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> Results: Mario Superstar Baseball
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Not really. It's just Mario in yet another sports franchise. The kind of game hardcore baseball fans will scoff at and super-cool teens will mock, but anyone who plays it knowsﾅ its pretty good stuff. Not Mario Power Tennis or Mario Golf good, but it's still the same kind of easy to learn, easy to play; hard to master gameplay Nintendo and Namco are known for.
This is arcade style baseball. The kind of game where the pitches are limited, the batter can move during his swing, and a giant monkey can turn his baseball into a flung banana. (I'd like to see Barry Bonds hit a giant banana!) Donkey Kong also uses his fist as a bat and, why not? All the familiar characters of Nintendo's Disney-esque cartoon stable are here. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, DK, Diddy Kong, Toad, Waluigi, Wario, and various toadstools, koopas, troopas, and giant tropical thingies that hit using the stumps of palm trees (you know, the natives from Mario Sunshine?)  Pitchers can charge up their pitches - batters can do the same - to get more oomph. Additionally, occasionally, a challenge will pop up. It could be something simple: "Steal a base", or "Get a hit." Or it could be more challenging: "Don't let the next three batters get a hit." Winning the challenge nets you a star, which can then be used to unleash your character's super pitch or swing (like DK's super pitch using a banana). Games last five innings long, which usually feels too short. The main reason for this brings us to what Superstar Baseball does very wrong. They got the pitcher/batter duel right but fielding is sluggish and unresponsive. Characters can leap for the ball but the spotty physics make even a spectacular catch as muddy and uninspiring as watching Intellivision Baseball circa 1982. How can a game with this much character and pizzazz (seriously, some of the fancy ballparks feature cool hazards like machinery (Wario) to giant rolling barrels that crush careless fielders (DK)) drop the ball on something this crucial. Compounding the problem, in a minor way, is that the GameCube controller doesn't have its buttons shaped in a diamond pattern. This means fielding requires pointing at the correct base and hitting the green button. Needless to say you'll get used to it, but the controls are precise enough and throws toward second often go to third, aiming at first might mean second, etc., Again, you'll get used to it, but there's an outside chance you'll hate the game for a while. Not a good first impression!  But that's not the really big problem folks. The big problem is baserunning. For some reason I can't understand the characters immediately advance on a pop fly. This means you have to stop each runner and send him back to his base and if the pop gets dropped, you have to advance them yourself or you'll have a force out at first. Have the developers played baseball or even a rival videogame? Baserunners should advance halfway AT MOST and then automatically return if the ball is caught. What I'm getting at is that half the play in Mario Baseball is watching as your opponent, or the computer, gets 2-3 double or even triple plays because your team clearly doesn't understand how to play baseball. Mario Amateur Baseball, anyone? That makes the game sound awful doesn't it? Well the game isn't awful. It's charming, a blast against an opponent and has that Mario magic that makes this a game anybody can pick up immediately and do well enough to get hooked. Mario Superstar Baseball features some of the best mini-games of any Mario sports title. They're clever and far more intuitive than the one's found in Mario Power Tennis and this one has a mini-adventure campaign mode that has you pick a team and then travel around a map challenging other teams, playing minigames, and advancing. It's a nice touch. Barring the fielding sluggishness and the absurd base running AI, Mario Superstar Baseball is a must have for fans of the series and characters, and it admirably brings the elements of America's Pastime to life in Nintendo's crazy little world. And that world is crazy. It's just plain fun, all problems aside, to steal bases and watch your opponent's fielder get smashed by a giant barrel. Or watch as one of those plant things swallows a left field pop-fly and spits it violently toward right field. You can't get that anywhere but here. Look, we knew Mario would make a great baseball player, but I really thought he'd understand the game just a bit better than this. Fun enough to rent, and maybe worth the coins you've collected if you're more of a fan of Mario, than Baseball. 
It's a great game for casual players, non-sports fans, and especially kids. Older kids will enjoy the wicked special powers and moves (in multiplayer the game gets very competitive) and younger kids will like the relatively simple controls. Just be sure to teach them how to mind their base runners to keep the frustration at a minimum. Other than that, this one is a winner. It sure beats going outside with dad to toss the banana around. But the fact is, any kid who loves baseball is going to notice the baserunning problems right away, and want to switch back to a game that plays better ball.
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