Nicktoons MLB - Game Review

Pros: Simple controls, colorful players and ballparks.
Cons: Feels a little budget conscious, advanced controls are difficult to get the hang of.

As a kid, I was terrible at baseball. I rarely hit the ball, and when a pop fly headed out to my spot in left field, I did what any sensible person would do when faced with the hurtling approach of a small, hard object; I ducked.

I am much fonder of baseball in a video game like Nicktoons MLB, which lets players swing at or catch a ball that will never hit them in the head.

Baseball would seem to be a perfect match for the Wii, so it’s surprising that there have been so few baseball games for the console. The one publisher that seems really interested in Wii baseball is 2K, who has been putting out a Major League Baseball game each year and has now published a kid’s version of the series, Nicktoons MLB.

In Nicktoons, players can build teams out of a mix of Nickelodeon characters like Spongebob Squarepants and Stimpy and Major League players like Ryan Braun. The cartoon characters are a motley crew, some tiny, some giant. At least one floats above the ground. Games can be in either conventional or cartoon-themed ballparks.

The game offers three control schemes. You can use the Wii remote by itself, or with the nunchuk, or you can use the classic controller. I wasn’t interested in the classic, since for me much of the appeal of a Wii baseball game is the ability to really swing at the ball, and the nunchuk didn’t add a lot, offering only the ability to aim the ball when batting and a rather awkward way to aim your pitch.

Using the remote, basic controls are quite simple. You swing the remote to hit the ball or to throw a pitch and can also use gestures to tell a player to slide into base or jump for a ball, although whenever I did the latter the player would miss the ball and fall down.

Batting is all about swinging at the right time. You can hold the A button for a more powerful swing, but every time I did that I would knock a pop-up fly right to an outfielder unless I was using the nunchuk to aim the ball. While waiting for the pitch you can instruct a player on base to steal.

I have long contended that in baseball games you should have an angled view of the player to make up for the 2D screen, but alas, Nicktoons MLB gives the player a catcher’s-eye view that adds guesswork to figuring out where the ball is. But with practice and a bit of luck I was able ot hit it now and again.

Surprisingly, the game uses the same catcher’s-eye view when pitching, as opposed to the more conventional over-the-pitcher’s-shoulder view. My guess is it was cheaper to not create a second view. There are places where the game feels like it cut corners, both in the lack of a pitcher’s view and in the way you have to use the direction buttons in menus instead of using the Wii remote as a pointer.

In pitching, you aim for a spot within the strike zone rectangle and then choose one of four available pitches. Raise the remote for the windup, swing for the pitch. Twist the remote to put a little English on the ball.

Within the strike zone rectangle there is a section called the Hot Zone. Sending a strike directly through the Hot Zone (which changes size and location from one pitch to the next) is the most effective way to boost a turbo meter that allows you superhuman skills, almost guaranteeing a home run or a perfect pitch and increasing your chances of throwing out an opponent.

The most complicated thing in Nicktoons MLB is controlling runners at base. After you hit the ball, can can control any player individually so you can do things like tell a player to try and run for the next base. To do this you have to page through runners with the minus key. I suppose if I played the game enough I would get the hang of that, but it’s tricky, and generally I just let the runners use their own best judgement.

In fact, outside of pitching and batting, the game pretty much runs itself; you can exert some control over everyone on the field, but if you don’t they will generally do the most sensible thing anyway.

Nicktoons MLB offers both a simple pickup game mode as well as a tournament mode. There is also something called Showdown mode that I don’t consider a real mode, as it appears to be just a pickup game in which you can’t have a team that mixes cartoon and real players, but instead have one team consisting of each.

There is also something called the Distance Derby in which you swing at balls pitched one after the other in an attempt to hit targets and outscore an opponent. Unlike normal batting, in this one you have that slight angled view that makes it easier to hit the ball. It’s moderately entertaining, but I felt one play through was as much as I needed..

Over all, Nicktoons MLB is a fun, solid baseball game. While it is certainly aimed for kids, with play-by-play done by goofy cartoon characters and achievements represented by virtual trading cards, it is fun for anyone who would like to play a form of baseball in which the fear of a concussion is not an issue.