Although the baseball video game market is hardly represented on the console side of things, the one game that is available, MLB The Show by Sony of San Diego, does a great job of filling the simulation void. So what if you like the game of baseball, but are not interested in all the details that coincide with a simulation of the sport of baseball?

Well, the developers over at Metalhead Software may just have the answer for you in the form of Super Mega Baseball. We had a chance to sit down with Scott Drader, co-founder of Metalhead, and talk about their new arcade baseball game, and how it may surprise even some of the purist of baseball fans in what it delivers on the diamond.

If you have been following this game online through various social media sites, and the developers official homepage of the title, http://supermegabaseball.com/, then you know that news of the game really didn’t drop until around mid September.

We asked Scott about the timing of the initial release of information. “Well, We actually announced a baseball game a while ago, but actually specifically announced Super Mega Baseball in September” said Drader, “ We had taken a prototype of the game called Big Fly Baseball to the PAX shows last year, but had never announced a platform or a time frame for its release."

Much like the developers over at HB Studios, the independent creators of the game Golf Club, Metalhead is small development team, and Scott spoke about the challenges of the team size as well as how the idea of Super Mega Baseball came to be.

“The idea for this game originated from as far back as five years ago,” Scott said, "But when I started, it was just two people with an idea, who weren’t even game developers yet. So there were a lot of hoops to jump through, a lot people to meet, and a lot of things to learn.”

Drader continued to talk about the games infant stage. “We started working part time on the prototype while we still had full time jobs elsewhere, but we have been working on the game in a full-time capacity for the last two years. The team now has three full time people, and in total about five or six, with up to ten people who have actually worked on it.”

Choosing a sport to recreate a commercial video game for involves so many multi-layered factors, and Drader went into detail about why baseball was the sport of choice for them.

“I grew up in the era of multiple baseball titles on Nintendo, and I loved that stuff. I found as I got older the sports games were getting a little more complicated, and a little harder to get into, and a lot harder to get your friends into. We just felt like the time was right for that type of game again five years ago, and it turns out there haven’t been a lot of arcade sports games made over that time. If anything the genre has been even more monopolized by the AAA sports titles.”

A lot of fans were disappointed with the fact that R.B.I Baseball was released last year with no functional stat tracking, and I talked to Scott about how Super Mega Baseball is different in that aspect.

“Our game has all the standard batting and pitching stats that you would expect to see in season play, including OPS and on-base percentage. We still need to add some categories, but almost anything you would use to compute baseball stats over time in real life, you will see in the game."

If you have seen any of the officially released gameplay videos for Super Mega Baseball, you will quickly understand the game is an arcade style game, but you might be surprised at the level of realism and authenticity that the game was built around.

Drader talked about how difficult it was in mixing authentic core gameplay with an arcade style to it. “It was very difficult getting the core of the game to play authentically, and we gained a lot of respect for the AAA developers now that we have had a taste of that a little bit ourselves. Getting the actual core simulation to unfold with realistic statistical outcomes definitely wasn’t easy. As far as balancing the simulation and arcade aspect, it was really just a matter making sure the game played quickly, but realistically and fun."

Super Mega Baseball will feature exhibition, season, and offline co-op season and exhibition play, and have four stadiums available at the start. We talked to Scott about if there were any plans for future stadium or game mode DLC, “We have some ideas about some things we would like to do, but obviously at this point they are just ideas, and nothing we can commit to.”

As you can see while Super Mega Baseball may not be a true simulation, its roots are dug deep into the simulation aspect of the game, but still finds a way to be accessible to all fans of the game. Super Mega Baseball will be available on the PS4 and PS3 on December 16th, and priced and a friendly $19.99. Keep in my mind with the cross-purchase program, if you buy it on the PS4 initially, you will be able to play it on the PS3 for free.

Are you excited for Super Mega Baseball?