Metareview - Mario Super Sluggers (Wii)

by Randy Nelson on Aug 28th 2008 7:00AM

Mario steps up to bat on the Wii and ... well, doesn't strike out, but doesn't hit a home run, either. That's the consensus (minus the baseball terminology) on the latest mascot-ified sports title from Nintendo, Mario Super Sluggers. Mario Strikers Charged was the last, and scored (both a gaming and sports term) a bit better overall. We're just excited to finally see the Wii Sports baseball mini-game fleshed out into something that will (we'd hope) have us playing for more than, oh, two minutes.

1UP (B): "Super Sluggers succeeds and fails as most Mario sports games do. Its quick, arcade-style action is easy to get into and plenty fun, coming at the expense of the nuances – and balance – you'll find in a sim."
GameDaily (80/100): "What it lacks in innovation and online play, Mario Super Sluggers makes up for with its robust modes, fun controls and multiplayer options. If you're a fan of either the characters or the sport, you owe it to yourself to round these bases."
Game Informer (55/100): "Multiplayer is amusing in that hanging out with your friends is fun anyway, but the single-player content is truly terrible. A series of boring one-off challenges punctuated by simplistic exploration and the occasional full game makes up Mario's quest to foil Bowser Jr. via baseball. Yes, it's as insipid as it sounds."
IGN (74/100): "We wouldn't go as far as to say this is Nintendo-made shovelware, but there's very little that has changed in the three years between Mario Superstar Baseball on GCN, and Mario Super Sluggers on Wii.

Tags: mario-super-sluggers, metareview, nintendo, Wii

Reader Comments (74)

Yourself,

"The reason no one complains (as much) about it in sim titles is that the lineup "needs" to be updated"

what are you talking about? people DO complain about the other sims, look, Im not that familiar with the Madden series, and yet even I have seen a lot of complaints from the crowd, now, Im more familiar with soccer, and if you really want to see how much people are complaining, just look up what has been going on for a while with PES and Fifa series...

Your statement is really naive...

"and I'm curious what you would look for when you say you hope they do more. What can be done, barring obviously online?"

Like someone mentioned above, they have a HUGE advantage since they can do all this wacky stuff, and since it isn't really a sim, they ll get away with it.

Something that I would look forward to for Mario Tennis Wii would be more customization, as in equipment, also multiple specials, and since I love doubles, I would like also some sort of techniques especially for doubles.

Also, one of the main complaints is that there werent that many characters, seriously, although I love Shy Guy, I would have loved to see Toad, Baby Mario/Luigi, and one or two more characters from DK

And that is just off the top of my head, Im sure there are many other improvements that could have been done

Gamedaily. Who reads that crappy site?

I am shocked that one of the first posts was not Fernando telling us what a great game this is and defending it to the end. Fernando, are you in agreement with a lot of us who feel that Nintendo is just throwing another gamecube port at us? I for one think its a shame that they continue to rob Wii owners of fresh content.

Nintendo fanboys dont wake up until their moms make them.... just kidding Fernando, keep fighting a losing battle at least its honorable, and hilarious to watch.

A losing battle? Shit. I must be reading some different websites than you

This game could actually be pretty fun with online play and voice chat (on the wii, yeah right..).

Anyone played MLB Slugfest? That game is actually pretty fun, fun enough that some old college buds and I spent a few weeks playing it online. This could have garnered the same attention as the actual over the top gameplay in it looks fun, even if it is old (since I never played the GC version).

IGN compares it to shovelware yet gives the game a 74!?

Their system is sooo messed up. A game doesnt deserve an above average score for technically "working".

I... have to cringe and agree with Vidikron on this one. Fun or not, Mario sports games ARE largely targeted at kids. It's not because they are bad, but come on, people, it's a plumber and his turtle friends playing baseball. There's nothing wrong with liking that as a kid, or liking it as an adult, but Nintendo's strategy with these games (as we WELL know at this point) is to make it accesible to both audiences. Why you all expected Mario Baseball to suddenly grow up when you did is beyond me. This game is still there for kids to enjoy, and MLB 2k8 is there for when you decide you'd like something more advanced. The game is what it is. Although according to what 90% of Joystiqers seem to think, kids shouldn't be allowed to enjoy games anymore.

