Super Mega Baseball 2
Publisher: Metalhead Software Inc.
Release Date: May 1, 2018
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Baseball
Home Run King
Written by Jesse Seilhan
There are a few constants in life: death, taxes, and annual sports video games. Football has Madden, soccer has FIFA, hockey has the EA NHL series, and baseball, up until recently, only had the excellent MLB The Show, exclusive to the Playstation console. But a few years ago, a new contender came to the plate and surprised us. Super Mega Baseball looked cartoony, but had a slick presentation and realistic sim engine driving the whole experience. But sequels can be an instant improvement (with the right focus) and Metalhead Software is back to show that baseball games can ditch the official license and still provide a good time.
Before we talk about the improvements, the blueprint is solid. The team at Metalhead didn’t have to tweak too much to make a good thing even better, as their first game was exceptional and fans simply wanted more of the same. Pitching feels tighter than ever, the hitting window is precise but fair, and the fielding almost always get you where you want to be. You still have to balance that contact and power on both sides of the plate and a mistimed swing will turn your homer into a giant whiff. But the big changes come from the modes and outside-the-field experience, something the game needed after a bare bones initial release.
First up is customization. Managerial types are going to spend a ton of time not swinging a bat, as you can build a team from scratch this year. There are enough visual options to make just about anyone you want, deck them with whatever stats you like, and add them to either a new team or an existing one. So much like the way wrestling games had a ton of longevity by letting people create wrestlers not present in the game, SMB2 doesn’t have any licensed characters, so you can make all of your favorite players, give them the exact stats you want, and even give the pitchers the exact pitches you know they excel at. Create a new logo, uniforms, and even the league structure itself with a host of powerful editing tools built just for the most controlling, er, detailed managers among you.
But what are you going to do with your new team? For the first time ever, you can take them online and compete against the rest of the world. Sadly, you can’t text your buddy across town and beat them up through 9 innings, as there isn’t a friends mode. You will be paired with a random opponent, but you can have your buddy come over, hop on your couch, and grab another controller to help you defeat your cross-town rivals. There is also a tournament mode if you’re down to play for a long time, both offline and online. You can take your battles to all new stadiums with new lighting, new character models, and a new user interface that make swingin, pitching, throwing, and scoring so much easier.
Returning from last year is the Ego system, probably the best way to handle difficulty any game has ever attempted. Most games give you only a few options somewhere between Rookie and All-Star, as has been tradition since the earliest of PC games. But SMB2 has a sliding scale, from 1 to triple digits, with each number ratcheting up the difficulty ever so slightly. So while an ego of 20 is quite easier than one of 50, but 20 to 22 isn’t felt too much. What this does is create an onramp to higher-tier play, as you can crack that next double digit ceiling a few games at a time, as you sharpen your skills against ever-increasingly difficult teams. Ultimately, you get to find your sweet spot instead of bouncing between way too easy and impossible, which most traditional difficulty structures force you into.
While most baseball games come out in the spring to really capitalize on baseball fever, SMB2 was unfortunately pushed back for some final tuning and polish. Luckily, the game is much better for it and will last us through this season and the next, with a robust customization mode that can account for any trades, new players, and, hell, even a new team, division, or conference, should the MLB completely restructure at any time. While you can’t hit homers with your favorite Dodger or Yankee, you can play the most technically solid and fun baseball game on the market in Super Mega Baseball 2. Pick it up and you won’t need anything else for months.