LogFAQs > #967614646

swirIdude posted...

Where is this Mario Superstar Baseball draft league and how do I join?

https://www.youtube.com/c/DingerCity

This is mostly where I learned about it after I made a (somewhat inaccurate but still fairly good) vid on Superstar Baseball myself. They have a link to their discord, are directly connected with the guys who make Project Rio (the modded version of the game with netplay, the ability to select multiple color variants of characters per game, and other QOL changes like manual fielder switching), plus resources for learning it. Probably the best place I could recommend someone start learning the game.

Mario Baseball Profile: Luigi

Luigi is Mario but worse. Thats been the general consensus on the character. Every team needs a character with the Wall Jump ability - something that lets you jump off of the back fence and intercept home runs - in right field, which is marginally shorter than the left field wall and where most home run hitters tend to wanna launch em. There are six characters with Wall Jump in the game: Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Bowser Jr., and Toadette. Mario absolutely will see every game, so youd think Luigi would be his counterpart on the opposite team in a Boo Vs Diddy kind of dichotomy. However, Toadette is tied with Yoshi as the fastest character in the game, and while her bat is stinky garbage, she also possesses the Sliding Catch ability and, due to her giant head, is one of the tallest characters in the game. This makes Toadette the far better defensive option by a wide margin, even if Luigi is a better singles bat. Additionally, Luigi and Toadette both have poor chemistry with Bowser, awarding his team less special-granting Team Stars at the start of the game (starting team stars are based on average chem rating with your captain). But Bowser Jr has a maxed out chemistry stat with his papa AND has wall jump, and as the current meta requires Bowser to be your captain if you draft him in an attempt to nerf how overwhelmingly powerful Bowser is, this leaves Luigi as a niche pick amongst three viable options (the babies have never been viable and never will be). This is reduced further, again, with the resurgence of Waluigi; Luigi has negative chemistry with him, and Waluigis premiere position is 1st base. The anti-chemistry bonus has a chance of applying every time Luigi tries to throw to first with Wah on, and considering you would ONLY play Luigi in right field you can see the problem. And Luigi even also has Super Jump! He could be a decent first base with a Mario RF/Daisy 2B/Luigi 1B setup, but Waluigi has successfully knocked his rival out of prominence almost incidentally in clawing back to relevance. You can make Luigi work, and he actually has a place as a niche captain option, as his properly timed grounder fireball special can almost guarantee a single when hit properly. But hes entirely a comfort pick character; you dont pick Luigi trying to make the optimal team, you pick Luigi because hes just good enough to be relevant and you like Luigi. Hes certainly unique, but hes weirdly outclassed.

Zero Suit Samus - Metroid: Zero Mission

Of all the moments of vulnerability in the Metroid series, I think Chozodia is, by far, the best of them. Samus getting shot down, left only with her mobility in her Zero Suit, is a great gameplay hook. and the mechanics of Metroid work surprisingly well in a stealth context, as Fusion proved. Turning the Space Pirates that youve been mindlessly blasting through all games into legitimate threats puts into perspective just how powerful Samus is compared to a regular human, and the way the ruins are built, asking you to complete platforming challenges while maintaining stealth, the run of trying to escape the pirates when you get caught, is a perfect follow-up to the Tourian escape sequence - youve platformed under pressure in a sprint, now do it in a marathon. ZSS provides perfect context for just how GOOD it feels to be Samus Aran, and when you get your suit back and the chozo upgrades come in and you demolish everything in your path, ohhh man. The power trip you get in Zero Mission just cant be beat. And then you get the best escape sequence in the series to cap it off with that damn garbage robot who never moves fast enough blocking your way. Man, Zero Mission is so good.

Best Smash Appearance: Ultimate - ZSS is a stupid idea for a character in Smash, just as a concept. Shes specifically supposed to be in a weakened state to emphasize how strong Samus is, having less tools and needing to adapt through avoidance alone. Putting her into a fighting game is like making Wheelchair Cloud or Post-Microwave Snake or Naked Link their own playable character; you CAN do it, but thats entirely missing the point of the character. And its frustrating, because ZSS is, by far, the best playing character Metroids got. Her gameplan makes sense, her combo routes are enjoyable to go through, shes got a fantastic feeling defensive option with the flippy kick, and most importantly, she gets the movement of Metroid down far better than any other character from that series. The sort of unparalleled air control, zigzagging your way to just the right spot, using clever movement tricks to avoid enemies and get to just the right spot - thats the sort of flexibility embodied by the Metroid series, and ZSS has got it. Is she essentially a Smash-original character ever since she got the gogo boots? Yeah, shes ceased to be any sort of representation of her Zero Mission design outside of a vague reference with the paralyzer. Id call her unnecessary and stupid, but base Samus is so bad at actually being Samus that ZSS feels like a much more cohesive Metroid rep. Do I think you could give this shell to, like, any kick-based character? Yeah, toss this onto Jody Summers or retrofit some of these moves onto Juri or whatever and not much changes. But theres nothing quite like that feeling in Subspace Emissary where Samus finally gets her suit back, appears proud and powerful next to Pikachu, and you immediately realize youre playing a much worse character. C