IS this better, worse, comparable to SMB3?

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

I assume not because SMB3 NEVER goes on sale, so I assume that is the one everyone buys. Yet, I see a lot of reviews in there saying that the game has "catch up mechanics" for the CPU/AI players. Like random errors, or the CPU hitter fouling off strike 2 forever until they get a hit to keep the scores close.

So...is SMB4 even worth playing when there is SMB3?

[nzgunner]

I've had all the SMBs and I held off getting SMB4 for a long time, but eventually got it on sale.

For me the significant difference is the chemistry part of franchise mode - couldn't care less about the *real* players.

In terms of gameplay it feels almost exactly the same, the two main things I notice are less catches by the pitcher, and more catches at first base resulting in double plays. I haven't really noticed the AI "catching up".

It's overpriced to a crazy degree, but if you wait for a decent sale it might be worth it.

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

Originally posted by nzgunner:

I've had all the SMBs and I held off getting SMB4 for a long time, but eventually got it on sale.

For me the significant difference is the chemistry part of franchise mode - couldn't care less about the *real* players.

In terms of gameplay it feels almost exactly the same, the two main things I notice are less catches by the pitcher, and more catches at first base resulting in double plays. I haven't really noticed the AI "catching up".

It's overpriced to a crazy degree, but if you wait for a decent sale it might be worth it.

Thanks a lot for the reply. Very useful.

[bliznots]

Got the answer you had pre-determined. Closed the thread. Cool.

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

Originally posted by bliznots:

Got the answer you had pre-determined. Closed the thread. Cool.

???

I just asked the difference, and specifically about "catch up mechanics" I read in the SMB3 reviews, and if they had it in this too. I assumed that the answer would be that SMB3 is jsut way better, and to skip this one, but it sounds like it's not bad. LOL

[Foternicus Mareley]

I only like 4 because of the better graphics and animations, but even still its missing some of the charm. 4 absolutely still has "catch up mechanics" where the opposing hitters will somehow homer or hit a single right up the middle 6 times in a row on pitches out of the zone. If you have 3 stick with it, the game is no longer being updated and multiplayer is dying

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

Originally posted by Foternicus Mareley:

I only like 4 because of the better graphics and animations, but even still its missing some of the charm. 4 absolutely still has "catch up mechanics" where the opposing hitters will somehow homer or hit a single right up the middle 6 times in a row on pitches out of the zone. If you have 3 stick with it, the game is no longer being updated and multiplayer is dying

Thank you. So essentially they already fell into the same game/new rosters formula that the regular sports games have with little innovation, which pretty much means the last one should at least be technically the best made, but of course that is no guarantee.

Man I miss EA BIG. lol

[wasabi™]

Originally posted by TITOMOSQUITO187:

Originally posted by Foternicus Mareley:

I only like 4 because of the better graphics and animations, but even still its missing some of the charm. 4 absolutely still has "catch up mechanics" where the opposing hitters will somehow homer or hit a single right up the middle 6 times in a row on pitches out of the zone. If you have 3 stick with it, the game is no longer being updated and multiplayer is dying

Thank you. So essentially they already fell into the same game/new rosters formula that the regular sports games have with little innovation, which pretty much means the last one should at least be technically the best made, but of course that is no guarantee.

Man I miss EA BIG. lol

Imo SMB3 is the superior version of the series mate but because it's EA we are dealing with, the game will never see a discount ever again until it is removed entirely from sale on Steam just like they did with SMB2. I hate EA for always pulling ♥♥♥♥ like that.

Also you have to sign in to Origin to play SMB4 unlike with SMB3.

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

Originally posted by wasabi™:

Originally posted by TITOMOSQUITO187:

Thank you. So essentially they already fell into the same game/new rosters formula that the regular sports games have with little innovation, which pretty much means the last one should at least be technically the best made, but of course that is no guarantee.

Man I miss EA BIG. lol

Imo SMB3 is the superior version of the series mate but because it's EA we are dealing with, the game will never see a discount ever again until it is removed entirely from sale on Steam just like they did with SMB2. I hate EA for always pulling ♥♥♥♥ like that.

