Some might say that this is a silly Mario Sports game. That it is a disposable title, made to be a good gift to get the kids in 2005 and then quickly be forgotten. It fulfills a quota of getting Mario out there to play all of the sports. No. This is what all baseball games aspire to be. When you're not just considering pure statistics, trajectories, timing. It's about managing resources. It's about counterpicking your opponent to take away their resources. It's about building a team to field all of your positions to best counteract everything your opponent can do. Mario Baseball starts at the character select screen, and continues on as a game of constant wagers between you and your opponent, calling bluffs to use your star powers to ensure runs, or faking your opponent out to make them whiff their opportunities. Of loading a lineup full of killers to force them to walk Bowser, only to immediately follow him up with Birdo who injects chaos into the ballfield. And then you actually hitting the ball and pitching and stuff feels pretty good, too. By far the deepest system of any of the Mario spin-offs, and it's got Pianta. I love that guy, he's stupid!

It is absolutely a Mario sports game. It's fun to learn how the game works, but kinda frustrating until you get there. The cast is alright, but I remember it being expanded pretty well in the sequel. If playing this game did anything, it made me interested in playing the sequel again. The story mode is short and sweet, although scouting is a little meh in this game due to mostly being RNG on if you'll even get the opportunity. At least the games are short so you aren't wasting a ton of time if you happen to not get Yoshi when you wanted to.

(Replay) Hands down my favorite sports game of all time. Mario Superstar Baseball as a sports game has been a high that I have been chasing and trying to find in other Baseball games for years. I never really cared for the more sim based baseball games like The Show and 2K. The Bigs comes in at a nice 3rd for arcade baseball games. And recently I got into Power Pros from Japan and thats a definite 2nd. But I always walk into retro game stores and see the high price tag of Superstar Baseball and almost always crack. And a couple weeks ago I broke and rebought it. Used to play this with neighbors and schoolmates and friends for hours upon hours. I love Strikers Charged, Power Tennis and Toadstool Tour. But the gameplay of Mario Baseball is such a nice blend of arcadey fun and actual stratagy. I hated Sluggers when it came out and to this day still get mad when people think I am talking about Sluggers when I talk about Mario Baseball. One thing that happned to me in this playthrough, was this was my first time personally playing through all the difficulties I guess. As a kid, I must never had seen much value in playing the higher dificulties, as my friend had Hammer Bro unlocked on his Gamecube if I ever wanted to play with him. When I beat special cup, and saw the cutscene that played at the end of thr game, it honestly gave me chills. I had never seen it before today. It's honestly crazy knowing how many hours I dumped into this game as a kid, I knew it inside and out, and to see something completly knew that I never knew about before, was so cool. If Nintendo/Namco ever brings back Mario Baseball, it will never be as good as this game.

Ok so here's the thing. I wanted to try this game and give it a fair chance, but between the input lag on my controller for the emulator I was using, the pretty hard to get used to controls and mechanics, and my heavy childhood nostalgia for the Wii game, I just couldn't get into this one and make any meaningful progress. I won't be rating it since I didn't really complete it like I did the other games and I'll put it in the dead middle of the ranking of the Mario Sports/Kart series list when that comes out. Sorry Mario Superstars Baseball, it's not you it's me.

The presentation in the game is pretty fantastic. I love how all the captains have their own team names and banners. A small selection of fields, but with a lot of personality. And the character roster is pretty insane. You can play as the freaking Noki's from Mario Sunshine.

I do like how team composition matters. Different characters have chemistry with others, which will let them work better together, e.g faster throwing when fielding, and if the batter has chemistry with people currently on bases it will make them hit harder...or something. So not only is the roster great, but it even gives you a great reason to experiment with it.

Characters even have different swing styles which affect hit boxes and timing, and the effort that went in to making the large cast feel unique is kinda crazy.

The "story" mode, aka challenge mode has some good concepts. You pick a team captain, and face off against other teams, with missions throughout the match where if you pass the criteria, you recruit characters from their team. I've noticed that if you recruit their team leader before the rest of their team though that you can't challenge them again to get the rest of their teammates, which kinda sucks.

But also in challenge mode you can play mini-games. They vary in quality but provide a nice distraction. With this you earn coins to buy special types of pitches and swings for the "main" characters (basically anyone who is a captain, though they don't have to be the captain in that specific challenge mode).

But damn is this game hard to play. I couldn't figure out the batting in this game at all (which granted as someone who has never played a baseball game outside of Wii Sports may have something to do with it), but 99% of the time I hit the ball it just flies straight into the opponents hands. And the thing is the game has an "easy" option for batting where it shows you the outline of your bat hitbox, and the sweet spot for hitting the ball. But when I get a perfect hit in that sweet spot the opponent still catches it with ease? Like yeah I suck ass, but if you have a system in place specifically to help bad players like me at least make the damn thing intuitive instead of telling me I hit it perfectly when I just handed the opponent the ball tied up in a neat little bow 😭

When it comes to pitching I'm not sure if there's really any control over that. You have a few different ways to pitch but how can any of them affect gameplay? Surely the AI isn't going to be fooled by any specific throws. The best case scenario is a rock-paper-scissors type thing where the game decides "if you throw X type it'll hit, but if you throw Y type it'll get a strike". Worst case is that the game just decides whether or not the batter will hit regardless of how you throw. And the AI likes to get homeruns a lot, even on standard difficulty. I have no idea if you can prevent that at all, but having the opponent get 3 points in a row instantly makes me feel kinda hopeless.

Fielding felt very clunky. For one thing the AI has the obvious advantage of being able to control everyone at once, while a human player will be running to the ball with one character, then control will suddenly switch, so you start running the opposite direction with another. And throwing the ball to people felt very slow and would often just result in the ball landing randomly on the ground. Meanwhile the AI seemed to be able to throw the ball perfectly into the hands of the person who needed it as it flew across the whole field in milliseconds.

The funny thing is I went in to practice mode specifically for fielding, and you still have to go through he pitching part. You'd think it'd be set up so the AI always hits the ball in a way that lets you catch it or at least put it on the field for you to try and get them out. But no, you have to sit through countless strikes and home runs. I'm here in a game mode that you specifically told me was to practice fielding, why are you letting my opponents hit the ball so hard it makes it literally impossible to do anything with?

This game does almost everything right, but why is it so hard? Even some of the mini-games on easy can provide a challenge. I wanna like the game, but between being unable to figure out the batting, even with the in-game helper trying to provide tips, it always ends up gravitating towards the opponents. And pitching just feels like a waste of time where the result is determined without you doing anything.

I bet the game would be extremely fun with friends though.

This game probably has the most hype Mario Sports intro of all time, with that incredible song playing over everything. Superstar Baseball is more involved than you might expect especially when compared to its overly gimmicky sequel on the Wii. Putting together the right roster and nailing your timing makes for an intense experience. I really enjoyed the short career mode as well which some recent Mario sports games have been lacking (looking at you Strikers Battle League).

Playing this multiplayer can be enjoyable so long as your opponent isn't being too much of a dick as the pitcher as they have a lot of control of the ball in the air. My friends and I have gotten a surprising amount of mileage out of the toy field mode and even still break it out on occasion as a fun arcade-y alternative to the main game.

If the idea of Mario Baseball interests you, this title will do the trick.