wii, then Mario Baseball! I'd never have to leave my room again. You'd think I would've learned my lesson after Mario Kart Wii, but I still kept hoping. I did pick it up on August 26th (yeah, my local Game Stop gets the games 1 day late), and got severly dissapointed. The game seemed like a version of Wii Sports basebal (except that it didn't suck), better controls, better characters (DEATH TO THE MIIS!!)), and overall a better game. But it was all a hoax, a sham, a ruse, a blippity-blop, a fungal nark! Anyway, this game tried to be innovative, much like all the other Wii games, but it was just awkward. The controls were a bit too sensitive, and it is pretty easy to mess up. But I don't even find the controls that big of a problem.
The main problem lies within the gameplay, mainly the story mode. Unlike the previous game, which had a rather simple story mode, they tried to add a plot. More like they wanted us to PLOT angainst them for making this game, am I right!....... Anyone?...... ok..... anyway, Bowser Jr. has apparently come to the recently built Baseball Island. Seriously, how many Islands can ther be in one kingdom! Eventually everything is gonna cover all the water and they'll all die! Bowser apparently wants to make everyone feel his wrath. Why? I don't know, he just wants to be a jerk. At least in Mario Party 7 he was mad because he didn't get invited, but here he's just a jerk! Anyway, Bowser Jr. is sent to make everyone's life a living hell, all except for Mario. Wait, what? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT! Why wouldn't you go straight for your mortal nemesis! Do you WANT to fail? Oh my gosh, I'm on my third paragraph and I'm not even 10 minutes in! Back to the game, Mario has to go all around the island, saving and recruiting team mates while also thwarting Bowser Jr.'s plans of destruction. This seems fun and dandy but here's the catch, you don't actually play a full game of baseball till the end of the game. .......... you know what? I think I just snapped something in my body due to all this rage. Now I could probably say some mean things right now, but I know it will only make me more mad. Life sucks, expect nothing, and don't put others first because they're all idiots.
If you wanna know what you DO do for the filling 2 hours, you basically do training exercises to convince others to join your team. But if I wanted to do training exercises, I WOULD'VE CHOSEN THE TRAINING OPTION! Anyway, you can recuit all the members from the last game, but you need all of the captains to use their special abilities. Mario can call people from bushes and go through pipes, Yoshi can Ground-Pound through Manholes, Wario can use his magnet to pull metal things and can pick locks in chests, Donkey Kong can break Barrels and climb vines, and Peach can use Heart Power. Heart Power? Sinc when did this become Captain Planet? What's next id Bowser gonna pollute the world? Oh, wait, he already did that and I feel like I just made fun of the mentally disabled.
Anyway, if we could move off the story mode subject, the main game is lacking as well. They took out the nifty little category thing, so its tricier to make your team diverse. The stages are okay, but the gimmmicks are either really hard to activate, or are incredibly annoying. It's just not fun to play this game.
I guess Sluggers isn't that bad if you're not expecting much, but for some reason I always do mannage to expect each Mario game to be great. Maybe it's because I know that the plumber can do better, and hopefully he will make it through the current console war just like he did last time. Hope you find that Special Someone this Valentine's Day. Later's
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