Super Mega Baseball comes to Europe on 1st April

Hey! This is Scott from Metalhead Software, an indie studio floating on an island off the Canadian west coast. Super Mega Baseball, our first game, arrived in the Americas late last year. We were blown away by the great response, including some wicked reviews and a Sports GOTY nod from Polygon. What we were not ready for however (although were pleasantly surprised by!) was the number of requests along the lines of “I’m in Europe, I love baseball, and I want your freakin’ game”. So let’s address that now; SMB is headed your way on 1st April.

Super Mega Baseball packs a hilarious but hardcore game of hardball. It’s unlicensed which means we’ve been able to have a ton of fun with the characters and stadiums (and throw in some parody when necessary!). Our number one goal from the beginning was to nail a set of gameplay mechanics that make for a solid solo and local coop/competitive experience. That means accessible, but with subtleties that add depth over time. Here are the goods:

Up to four player couch co-op/competitive: In addition to solo play, you’ve got head-to-head, 2v1, 2v2, or co-op vs the CPU. When you’ve got a teammate, you’ll be alternating batting/running each at-bat, and alternating pitching/fielding each inning. This means everyone’s involved and you’ll have to be on your toes. There’s a per-user, sliding difficulty setting called Ego, meaning you’ll be able to easily setup a close game between friends of any skill levels.

Ultra responsive, blazing fast gameplay: In a nutshell, you’re going to spend most of your time telling your players what to do. All the cinematic stuff is skippable and you’ll be able to cut through a nine-inning game in 20 minutes. The basic controls are ultra-easy to learn, but you’ll need to master jumping, diving, wall-catches, power-swings, and cut-off plays to properly dominate your friends.

Full batting/pitching stats: Baseball is all about statistics; the ones you expect to see are all in the game.

Realistic simulation and physics: Don’t be fooled by the light-hearted/comical presentation; the fundamentals of the sport of baseball are here, and if you’re not massively familiar with the rules of baseball, you will be after playing SMB.

Leveling system: You’ll tally up Starpoints for hits/strikeouts/catches during each game, level-up once you have enough, and then hire staff to train and coach your players, boosting their abilities. Then, use that jacked up team to win at higher difficulties (and post higher leaderboard scores than your friends!).

Team customisations: Customise the look of your squad to your hearts delight. You can make as many aesthetic adjustments as you want. Laaaaadies… are in the house (and the game).

Baseball’s popularity may be concentrated in a select handful of countries, but regardless of where you’re at or what level of familiarity you have with baseball, I can assure you we’ve designed SMB to be both an accessible gateway to a wonderful sport, and a fun and pure video game in its own right. Just as Shooting a Monster in the Face is a solid premise and provides an excellent underlying rule set for a video game, Smashing a Ball Over a Fence With a Stick is an equally wonderful and glorious premise!

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below, and please stay in touch via SMB’s Twitter feed or Facebook page. Cheers!