Also you have to sign in to Origin to play SMB4 unlike with SMB3.

Eh EA...whateve...thanks man.

[wasabi™]

Originally posted by TITOMOSQUITO187:

Originally posted by wasabi™:

Imo SMB3 is the superior version of the series mate but because it's EA we are dealing with, the game will never see a discount ever again until it is removed entirely from sale on Steam just like they did with SMB2. I hate EA for always pulling ♥♥♥♥ like that.

Also you have to sign in to Origin to play SMB4 unlike with SMB3.

Eh EA...whateve...thanks man.

Yeah it's just standard practice for EA these days, I hate how they go about that kind of stuff especially with their sports games since they always try and push people to buy the latest game.

I did a bit of research into these developers and people loved them when they created the first three games then they were bought by EA and you can find many forum posts of ppl saying "That's it for these devs", "RIP Metalhead" a few years back.

Then Metalhead released SMB4 which was completely under the guidance of EA and since that game didn't do as well due to EA interference they announced just a couple months ago that they are shutting down for good:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SuperMegaBaseball/comments/1e1plpw/a_note_from_metalhead/

Didn't take long at all for EA to kill another successful indie game studio and series, great work EA lol.

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

Way of the industry. People need to understand that once the white slavers (as George Lucas calles them) buy all this stuff, nothing of it will remain. The people that created the IP will either leave for a better job, retire, and the new megacorp will put a bunch of interns on the project, and get rid of the expensive devs.

[Aerooooooo]

Originally posted by TITOMOSQUITO187:

Way of the industry. People need to understand that once the white slavers (as George Lucas calles them) buy all this stuff, nothing of it will remain. The people that created the IP will either leave for a better job, retire, and the new megacorp will put a bunch of interns on the project, and get rid of the expensive devs.

That would explain SMB4's team's "decision" to bring in the legends nobody asked for, complete with a bewildering lack of all time greats (Musial, Killebrew, McCovey to name a few), the inclusion of literal nobodies (gotta make sure we get the streamers in, though!) and a lack of respect for the greats they did include (case in point: Willie Mays' stats). You throw in the lack of any upgrades to the customization suite (you couldn't even import your SMB3 teams) and a middling franchise mode, and presto, you get yet another indictment of how anything even remotely half-decent gets consumed by the tyranny of shareholders, as the priority is to extract the maximum amount of money for the minimum amount of effort.

Backyard Baseball is coming back, anyway. Hopefully we can get something good from it before they ruin that, too. I'd be willing to bet 2K will buy out the BB team and ♥♥♥♥ it up just like EA did SMB.

[TITOMOSQUITO187]

Originally posted by APerson:

Originally posted by TITOMOSQUITO187:

Way of the industry. People need to understand that once the white slavers (as George Lucas calles them) buy all this stuff, nothing of it will remain. The people that created the IP will either leave for a better job, retire, and the new megacorp will put a bunch of interns on the project, and get rid of the expensive devs.

That would explain SMB4's team's "decision" to bring in the legends nobody asked for, complete with a bewildering lack of all time greats (Musial, Killebrew, McCovey to name a few), the inclusion of literal nobodies (gotta make sure we get the streamers in, though!) and a lack of respect for the greats they did include (case in point: Willie Mays' stats). You throw in the lack of any upgrades to the customization suite (you couldn't even import your SMB3 teams) and a middling franchise mode, and presto, you get yet another indictment of how anything even remotely half-decent gets consumed by the tyranny of shareholders, as the priority is to extract the maximum amount of money for the minimum amount of effort.

Backyard Baseball is coming back, anyway. Hopefully we can get something good from it before they ruin that, too. I'd be willing to bet 2K will buy out the BB team and ♥♥♥♥ it up just like EA did SMB.

All true.

Only thing I would add is that it's not "shareholders" now that take top priority. It appears to be something called "stakeholders", which essentially is whoever you want them to be.

With all the ESG/DEI stuff, "stakeholders" become the focus where you must get high scores on your environmental scams you follow, how many lesbians you hire, etc. So they make products for nothing other than to virtue signal to "stakeholders" about how good they are.

