Metalhead Studio and EA Sports are bringing their fan-favorite baseball series back for Super Mega Baseball 4, but this go around, things look a little different. Not only is it Metalhead’s first sports game produced in partnership with EA Sports, but it’s also the first time the series introduces players from real-life baseball.
Metalhead co-founder Scott Drader tells GLHF the decision to add famous baseball stars was a long time coming and one the team hopes will make Super Mega stand out to a new crowd.
“We’ve always tried to make super mega baseball as accessible as possible to the whole spectrum of baseball fandom [and] to people that maybe don’t consider themselves hardcore fans,” Drader says. “That’s probably obvious if you look at the presentation and the style of the earliest ones. I love bringing in some of the biggest names in the sport as a way of connecting some of the more serious baseball fans to a game that, if you were to just look at the presentation style, doesn’t necessarily look like it takes things too seriously.”
Drader also hopes that adding “star power” will help Super Mega overcome one of its persistent obstacles: being an indie series in a crowded space. Devoted communities sprang up around the previous Super Mega games, but Drader says there was always a sense that people overlooked this indie game with no official licensing, no partnerships, and no in-depth simulation modes like 2K games offer.
While the team wants to reach new players by including recognizable baseball stars, figuring out how to add them while keeping Super Mega’s signature style proved to be a difficult problem.
Some sports games are tied to the era they released in. The SNES game Ken Griffy Jr Presents Major League Baseball, for example, won’t feel quite as relevant in 2023 as it did in the 1990s, now that most of the players are no longer in the league. Current rosters and player ratings that change every season don’t fit with Metalhead’s vision for Super Mega Baseball, as Drader wants them all to feel as fresh and playable in the future as they are now.
The team debated at length over the best way to introduce real players, and they eventually drew on the game’s community to help find a solution.
“Our community is full of people that have a super deep nostalgia for baseball history, and since [Super Mega] has always been a timeless ode to the sport, bringing in these star players from the past just feels like a super good match for the timeless nature of the series.”
Legends exist in a separate mode alongside Super Mega Baseball’s usual “create-a-player” system, one that features 200 players from baseball history, including David Ortiz, the series’ first cover athlete. You can also create a roster of self-made players and all-stars if you’d like.
Legends aren’t the only new feature in Super Mega Baseball 4, though. One of the biggest additions is the robust traits and chemistry system, which Metalhead prioritized after getting hundreds of requests from players to add certain characteristics to player types. Drader says the team ran with the idea, adding “a ton of stuff” in the chemistry system that will influence how a team plays based on which players and traits are put together.
You’ll also have more control over how they look – fans wanting to make teams based on friends and family members was another frequent request – and how they change and progress in between seasons. Super Mega won’t feature contracts like more realistic simulators, but it’ll let you invest in your favorite characters and not see that investment wasted a few seasons down the line.
Super Mega Baseball 4 launches for Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on June 2, 2023, and pre-orders are open now.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