Christ, it's Internet Explorer that breaks the replying, it's got to be. I never had a single problem until I started at this job, the first time I've been forced to use IE in 5 years.

I'm calling it first, their making a Mario potty trainging game with real flush sounds.

http://www.squidoo.com/doughboy

Is this one of the fabled CORE franchises? Thanks for another groundbreaking title Nintendo. INNOVATION for the WIN.

For those of you wondering...MLB the Show 2008 is LIGHTYEARS beyond MLB the Show 2007. So much has changed that I don't even consider the 2008 MLB a sequel. Graphics, annimations, gameplay modes, presentation, controls...and of course rosters.

MLB 2007 to MLB 2008 is how you CHANGE and IMPROVE a game boys and girls.

Nintendo Game er WiiCube for the WIN.

Games like Mario Super Sluggers,Mario Party,and Mario Kart all on the Wii are maybe finally starting to get people to call Nintendo out on their hashing of the same game over and over for years. Even Twilight Princess got some bad reception on how similar it was to the past games.

Nintendo needs to figure out that you can't just keep putting out the same games every generation with minimal changes. People need to stop giving Nintendo a free pass on everything and wake up.

"Our system sells by the truckload,we don't need to even bother making games. Fuck you all"

-Nintendo,E3 2008

You need to wake up, every developer does that. It's too expensive to try something different at the risk that the target audience won't like it and you just spent all that money making a game that isn't selling.

As much as I love Mario Sports, the games haven't been consitently good since the N64. It seems to be pretty hit or miss now. Mario Srtikers Charged was actually really good, especially with the online. As with any Mario sports game it was best played against human opponents. Considering this has no online, and the original Mario baseball game was only so-so, it seems like there are better games to spend my money on right now.

im always confused by people hating a game or company... seriously folks, you need to go grow up.
how about this idea: if you dont like it, you dont have to buy it... its crazy, i know
here's another idea: not every game is meant for you...

now, little kids, you can go back to recess...

People once said the same thing about lame TV reality shows and gameshow rehashes. If you don't like it, don't watch it.

But that didn't work, because if lots of other people watch it (or play it, as is the case with the Wii), the industry migrates that way. As such, we're now stuck with dozens of reality shows, gameshows, and crime dramas while the number of deep serialized shows is down to 3 (down from about 15 a few years back) with exactly ZERO planned to follow after those wrap up.

Just ignoring something doesn't work when the uninformed masses aren't ignoring it and it leads to a change in the industry that makes it your only option. It wouldn't happen anytime soon (it took a long time with television), but you have to wonder how many companies (especially with big companies like Ubi and Microsoft now trying to put more of an emphasis on casual) how much longer companies are going to see the value in spending inordinate gobs of money and time to make games that are going to sell less copies than crap that cost 1/10th as much and took half the time just by targeting a different demographic.

I had no plans to buy this from the beginning, as I already played Superstar, but it's still a little sad to see that they changed so little. I know it's a baseball game, but show some effort please.

I hope that none of the people on here who are commenting about Nintendo "rehashing" or "copy and pasting" their games plays any of the following: any action/platform game, any strategy game, any FPS game, any sports game, etc. If you're looking for something different from any of those genres don't hold your breath. For the record I play many games in those genres and love them, but I'm not gonna sit here and act like any of them add anything new that other games or earlier versions didn't already have.

Just out of curiosity (since I have only played through the first one) what can you do in MGS 4 that you can't do in MGS 3? Is there more difference than just better graphics and a new story with accompanying cutscenes? Because if there isn't, anyone who loves that game has no business bagging on the new Mario baseball game. What about Halo 2 and 3? Maybe Disgaea 3 has more than 2 then? Ok, what about the Madden games? Any worthwhile differences found yet? Perhaps the new KZ will have way more features than the first one did. I'll hand it to Rockstar, the new GTA 4 has a lot going on around you, but it's funny how you actually can't do nearly as much as you could in 3, nor are their as many weapons, interesting. I love NG 2, but I'll admit immediately that aside from better graphics, it pretty much feels like an extension of the first one with some new weapons thrown in and a few too many combos that aren't really that different.

