Mario Baseball

America's pastime gets a Mushroom Kingdom makeover, making it accessible to a wider, more casual audience.

The sunshine. The hot dogs. The barrels rolling overthe left fielder. Huh? Yeah, it's a different breed of baseball, and for many casual fans, that's exactly what's needed in a world of baseball sims.

Clever special moves (each character has a special pitch and swing) add an extra layer of strategy to the otherwise straightforward action. Even the stadiums inject some creativity: I won one game by hitting a walk-off homer that ricocheted off one of those white bouncy music-note blocks and over the wall.