This was a battle between three known commodities in 2023, but Super Mega Baseball 4 ended up winning out over Football Manager 24 and Out of the Park Baseball 24 for best alternative sports game in 2023.
There was a lot of concern about Super Mega Baseball 4 because EA purchased Metalhead during the development process. On top of that, it had been about three years since we last saw the franchise, and during that time there were rumblings that Metalhead was moving on to other projects and so on. However, if there was turmoil, it did not seem to impact the final product as Super Mega Baseball 4 rocked.
Perhaps the one major downside is the game did not go as far as we hoped in terms of customization options, but it’s hard to find a game with a more enjoyable gameplay loop. Whether you trust in the “ego” system or go online to play in various online leagues, it’s hard not to find a competitive and well-paced game of baseball. One of the sneaky great things about SMB is that you can get in and out of a full game in a much shorter amount of time than MLB The Show. On top of that, the pitcher-batter duel is maybe one of the most engrossing things in any sports game when it’s done right, and it’s absolutely done right in Super Mega Baseball 4.
Year after year we continue to get some great examples of “smaller” games that fuse arcade and sim in a way that reminds us of the golden era of sports games in the ’90s and early 2000s, and the best ones are those that still ultimately are “sim” but do not scare people off. SMB is the poster child for that fusion, and we just hope more developers recognize the appeal of making these sorts of games across all sports.
In terms of all our awards, this was the closest community vote with Super Mega Baseball 4, Out of the Park Baseball 24, and Football Manager 24 all getting close to 30 percent of the vote. It’s likely that the two simulation games ate each other’s lunches just enough to give SMB the edge, but it’s not surprising these were the top three selections.
You can’t go wrong with any of these three games, it’s just a matter of what you want out of your experience.
