Super Mega Baseball 4 Review

Super Mega Baseball 4

Release: June 2, 2023
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Metalhead Software
Genre: PS5 Reviews, Reviews, Switch Reviews, XBox One ReviewsXbox Series X Reviews
PEGI: 7
Comments:

 

Comment

Long before we were treated in the gaming world to the masterpiece series known as MLB the Show, little Kevin used to sit in front of his CRT TV playing games like Bases Loaded. There was just something about how much FUN those games were. Fully embracing the arcadiness style of gameplay, no need for real teams or players, just had fun with it.

The mechanics also were so simple that virtually anyone could pick it up and play. Flash forward to 2014 when Super Mega Baseball was first introduced, it brought me right back to those days in the best way possible. I was excited to get my hands on the latest installment to see what they brought to the table this time.

While MLB the Show might be the most real, most layered experience out there. I can say when it comes down to two, I have more fun playing Super Mega Baseball 4 (and I’m better at it lol)

Since EA bought the team back in 2021 I’ve been expecting a bit of that EA flair added to the game, and it some ways we can begin to see it.

Thankfully they haven’t been bombarded with Micro-transactions, which we all fear when it comes to EA. But we are seeing more thought out online structure and play, as well as a new mode Shuffle Draft, which is a new deck building-inspired feature that lets players pick a combo of Legends and Super Mega All-Stars to create a unique roster.

The conditional player trait system has been expanded into Team Chemistry & Expansive Traits (55 new traits, 75 total) to make roster-building deeper and more important than ever.

They have also added in real life players: over 200 former pro baseball players like Babe Ruth and David Ortiz are getting Super Mega-fied into larger-than-life Legends and integrated across game modes alongside all your favourite Super Mega All-Stars. Play in a league of iconic Legends with teams organized by era, mix things up with Shuffle Draft, or play with 4 rotating Legends on each Pennant Race roster.

Overall Super Mega Baseball 4 does a decent job of balancing the line on Arcade and Simulation, on the sim side, you still have all the normal rules in place, tons of pitching options, fielding options, etc. Which does take a little bit of the just pick up and play aspect of the game down a few notches.

You will need to spend a handful of hours to REALLY get a good grasp on the mechanics, and even then you might end up frustrated with certain aspects (base-running is a hot mess).

On the tech side of things, I didn’t really experience any issues, everything looked just fine (considering it’s deliberate goofy character models and exaggerated features). I did not encounter any bugs, frame rate issues or glitching.

So it really runs rock solid. The one slight annoyance is the loading times seem a bit longer than we are used to on current gen devices. Nothing too bad but definitely noticeable when we’ve been spoiled with just a few seconds normally now.

Online works great as I was able to play with a few friends so that’s good. If you have enough friends with the game you can have a lot of fun with a league, I haven’t been able to sort that out yet for myself but I definitely intend to.

This is an easy recommend for any sports fan who wants something light and fun, but does have some experience with sports games. I just hope in the future EA pulls back on the sim and focuses on the fun and arcade aspects that made us fall in love with the series.

Trailer