Mario Superstar Baseball

Mario and Co. flash superstar skills on the baseball diamond!

JP release: 21st July 2005
NA release: 29th August 2005
EU release: 3rd November 2005
Developer: Namco, Now Production, Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
NGC Magazine Score: 80%
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

With Mario liking to try every major sport, it was inevitable that he would take up baseball (I’m surprised he’s not done American Football). One impressive thing about this Mario sports game is the vast array of characters – you can pick a captain followed by your entire squad (no subs, though). Even better is that different combinations can give you different team names, such as Waluigi Smart-Alecks or, er, Diddy Survivors.

But I just don’t like the batting at all. It’s time based, where you have to hold A for power (but not for too long) and release at the precise moment. It’s so strict that there’s even a setting to adjust the timing based on TV input (nothing really helped me, though). You can turn on easy mode to display a cursor on the floor, but judging based on the camera angle is still difficult.

There’s a few campaign and challenge modes, along with a few minigames which are good at training for the various parts of the game, using the same mechanics (including the batting). There’s as lot of attention and care in this game, and it would be enjoyable if you can get to grips with batting.

Fine

Batting is much harder and you’ll struggle to hit the ball in the first few innings. Even if you do, you’ll often be caught out, unless the fielder is put off by a bum-nipping Chain Chomp. Unfortunately, aiming shots feels a bit random, and this is the only thing that prevents Mario Baseball from being up there with Golf and Tennis.
Tom East, NGC Magazine #113

Remake or remaster?

A remaster with more control options would be nice.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to buy Mario Superstar Baseball