Super Mega Baseball 2 is out & swinging for the fences
Base-to-ball
Baseball is one of those sports that I can fundamentally appreciate facets of, but could never quite get my head around the whole of it. Our boy Sam Horti was of the same mind when he took a look at Metalhead Software's Super Mega Baseball last year, finding it to be just pure enough of an experience to click. This week, its sequel stepped up to bat, and so far looks like a home run, improving on the original in most regards.
Fans of the first game will immediately spot that Super Mega Baseball 2 is somewhat more visually restrained than its predecessor. While the characters are still somewhat stylized and cartoonish, they're not the weird lumpen creatures that they once were, with body shapes somewhere within the realm of possibility this time. The underlying physics engine has also been tuned up to match, making for a slightly more straight-laced game, but still well within the realm of accessibility for casual ball-basers.
So far, reviews look very positive, most praising the game for being a remarkably authentic and deep baseball simulation at its core, while not losing sight of that snappy, videogame-ish feel. Major complaints are thin on the ground, although some players do seem to be grumbling a bit about how tricky it can be to find your ideal point on the (remarkably granular) difficulty scale. Personally, that sounds like a good problem to have (as opposed to just being locked to easy/medium/hard), but in a game that prides itself on its snappy, accessible nature, I can see how that could be a problem.
Would-be ball-batterers can grab Super Mega Baseball 2 via Steam now for £23.79/28€/$30. There are also already a trio of small cosmetic DLC packs for those who want very specific logos and colours for their little cartoon baseball people.