Super Mega Baseball 4 Gameplay Details Revealed - Changes to Franchise Mode, Leagues, Rosters & More

[Steve_OS]

EA Sports will reveal Super Mega Baseball 4 gameplay details tomorrow at noon ET on their...

Written By: Steve Noah

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[Qb]

So my 9 year old son isn't really a sports kid (he prefers No Man's Sky and Goat Simulator) but he's showing an interest in baseball. We've been playing the trial of SMB3 and I'm thinking about buying this. Any series vets able to give a quick rundown of pros & cons?

[boomhauertjs]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

So my 9 year old son isn't really a sports kid (he prefers No Man's Sky and Goat Simulator) but he's showing an interest in baseball. We've been playing the trial of SMB3 and I'm thinking about buying this. Any series vets able to give a quick rundown of pros & cons?

Pros:
Fast-paced gameplay compared to games like The Show - games usually take a half hour or less.
Plays a solid game of baseball despite its arcadey appearance
Ego system allows players of all skill levels to play the game and adjust as they improve
Loads of customization options for teams and players

Cons:
No MLB license though SMB4 will feature baseball legends

The SMB games are my favorite baseball games since MVP 05.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[Blzer]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

So my 9 year old son isn't really a sports kid (he prefers No Man's Sky and Goat Simulator) but he's showing an interest in baseball. We've been playing the trial of SMB3 and I'm thinking about buying this. Any series vets able to give a quick rundown of pros & cons?

Others play this game differently than I do. Some play online and some use the teams in the game or what have you. I make a custom team and put them on there.

My pros and cons.


Pros:

- This game is fun as all hell. You can get nine innings in good time.

- There are loads of customization options, and this game not being licensed also means they go bonkers themselves with player names and team types. There are negatives with this as well that I'll get into later.

- Ego (difficulty) works in making the game as easy or difficult as you need.

- The power swing has a nice mechanic where you have to time it right to maximize power. The throwing and pitching meters have similar tradeoffs, and if you are too early/late it can make for wild throws. Their pitching mechanic is my favorite since MLB 2K8.

- Unlike MLB Power Pros, you can homer using the contact swing.

- This game's cutoff system is nice when you need to cut throws on the fly.

- You are properly punished for playing players out of position. This includes throwing starters in reliever roles.

- AI logic is pretty sound. They and I seem to be attuned with proper times to try and steal a bag, sub a pinch-hitter, play the bunt, call a pitchout, intentionally walk a batter, pull pitchers, etc. They will also play aggressively or cautiously on the base paths based on the score and game scenario. Not everything is perfect, but this game is hard to abuse/cheese the CPU as well.


Cons:

- Limited customization. Others may feel you can edit anything and everything, but I feel there are limited options. In SMB 2 and 3 there are only 16 layers to make a logo I believe. Females had two body types, six faces and just a couple of hairstyles. There were like 15 batting stances as well. It just didn't seem like very much.

- Things may have changed since the last update, but the CPU can be punishing offensively and tough to strike out. That, or you'll be striking them out too much on a lower Ego. You have to vary the pitching which is a good thing, but there are some dice rolls that you still won't vibe with at times and you wonder how you can do the same offensively yourself.

- Gameplay batting camera is not ideal for attempting to line up your hitting cursor with the ball. It basically makes the game impossible to hit on higher egos where you're trying to ramp the difficulty but not to standards of guessing. Check-swinging is also not very easy to do, unlike The Show. Here is a video of me trying to play on 99 Ego. It appears that SMB 4 may have a lower batting camera, but options would be nice.

- Mojo (player morale) affects all aspects of your game for rather unnecessary reasons. You may make an error on defense, and suddenly you become a slower baserunner on offense. It also didn't seem to operate for the right reasons sometimes.

- Too many things tied into one attribute, though it seems they are adding more player traits which will be a good way of differentiating players outside of those attributes.

- On that note, good fielders can dive farther, but this can come as a fault as well when you have to dive just slightly but instead your player overshoots their dive. This game doesn't recognize lowering diving gears when needed.

- The correct fielder isn't always selected for me on fly balls, or rather the one I assumed they would select on the hit. Switching fielders requires that you let go of the stick, and it can make for wonky switching trying to catch the ball. I've had a lot of hits fall as a result of this. Not in a game-breaking way or anything like that, but enough to mention. Then again, I field with 99 Ego.

- I have problems with baserunning, but I forget what they are. I think it has to do with when they automatically send my baserunners off and I didn't want them to, or I can't freeze individual runners or retreat a lead runner while still moving over a trailing runner to the same bag (big for rundowns and tagging up).

- This game does not have any environmental factors such as wind, time of day changes, discrepencies of grass/turf type, or elevation effects.


Indifferent:

- No commentary.

- I tend to hit more ground balls on high pitches and fly balls on low pitches. This is because I overshoot my hitting cursor all of the time. Sometimes I feel the CPU does this as well, though you don't see their cursor. Just something of note.

- No MLB players, teams, or stadiums. This year will be different with historic players and legends, but if it's not a full roster with the current MLB then I don't know how much I care for that at this moment.


The pros outweigh the cons so much. The first one just being that this game is damn fun is the most important. I'm never upset at the game that I am playing. If you want to follow that whole video series of mine with my "softball" team, you can see it here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...seTq-3DKKpXDMI

I'll have to reset this for SMB 4 though, because I need to get into its franchise mode this summer.

[Blzer]

Everything looks great in the new video and information.

No word about increased number of layers for customization, sadly. Even if they increased it to 128 layers, although that honestly isn't much, it would be a tremendous increase for most people's needs.

[Fiddy]

This is going to be fun, but as always with this series we need a freaking roster and logo share. UGH.

[basefoot00]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fiddy

This is going to be fun, but as always with this series we need a freaking roster and logo share. UGH.

So no roster share or logo share???

[DabCity]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fiddy

This is going to be fun, but as always with this series we need a freaking roster and logo share. UGH.

I doubt it will ever happen. I don't think they want to deal with the headaches that come with sharing stuff that is either offensive or possibly an IP infringement.