Mario Superstar Baseball

Mario Superstar Baseball is a 2005 sports video game developed by Namco and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The game was created in the vein of other Mario sports games such as Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Power Tennis. A sequel, Mario Super Sluggers, was released for the Wii in 2008. Gameplay mainly focuses on the player assuming the role of many Mario series characters to challenge any opposing teams compatible in the Challenge Mode, the final being Bowser, having baseball matches to see who will win the Cup of the mode. Other playable modes include Exhibition Mode, in which players choose the leader and the other rosters in the team and challenge another team to a single baseball game, and Minigames where the player must complete a certain mission. A common power-up in the game is a charged swing, a hit by a baseball bat performed by a character that will give the ball a strong hit, causing the length of a normal hit baseball to be twice as powerful. The game was released in Japan on July 21, 2005, North America on August 29, 2005, Australia on November 3, 2005, and Europe on November 11, 2005, and received generally favorable reviews from critics.