Full Review: “This old man, he hit one, he played whack whack and he’s not done!” Like this line? Find it funny? Then this SlugFest is for you!
Last year the first extreme baseball game was released in the form of MLB SlugFest 20-03. It was been done successfully with hockey, baseball, and most notably football. But those are the fastest and most physical of the major sports. Baseball is like a ‘93 Honda while the other three are Formula One Racers. So when I heard about it I was more than a little skeptical, but I knew Midway was the master of the insane-sport-turn around domain (even if they are reverting their Blitz and Hitz franchises). And, as a testament to that, SlugFest was an amazing experience that went on to be the best selling PS2 baseball game of the year. Now 20-04 is here to slam some more of our teeth into our noses chin music and drill our shins with metal cleats. This is baseball the way we all wish it was meant to be.
I loved last year’s offering. There is no doubt that I had the most fun with this game last year compared to every other baseball game (please note I did not say best). So there is the clear-cut plus side to this sequel: All the good stuff is still there. The negative side is more or less that this is 20-03 with a new coat of paint. There are a few tack-ons here and there, but its still the same formula. Is it worth the price tag? You decide.
The pitcher batter interface is possibly the most welcoming and easy to pick up part of this game, which as a whole is also very rookie friendly. There is the standard pitch menu that lists all the types in your arsenal. Take your pick and move on to the next decision, pitch or bean the batter? If you choose to throw a good ball, you’ll need to pick where you want to place your pitch and if there will be any turbo used. Or you can drill that little enemy of yours and detract from his stats, if he is not on fire. If you hit a guy who’s hot, he’ll likely charge the mound and boost his stats instead of loosing them. The whole system is very intuitive and streamlined.
Taking the offensive is even less complicated than pitching, which is saying something. Like many games today, neither pitching nor batting features a cursor, which is certainly not a problem at all. Take a few warm up swings and wait for the pitch, choose to either swing for contact or go Mark McGuire on it and shoot for the moon, and hack away. Its hard to put it to words, but even when hitting homers is so commonplace in this game, its so satisfying to knock six in a row out of the park and into the parking lot.
Base running is basic, and for the most part easy to accomplish. Hit L1 and a directional button if you have multiple runners and you’ll send your men off. This works in about 95 percent of the situations you’ll face. If you have a runner that is much faster than the lead, however, you may send two guys to the same base, leading to an easy pick off. Other than that, there are no problems to mention.
Fielding is as solid as any other game on the market today, although there are a few kinks I wish Midway could have found a way to fix. Moving around is easy enough, and the controls are tight enough to be very responsive, but forgiving enough to prevent a broken controller. Not to mention how fun and easy it is to beat base runners to an absolute pulp and they sit there defenseless. That is just priceless. However, getting throws to the right bases sometimes proves to be harder than it should be. You’ll swear you were telling the players to throw to first but so many throws go to home plate that you’ll want to turn off the game if it happens at the wrong time. The issue reminds a lot of playing old school Blitz. Using the control stick to point to the base may be the most intuitive way to do things, but it usually doesn’t lend the most accurate results. So Midway, please clean that one up.
Turbo is a key factor for all Midway sports games and its equally important here. For those who haven’t been graced with a Midway sports game yet (shame on you!) turbo works like this: You get a limited amount of it, and its makes your players faster and stronger than when it is used. Often, the player who manages their boost the best will walk away with the W, but if you blow it all trying to drill a homer or grab long fly balls, you can get it back by scoring runs, striking people out and doing special plays. Hard to believe but this adds a layer of strategy to an otherwise fast paced…uhmmmm, slugfest.
For a game with such fantastic roots, SlugFest features some of the great graphics. Player animations and builds are all believable, although generally too ambiguous to be able to name a player by their face in the game. Nothing wrong with that though, it becomes very hard to notice once you get sucked into the game. The stadiums are superb with full 3D crowds. You’d be hard pressed to find a better looking baseball game in this respect, and I’d have a hard time not calling you liar if you tried to present me with a theory to the contrary. As for special effects, fire, “tailing,” and speed are all given their dues here with some slick effects. The fire effect can be a bit jarring while batting, however, and could have been tuned down a bit for a batter.
What sports game would be complete without some killer commentary? What Midway sports game would be complete without some killer comic commentary? The answer: none, and Slugfest has the kickin’ comedy in spades. 20-03’s brain and funny-man team return for another round of laughs and they succeed in making light of every situation. What’s more, you can also switch between 20-03’s commentary and the new recordings for ‘04. A small effort that yields amazing results that helps prevent the typical repetitiveness of sports game audio. After they‘re done talking, things are a little less exciting. There are some funny clips for special moments (like getting lit on fire) but otherwise the effects are dull. That’s overlookable though, as the commentary is simply astounding. (On a related note: Can someone PLEASE tell me how many times Crawling In the Dark has been featured in games? It’s getting kinda weird…)
If you’re looking for some solid replay value here, you may or may not be disappointed with what 20-04 has to offer. For those who religiously played the first game, you may quickly tire of the few additions - which for the most part only institute a home-run derby and a create-a-team mode. If you haven’t played the original, you’re going to have a great time for a long while. The season mode is a lot of fun, and home-run derby is great with a big group of friends. Slugfest makes a great party game, so if you’re a social butterfly with lots of gaming friendly friends, this could be the sports game you need in your library.
