Super Mega Baseball 4 brings MLB stars to a fan-favorite series
A fan-favorite baseball video game like Metalhead’s Super Mega Baseball should know a thing about fan-favorite players. The studio has created dozens of these players for three critically acclaimed games over the past decade, from Ham Slamous to Beefcake McStevens, Joseph Broseph to Johnson Swanson. Thing is, they’ve all been fictitious.
Well, Super Mega Baseball 4, launching June 2, is finally getting real-life MLB stars, owing in no small part to Electronic Arts having acquired Metalhead two years ago. 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. (His co-star is the fictional Hammer Longballo of the Sirloins.)
“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?”
Such as?
“Bartolo Colón — Big Sexy,” Drader said, his smile cracking wide as one’s mouth usually
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