Super Mega Baseball 4 release date, preview: MLB legends join the club

A fan-favorite baseball video game like Metalhead’s Super Mega Baseball should know a thing about fan-favorite players. Over the last decade, this studio created hundreds of players, including Ham Slamous, Beefcake MacStevens and Johnson Swanson. Thing is, they’ve all been fictitious.

Well, Super Mega Baseball 4 Electronic Arts’ acquisition of Metalhead, two years ago, has led to the release of a real-life MLB game on June 2. It’s not the entire current membership of the MLB Players Association, or any of the 30 teams in the National or American Leagues — just a free agent pool of 200 guys you can put on any of Super Mega Baseball 4’s quirky teams (or not; your choice). Instead, they’re past pros who fit the Super Mega style, says Metalhead studio director Scott Drader.

The marketing copy with Tuesday’s announcement mentions all-timers like Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth, as well as two of the 2004 Boston Red Sox’s gang of “Idiots,” Johnny Damon and David Ortiz, the latter of whom stars on the game’s cover, rendered in Super Mega style. The fictional Hammer Longballo is his co-star.

Image: Metalhead/Electronic Arts

“Trying to figure out what the right fit, for licensed players, is in Super Mega, we’re not just looking for big names; we’re looking for a good spread of positions, and eras, so that it fits from a game design perspective,” Drader told me last week.

“Of course, we are looking for all of those things,” he continued. “We’re also looking for, like, Super Mega personalities, too, and players that felt like they should just be in this take on baseball, right?”

What is the same?

“Bartolo Colón — Big Sexy,” Drader said, his smile cracking wide as one’s mouth usually does when it speaks the name. “Is there someone more Super Mega than him?”

There is no such thing.

Colón was a four-time All-Star, and the 2005 American League Cy Young Award winner. After a career that spanned almost 21 years, Colon joined the New York Mets. His fans adored him for both his size and his outrageous batting performances, from the slapstick to the sublime. On the mound, he never made a fool of himself. Closing out his career in Texas, the 44-year-old Colón damn near threw a perfect game.

The roster tease — and Colón’s inclusion in it — is, for Super Mega Baseball fans since Metalhead’s indie days, part celebration and part reassurance. Getting a license to real, well-known ballplayers is a looks-like-we-made-it moment for fans who have been with the series since 2014 and can’t believe an unlicensed indie SportsVideo games have come a long way.

And it’s a reassurance that the game, its appeal, and its tone aren’t going to be corrupted or co-opted by a huge publisher accustomed to writing enormous checks for sports licensing.

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“They acknowledged the same things you did just now,” Drader said, talking of when EA bought his studio in May 2021. “The most important thing was [EA saying], ‘We’re not going to tell you what you’re going to do next, but we’re going to have a conversation about what the right next step is, for the IP and the studio.”

So you can get something similar Super Mega Baseball 4 Electronic Arts will publish the first baseball console title since Electronic Arts’ venerated MVP Baseball 2005“ game with the mass-market appeal of real-life stars that doesn’t sacrifice the rollicking, grassroots spirit that makes Super Mega Baseball unique.

“What we’ve tried to do here is allow for, You want to be a legend? Does that resonate with you? Well, then that’s there,” Drader said. “Do you want to stay with the classic content? That’s cool, too. You want to customize the game for your family, friends and colleagues? That experience is there too.”

Super Mega Baseball 4 is not just 200-plus big names skinning a mild update of 2020’s exceptional Super Mega Baseball 3, Drader promised. Six more stadiums are available, all done again in Super Mega fashion for the players to barnstorm. Drader pointed out that, with the total of 26, each team could now own its very own stadium.

Image: Metalhead/Electronic Arts

Players will also be able to see and use some of baseball’s modern developments, like two-way performers and the new extra-innings baserunner. The new features are based on what any developer of sports, big or small, has to do: listen to the fans.

The biggest one led to a kind of deck-building feature, Shuffle Draft, that players may use to quickly create their own leagues along several parameters — with (or without) legends, Super Mega rosters, or custom-created players — and start a career playthrough. You can also choose from a number of pre-made leagues for players who want to get started and not worry about managing personnel.

“The classic Super Mega League exists, so if you just want to play with the classic content, that’s there,” Drader said. “There’s a Legends League, roughly era-based, that’s the simplest way to engage with the licensed legend players.” Players could also start a league purely with the Super Mega gang and have a free agent pool of legends.

Super Mega Baseball 4The game will be available on June 2 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. It is also compatible with Windows PC, Xbox One (via Steam), Xbox Series X and Xbox One.