So tell me friends, how can you justify the stupid shit that you've been saying so far? Knowing that pretty much every IP that comes out nowadays is, for the most part, the same old shit that just looks prettier than before?

Stop hating on Nintendo because you want to feel more mature/you want to justify your favorite system not doing as well. It's been old for a while and now just looks pathetic.

There's a difference between being similar and being exactly the same. MGS4 was different enough that after not even liking the series at all leading up to that game, I loved MGS4.

Halo 3 is the game that gets the absolute most flak for being too similar to its predecessor, and even it managed to add HD graphics, 4-player online co-op (first game to do this I believe), a theater mode that is so smart it goes way beyond just recording while you play, new maps, new gametypes, new playlists, new vehicles, new weapons, and forge mode for customizing your own levels and gametypes. Again, that's all out of the game that gets the MOST flak for not having enough new stuff.

So, when your laundry list has one tenth the changes of the game that already caught flak for not having enough changes then that's pretty bad. The Madden series is the other one that catches crap, and even that series adds gobs of stuff (stuff like hot routes, defensive playmaker pre-snap setup, on the fly fly audibles, superstar mode, weapons, practice mode, vision passing, and on and on and on) compared to what it sounds like was added to this game.

You would think the very FIRST thing they would have added is online play, and even THAT isn't in there.

Also, Madden (again, even as a game that catches flak for being too similar to the last year's) releases a game every year, and still manages to add more stuff than this does when it releases every what, 3-5 years across two different generations of consoles? There's no excuse for that.

If Madden, which releases every year and already catches crap for not changing enough, still has significantly more changes then this game which is released 3-5 years after its previous iteration on an entirely new generation of consoles, then how can someone possibly defend this?

This is after assuming that Super Sluggers is indeed the exact same game as the last one. Now, I haven't played it, so I can't say whether it is or not, but I would find it hard to believe that it is exactly the same.

Vcize, you made good points, the problem is that I was mainly talking about gameplay specifically.

Besides, the features you named for Madden can't really count. Hot routes have been around for years now, practice mode and audibles have been around since the 16 bit era, many people don't use the vision passing system because it's awkward (although I do give them credit for trying something new), and so no. Madden adds a bunch of new features, but the question is "was it worth it?" cuz most of their new features just seem like a scapegoat so that when they get called out for putting out the same shit, they can say "well we added X and Y feature" but they don't comment on how crappy and tacked on (where have I heard that phrase before?) those features are.

Just as you named new characters, items, boards, etc for Halo. I'm sure the new Mario baseball has all that as well. (I really hope so, otherwise I guess I am giving them too much credit). That's what new games have come down to these days for the most part. The same shit as last time, but with new plot twists/characters/weapons etc. Honestly, I don't mind it at all, but it pisses me off that people want to pick and choose who they call out about it just to support their little fanboy wars, when it is rampant in the industry. That's all I'm saying. I am a Nintendo fan, because I grew up playing it, but I'm not gonna use arguments that could be used across the board to support one side.

It's baseball so it's going to be inherently boring... OHHHH!

All kidding aside, it's a sports franchise. If you're looking for something different than the previous years iteration then I suggest you look into a different genre.

Anyone who thinks baseball games can't be innovative hasn't played Super Baseball 2020 for SNES. Best baseball game EVER!

Online sucks
Game is multiplayer
Game sucks

Didnt nintendo learn anything after the SSBB fail?

Previous 50 Comments

Metareview - Mario Super Sluggers (Wii)

Reader Comments (74)

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 9:03PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 10:01AM GenGrievous said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 10:30AM Duke said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 10:40AM Dirty said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 11:57AM Mr Khan said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 10:31AM Vcize said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 10:54AM Dirty said

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Posted: Aug 28th 2008 12:36PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 2:31PM Vcize said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 1:04PM Jacksons said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 2:23PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 2:42PM Vcize said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 2:46PM Vcize said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 5:24PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 2:37PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 2:58PM Killimus2188 said

Posted: Aug 28th 2008 5:47PM Gwr said

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