MLB Slugfest 2004 Review

Basebrawl is back.

Spring has sprung and it’s time to play ball. It seems like only yesterday that

Bonds smashed #600, Tejada won the AL MVP and the Angels won the series with that

stupid monkey in the

stands. Oh well, I’m just happy I didn’t have to put up with that annoying chop

chant. C’mon people, that thing’s been stale for years now.

One thing that wasn’t stale last year was Midway’s first shot into the extreme

baseball category. Slugfest 2003 took both

the MLB and the PS2 sales charts by storm in classic Midway sports style. There

aren’t any fatalities here, but you’ll definitely experience more violence on

this diamond than any other.

This

season, Slugfest 2004 blasts onto the PS2 for even more madcap baseball.

Rosters have been updated and a few new features have been added, but will it

be enough to get this team into the playoffs? Maybe… and maybe not.

Even if you didn’t get a chance to play Slugfest 2003, you’ll quickly

figure out the basics. The main game of baseball remains unchanged – throw ball,

hit ball, catch ball – but it’s all extremed out. Players have the ability

to get “on fire” and increase their speed and strength along with improved contact,

power and bunt stats. All a player needs to do to get this flamin’ bonus is

get two consecutive hits. Augment your normal turbo ability with this firepower

and you’ve got one monster of a ballplayer. Sounds like a game plan to me.

Then there’s the full contact base-running. Rather than relying on pure speed

to get on base, runners have the ability to get physical with the basemen (Olivia

Newton-John not included). Kick your cleats up in the air as you slide or

run right over the guy to get the call. Or if you’re already on base, just sucker

punch the player with the ball and run like hell as he staggers around. Sportsmanship

at its finest.

In true Midway fashion, Slugfest 2004 removes all the pesky management

aspects of the game with its arcade style of play. Just pick a team a start

throwing the ball and swinging the bat. You can still sub pitchers in, but don’t

expect to carry a team with your mid-season trade decisions and draft picks.

Slugfest keeps it simple and definitely won’t appeal to would-be managers.

One of the new features for ’04 is the “special pitch.” Throw five

strikes and the man on the mound will gain a ridiculous, superhuman pitch. One

guy might throw a corkscrew, another guy a cockeyed, impossibly-angled screwball

mess. It’s almost as if Wile E. Coyote dropped Acme baseballs into the hands

of these guys. Not a bad addition at all.

Another

newbie is the Create-A-Team option. Fill out your roster from the best of the

league, pick a team name, logo and stadium and start kicking butt. Salary cap,

shmalary cap.

Last of the notable new additions is the Home Run Derby mode. Just choose

from a list of the game’s powerhouses, pick out a few simple options like skill

level, pitch type and location and you’re ready to start swinging. It’s not

nearly as exciting as the real thing, but it’s still a fair distraction.

By far the biggest problem with Slugfest 2004 is that even with the

new additions, it feels like very little has changed. The game still gets really

repetitive when playing solo and the very same fielding problems from ’03

are back. Guys are occasionally slow to respond in the field and the “change

player” button still comes up with the wrong decision every once in a while.

I even had a weird instance where a deep ball down the 3rd base line was called

a home run even though it was well short of the wall. As it stands, 2004

feels exactly like its predecessor with a few new inconsequential features thrown

in.

Being the same isn’t all bad, though, as the best color commentary duo in

the business makes another appearance with more smart remarks and silly antics.

I’m still amazed that a game like Slugfest can support a comedy act like

this. Keeping these guys has got to be the best move in the entire game.

But even the commentators can’t make this one a clear winner. As with any

sports game, Slugfest 2004 is a great multiplayer trip; it just doesn’t

have enough to keep the single-player afloat. The new features are nice, but

it’s really just last season all over again. If real baseball turns out like

this game, we’re all going to have a serious monkey problem.