Retro Game Friday: Mario Superstar Baseball

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m back with another Mario game. It’s Mario Superstar Baseball!

Gameplay: The gameplay is pretty good, although the fact that they implemented a Mercy rule in gameplay was pretty hilarious to me at the time. It still is, but the main appeal of the game was to recruit players on the opposing team by performing certain acts to earn flags towards recruiting the player. You’d try to do that without recruiting the team’s captain at the same time, which could lead to you intentionally performing poorly, although never to the point of throwing a game since you had to win to recruit someone. If you recruited the captain you’d have to face off against the people you didn’t recruit on a team led by Bowser Jr. which was a pain in the butt from what I remember.

Art: The art was good at the time, but it’s aged poorly since it’s release. That isn’t surprising at all, but required mentioning nonetheless.

Music: Classic Mario music, nothing more need be said really.

Overall: A fun game, but skippable if you weren’t really wanting to play a baseball game that had a Mario spin.

For those who like: Sports Games, Baseball, Mario Games, Good Gameplay.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: Super Mario Strikers

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m taking a look back at another Mario game. It’s Super Mario Strikers!

Gameplay: Let me get this out of the way and state that there is no story to the game. Now as for the actual gameplay it was pretty good, although pretty narrow in terms of modes available. The lack of adherence to most rules was a good point in the favor of the game though, since those rules are less fun when you play a video game. Though please don’t slide tackle in actual soccer games unless you get the approval of your coach kiddies. That being said I am not a huge fan of the quick time events that occurred when you attempted to use a Super Shot with a team captain, but overall the gameplay is solid if lacking in the single player department compared to the multiplayer department.

Art: The art hasn’t completely aged poorly, but it’s nothing amazing either. But that’s the nature of the beast when it comes to 3D games.

Music: Classic Mario themes applied to soccer, that’s all I really need to say here.

Overall: A fun game for the most part, but with little single player offerings it can grow boring for those without a friend to play local co-op.

For those who like: Mario Games, Soccer, Sports Games.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: Mario Tennis 64

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m back with another Mario game. It’s Mario Tennis 64!

Plot Synopsis: There’s a competition with plenty of familiar faces from various Mario games.

Gameplay: The game was pretty fun, and the physics was actually really well done for it’s time. There were plenty of ways to trick your opponents and it got really hectic when you played with some friends. I remember trying to trick my friends by constantly switching between the different returns and them getting more than a bit pissed off about that.

Art: The art sadly has aged really poorly, but that’s to be expected when it’s an N64 game.

Music: Classic Mario, no more need be said.

Overall: A fun game, but definitely not a must play.

For those who like: Sports, Tennis, Mario, Multiplayer.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: Mario Golf

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering a Mario sub-series that is fairly obscure. It’s Mario Golf!

Plot Synopsis: Wait you’re expecting a plot to a game about Golf? Seriously?

Gameplay: The gameplay is pretty boring, in fact this is a pretty lame game. The game was all about hitting the “sweet spot” by tapping the A button at the correct time while aiming towards the hole. If you could do that successfully and repeatedly, the game quickly devolved into a really boring repetition of that single “mini-game”. Now that isn’t to say this was a terrible game, by all accounts it was great for multiplayer, although I never did convince my friends to play the game with me, because “Golf is boring”, so I can’t confirm or deny that.

Art: The art is quite a bit like it came out of Mario 64, which shouldn’t be a surprise to be honest. That means it’s aged incredibly poorly, and the game looks like crap now a days.

Music: It’s Mario music, but toned down because you’re playing “Golf”.

Overall: Skip this game, it’s really, really not worth going out of your way to even bother playing it.

For those who like: Golf, Sports, Mario, Repetitive Minigames.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Video Game Tuesday: E3 2017 Reactions

 

Hey all I’m back with my thoughts on this years Electronic Entertainment Expo! It’s my E3 2017 Reactions!

Nintendo: Holy crap they announced a new Metroid Prime and a remake of Metroid II! Not only that, but they announced a couple of DLCs for Zelda: Breath of the Wild and gave us a release date for Super Mario Odyssey. Honestly I’m just happy at the fact that new Metroid games are coming out, but everyone should take this with a grain of salt. The last Metroid game to be released was Other M and we all know how terrible of a game that was.

Sony: Nothing really major, but they are definitely doubling down on the PlayStation VR. They also told us that God of War’s next game is set to release in Early 2018. Not only that, but they showed off what might become the best Spider-Man game ever released. I’m actually excited to play that, and we’ve had official confirmation that we won’t be chasing balloons!

Microsoft: They formally announced Project Scorpio’s details, and gave it’s final name, Xbox One X. Frankly they should have just kept Xbox Scorpio, it’s not as ridiculous a name. You’d think they’d have learnt from Nintendo’s mistake with the WiiU.  Crackdown 3 is finally getting released though, so there’s that to look forward to.

Ubisoft: Showed off the now officially confirmed Assassin’s Creed: Origins that takes place in Egypt. I got burned badly by Unity so I’ll probably skip Origins unless I get a review copy. They also showed more of Far Cry 5, and announced Skulls and Bones, which takes AC4: Black Flag’s ship combat system and makes it a standalone game. As I actually enjoyed the ship battles in Black Flag, I might be interested in playing, but I also enjoyed going over and taking down the enemy crew after ramming them.

EA: More sports games of course, Star Wars Battlefront II (DICE) and a new IP from the people behind Mass Effect, Anthem that is pretty much Destiny. If you’ve read my past columns on Destiny you might be able to guess at how thrilled I am by the prospect of another “Destiny”. /run EndSarcasm.exe

Bethesda: Skyrim for the Switch, boring. Wolfenstein II is a real game and is releasing on October 27th though, so maybe Bethesda didn’t just go for obvious cash grabs for the year.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday.