As the genre has evolved through the generations, sports video games have become increasingly complicated as team management tools become more complex and the action on the field gains more depth. Reminiscent of the sports games of the mid ’90s, Super Mega Baseball 4 offers streamlined gameplay and an amazing level of customization while introducing novel concepts. While the fallback approach makes sense in many ways, it does come with some trade-offs.
Stepping onto the field in Super Mega Baseball 4 is a welcome affair. I love the arcade style approach to gameplay. Rock-solid mechanics mean you can beat a game in a short amount of time and feel like you’ve made a big impact with every play. Metalhead Studio did a great job of making it feel like hitting a strikeout off the pavement is like flying a ball out of the batter’s box and into the stands. However, the fielding leaves a lot to be desired as jumping feels imprecise and I sometimes struggled to predict where to position my outfielder.
Batsmen and fielders automatically hold the ball, while pitching and throwing are determined by fast-paced mini-games. Though it’s grown on me over the dozens of games I’ve played, I’ve always wished I could change up the pitching game where you have to line up a moving crosshair on your target.
Each of these elements can be customized by changing your “ego”, which essentially makes up your difficulty sliders, but I’m disappointed that none of that can be further modified. In fact, that’s one of my biggest criticisms of the otherwise solid Super Mega Baseball 4: the options are so meager that you can basically only customize the game’s audio and graphics, not the gameplay itself. If you want a different camera angle or want to change the control schemes, you’re out of luck.
On the other hand, when it comes to team management, Super Mega Baseball 4 perhaps shines better than any other sports game to date. With hundreds of fictional players and real-life legends, the game already h as a respectable roster even without an MLB license. However, I wanted to pay homage to the ’90s baseball era that inspired this game, and Super Mega Baseball 4 gave me more than I wanted, changing the look, gear, animations, music, and… could customize each player’s music. and skills, as well as my team’s uniforms and logo.
I spent a lot of time creating my own roster with some of the stars that weren’t in the game and when I was done it was worth the time investment as I had a team full of my favorite players from the era that I enjoyed the most fascinated about the sport, which I could then take with me to every mode. The customization options in Super Mega Baseball 4 are nothing short of remarkable, and if you’re like me and have made your virtual tee-off in games like Triple Play Gold Edition or Tony La Russa Baseball 2, you’ll absolutely love the squad control options in this game.
You can take any team into one-off games, single seasons, bracket-style tournaments, online leagues, or my personal favorite mode: franchises. I love the new shuffle draft system that deals you eight cards from players who are still available on the draft board. After you’ve chosen your player for that round, the remaining seven cards are returned to the deck, the other teams go through the process, and you’re dealt eight more cards until the rosters are full. This offers an exciting twist on deck building over the traditional drafting conventions of sports games. I did a shuffle draft a few times just to see what kind of team I could put together.
In Franchise mode, management decisions are presented to you after each game. These range from which player gets the last pair of socks to who is to blame for a bad loss. Though tedious at times, these decisions do impact player loyalty, which comes into play during the off-season when it comes time to re-sign them. Free agency plays a big role as contracts are only for one year and I appreciate the ability to make easy one-on-one position-based decisions each off-season. However, I am disappointed with the lack of available trading opportunities. Even in older baseball video games, trading is one of my favorite things to do in long-term mode, so the lack of it is a disappointment.
Despite some disappointing options and feature exclusions, Super Mega Baseball 4 is a strong alternative to Sony’s annual, sim-centric MLB game. Fans of retro styled arcade baseball games will have a lot to appreciate, and squad customization lovers have their new gold standard.