Of course at least SOMEONE is benefiting from this outside of all the didn't earn it hires. All the executives are getting huge kickbacks and bonuses from outside sources such as Blackrock, and Blackstone in which if they meet the "forced behavior" guidelines properly they get some sort of kickback for the executives by the NGOs, and "stakeholders".

They are literally doing things to lose money to please the people that are forcing them to lose money because they found a way to just buy off their top execs, which is very fortunate for those execs, and their buyers as well when all the people with the power to fire them, are them.

Can even go as far as Bob Iger at Disney. Owning all the board members, and votes, and being on the board, and CEO. He thinks he is a genius because they gave him unlimited money to buy any IP they could get their hands on as if he didn't just offer a blank check. STock price has literally dropped about 50% of it's value in the last 5 years, and he can't be fired because he owns the board, and I'm sure is a multi-billionaire now. LOL

[Aerooooooo]

Originally posted by TITOMOSQUITO187:

Originally posted by APerson:

That would explain SMB4's team's "decision" to bring in the legends nobody asked for, complete with a bewildering lack of all time greats (Musial, Killebrew, McCovey to name a few), the inclusion of literal nobodies (gotta make sure we get the streamers in, though!) and a lack of respect for the greats they did include (case in point: Willie Mays' stats). You throw in the lack of any upgrades to the customization suite (you couldn't even import your SMB3 teams) and a middling franchise mode, and presto, you get yet another indictment of how anything even remotely half-decent gets consumed by the tyranny of shareholders, as the priority is to extract the maximum amount of money for the minimum amount of effort.

Backyard Baseball is coming back, anyway. Hopefully we can get something good from it before they ruin that, too. I'd be willing to bet 2K will buy out the BB team and ♥♥♥♥ it up just like EA did SMB.

All true.

Only thing I would add is that it's not "shareholders" now that take top priority. It appears to be something called "stakeholders", which essentially is whoever you want them to be.

With all the ESG/DEI stuff, "stakeholders" become the focus where you must get high scores on your environmental scams you follow, how many lesbians you hire, etc. So they make products for nothing other than to virtue signal to "stakeholders" about how good they are.

Of course at least SOMEONE is benefiting from this outside of all the didn't earn it hires. All the executives are getting huge kickbacks and bonuses from outside sources such as Blackrock, and Blackstone in which if they meet the "forced behavior" guidelines properly they get some sort of kickback for the executives by the NGOs, and "stakeholders".

They are literally doing things to lose money to please the people that are forcing them to lose money because they found a way to just buy off their top execs, which is very fortunate for those execs, and their buyers as well when all the people with the power to fire them, are them.

Can even go as far as Bob Iger at Disney. Owning all the board members, and votes, and being on the board, and CEO. He thinks he is a genius because they gave him unlimited money to buy any IP they could get their hands on as if he didn't just offer a blank check. STock price has literally dropped about 50% of it's value in the last 5 years, and he can't be fired because he owns the board, and I'm sure is a multi-billionaire now. LOL

Saddest thing is is that you have people on this very forum honestly and unironically shocked and appalled that people like us could be so openly critical of the devs, let alone their middling game. I mean, God forbid we should want them to actually have done more with the customization, or a fleshed out franchise beyond literal fart jokes used as loyalty events, or including ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ streamers in the game (judging by SteamDB numbers, they did ♥♥♥♥ all to improve the game's standing among gamers) instead of actual legends like Musial and Killebrew. Imagine not even knowing the game of baseball to the point you give the literal SAY HEY KID, the late, great, Willie Mays, poor speed.

POOR SPEED! This is the same player who made the greatest catch in the history of the sport, and you can't even do him justice with his stats?

But I'm just a hater, don't you know? And so are you. All because we didn't kiss the feet of the devs and pubs who thought that SMB3 2.0 was good enough.

But when it takes EA 20+ years to bring back expansion drafts in their NHL games, can any of us be surprised this is how it all ended?

It's all so tiresome, truly.