Super Mega Baseball 2 Review

In regards to the sporting genre, I’m someone that has been of fan of titles like Madden and NHL for years. Baseball franchises like The Show or R.B.I never really had any impact on me; I always thought they were either too focused on realism or too overly detailed which certainly doesn’t help newcomers like me. Super Mega Baseball 2 is hands down one of my favourite baseball games of all time for the exact opposite reasons.

First off, let’s get into the gameplay, as Super Mega Baseball 2’s style is one of the key components that makes it work so well. The game itself isn’t held to the same standard of realism as those other MLB titles, so there’s a lot more freedom to do outlandish things. For example, I had decided to play through a short season just to try and take in all of what the game had to offer, and in just my third match-up, I had somehow managed to pitch a perfect game. As well, there were a couple of moments when I was batting where I started to rake in more than 10 runs an inning. It’s stuff like this that really makes me appreciate Super Mega Baseball 2. It’s a title that’s based around the idea of having fun rather than updating the graphics every installment.

Speaking of graphics, though, Super Mega Baseball 2 is still a slick looking game but I wouldn’t have questioned if it was originally supposed to be on the Xbox 360. Not that this ruins the immersion by any means. On the contrary, I actually enjoyed the older visuals as they gave a simpler feel to the title. It sort of reminds of those days where you rushed home from school so you could keep playing your favourite game. That aside, there isn’t a lot to mention on the topic of graphics.

Moving on to the more negative aspects of the game, there was a rather glaring issue in regards to challenge. Now, I myself played a good portion of Super Mega Baseball 2 on casual which I found to be really easy. For more of a competition, I decided to bump up my Ego (the game’s difficulty setting) to more than double from where it was originally. This proved interesting as... well let’s just say I found where all the challenge had been hiding. That being said, where the issue lies in terms of difficulty is in the Ego system I mentioned earlier. When using Ego, you can choose a number between 1 and 99 in order to determine how hard you want the game to be. This is cool, in theory, but your guess is as good as mine for what the difference between 34 and 35 is for difficulty. If the developers choose to do a Super Mega Baseball 3, I think it would be in their best interest to include a simpler challenge system to avoid any confusion.

As far as other issues go, there weren’t really any others that stood out to me. There was a little bit of a disappointment when it comes to variety, though. With the exception of standard modes like Exhibition, Season, or Custom Creation, there isn’t a lot else going on in-game. However, despite the lack of anything new, the title is still tonnes of fun to play. If I had any recommendations to make, adding a ‘Be a Manager’ or ‘Be a Pro’ option wouldn’t have gone amiss.

All in all, is Super Mega Baseball 2 worth picking up? Absolutely. Though it may not be as robust as other baseball games, this title certainly has the fun factor down to a tee. So, if you strive for a simpler time in sports gaming, then Super Mega Baseball 2 is going to be right up your alley. If not, then there are other options out there.