Nicktoons MLB

Time for the final baseball game in my collection and it was probably the hardest one yet in terms of some of the achievements. It’s another North America exclusive title too which is the only reason I had it and was playing. I actually quite like baseball now but I hate Sponge Bob so having to play a game with his face on it made my face hurt.

There isn’t an overarching story to the game or much variation in game modes that need to be played. There is a tournament mode where you have to play through seven teams, ending with a team of Nicktoons characters, and a showdown mode where you have to play as either MLB Allstars who you pick yourself or the Nicktoons characters.

There are some mini games to play as well but these are really meh. Other than that, there’s the pick up and play function for couch co-op and against the AI which seems to be the main point of the game.

Controls wise, Pitching and Fielding is easy for the most part. Just throw the ball and if the AI hits, get it back to the bases and try to get them out. Batting though, there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to. The ball will go where it will go. Even if you strike the ball in the hot zone, you aren’t guaranteed to not get caught out and playing on easy doesn’t prevent AI fielders from performing amazing catches regardless of stats all day long.

The one exception to this is the gimmick of the game which is the turbo. You build up turbo by getting strikes and when you have a turbo available, you can either do a special catch, a special pitch or a special bat. At bat, if you strike the ball it’s an automatic home run.

Musically, it’s grating and graphically it’s dated and it’s a generally forgettable experience in these areas.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 35 Achievements

Despite having an estimated completion time of six to eight hours, this is real slog-fest. I started by just playing the game normally, targeting standard baseball things like getting home runs, getting the grand slam, winning really well and all the rest of it and I think I knocked out 19 achievements after playing 1 game of 9 innings.

There are only two game-playing achievements that gave me trouble. The first of these is the cycle, probably the most pointless thing to aim for in any sport. You need to hit a single, double, triple and home run with the same player. This is tricky for two reasons, the first being that running a triple is a pain in the ass and you normally need to sacrifice another player to stand a better chance of getting your runner to the plate. The second is the fact that need to get the batter in at least four times so it’s best playing a 9-inning game and also praying that you don’t get a bad hit and caught out.

The next one is the only one you need to not play on Rookie difficulty for and that’s for getting a double play – getting two AI opponents out at the same time. This came down more to luck than skill, especially the way I did it, but essentially, the opponent needs to have a runner on base, preferably one. You need to throw to a batter and pray he hits a shit return into the ground then quickly throw to second then first base. I got sensationally lucky by striking out the guy I was pitching to and the AI tried to steal third. I threw to third and got the double play. Definitely more luck than skill.

There is another tricky one for pitching a perfect game of 9 innings where the opposition doesn’t get any runs or to any bases. This is tricky because no matter what happens, the AI seems to hit at least one ball well. It took me three attempts before pulling this off.

The last few achievements involve having to beat all the teams and unlock all the cards in the game. If you’ve done the double play and cycle, this is now the easy grind to the full completion and involves beating all the National League and American League teams and playing a game of Distance Derby and hitting 20 targets in the mini game. That said, in order to get 20 hits in Distance Derby you have to deliberately miss some hits otherwise you will win without facing 20 balls.

Downloadable Content – N/A

Nicktoons MLB as mentioned above, is a very bland and forgettable experience with a completion made horrendous by that stupid double play achievement. It’s advertised as short and easy but don’t be fooled. This one is a waste of time and money, even to fans of baseball.