Metalhead Software is gearing up to release its latest installment of Super Mega Baseball, the increasingly popular simcade baseball series.
Super Mega Baseball has built a dedicated following over the past few years. If you're among the diehards, here's everything that's new to Super Mega Baseball 3 in 2020. Check it out in a nearly ten-minute trailer or scroll further to read about all the changes.
First and foremost is a new Franchise mode which accounts for players getting better or worse as they age through the league. Younger players will improve as they move toward their full potential before falling off in the back end of their careers. After all, time is undefeated.
Joining this new mechanic are player development opportunities. These will require resources like money, and they're designed to not allow players to take advantage of all of them, meaning you'll need to choose which players get special attention. Players can now move among different teams via free agency and trades for the first time in the series. When players spend a while in free agency without signing anywhere will eventually retire on their own terms. All of these player movements mean team owners will need to budget their payroll effectively.
Metalhead Software says it'll be listening to fan feedback post-launch to ensure things are properly balanced in what is a series debut in Franchise mode.
Other traditional modes, like Season, Elimination (a playoff bracket mode) and Exhibition will return too, and now players can control multiple teams in Season mode, meaning local co-op seasons will also make their debut, allowing players to carve out paths for separate teams in the same league and face each other when they collide on the league schedule.
In Elimination, players can better design how the brackets shake out to begin each new tournament. Players can even elect to watch fully simulated games play out in real-time - which maybe a popular feature in our world without sports these days.
Super Mega Baseball 3 returns the ten total ballparks in its predecessor and adds four more, and each of the 14 now have unique lighting conditions and day/night styles.
The standard league teams have expanded by four as well, to 20 total mascots with new players joining the game and some familiar faces in new places. As always, Super Mega Baseball 3 operates without Major League licenses, but the return of the series' own homebrewed stars should bring its own element of familiarity and rivalry to the sequel. Like before, teams, jerseys, and players can all be fully customized too. New head and facial types have joined the custom character creation station too. Logo editing has also been improved with new ways to tweak your team logo.
Metalhead also promises improvements to the game's netcode to make online PvP "as smooth as possible." Every platform that will host Super Mega Baseball 3 will also include a free demo that allows players to play as much online Pennant Race as they'd like to. Limits will come on the teams and stadiums, but not on the number of games. The game will also offer cross-platform play across all four launch platforms. Metalhead these steps have been taken to ensure matchmaking is as welcoming as can be. Another surprise online feature is in development, but the studio is tight-lipped for now.
All of these changes join other improvements to visuals like better textures for players, more spectators in the stands, and a steady 60 FPS framerate. New walk-up music gives Super Mega Baseball 3 the most expansive music library in the series too. New menus seek to keep all of these new features clean and easier than ever to navigate.
Super Mega Baseball has earned a reputation as a baseball indie with AAA aspirations, and it seems like Metalhead is still shooting for the moon with its latest installment. While the game is still tentatively scheduled for release sometime this month, the studio says they anticipate there may be a short delay due to COVID-19 creating logistical issues, but the studio is not ready to say so for sure yet.
