Super Mega Baseball 4 Review (DMusashi)
In a vacuum, SMB4 is an enjoyable, feature-rich cartoonish baseball game.
However, we don't live in a vacuum, we live in a world in which Super Mega Baseball 2 and 3 exist.
I own all 3 of them, have logged hundreds of hours in 2 and 3, and I can objectively tell you that 3 was an improvement over 2, but 4 is worse than 3.
There are a few positives. On paper, SMB4 is really cool! It has so many new detailed player attributes and concepts like team chemistry, that I wish SMB3 had! I also love that there are more hairstyles, faces, art clips, etc. for customization. SMB3 really could have used more variety in these areas.
The fan heckling is a huge win - hilarious! I'm sure it will get old eventually as I hear them all repeated a million times, but for now, they're still fresh and funny.
Also, the way the ball moves when thrown feels more realistic in this game - everything's just a bit faster than in the predecessors, which I don't usually prefer, but the faster throwing feels more correct to me.
Unfortunately, they wrapped these rich, innovative ideas in a downright ugly game.
So many elements feel like they have been downgraded. I'll list a few of my major dislikes:
1. The way players move feels clunkier and less natural - less momentum and inertia and more like flat movement you'd get in a video game with no physics.
2. The use of real MLB names and likenesses is a turn-off. You could already have done that on your own in SMB3 if you had wanted. There was no need to pre-fab and include so much MLB fluff which takes considerable effort to exclude. Nobody who played SMB1/2/3 wanted this. This is just a bad read on the room.
3. The pervasive radio station loudly announcing and blasting rock music at me. Ugh. It's just not my thing, and frankly, is annoying. SMB did not need a radio, and its announcing was more in the background, which made it feel more like a ballpark experience.
4. The overall look is too flashy and action-camera-y. Like Michael Bay was directing the camera work. I miss smoother angles with less jarring transitions and less harsh visuals in general.
5. The art style is just worse. I know SMB2 and 3 were (at first) controversially cartoony, but they set the tone and established the flavor we expected from this franchise. SMB4 made it less cartoony and it just doesn't work well in context. The original 'look' was simply more appealing. If I wanted more realism, I'd play one of the other MLB games. Why try to be like everyone else? (Or can EA just not help itself?)
I've owned 4 for more than a year.
I still play 3 multiple times per week.
I launch 4 periodically to see if maybe it's grown on me, or if I missed something in my assessment.
So far, no dice.
I'd skip this and just buy SMB3. You won't miss the complicated (but cool) features that 4 has.
SMB3 is just a better playing experience, and that's what it's all about at the end of the day.