I really want to like this game. I really do. It seems quite a few people have fun with it, and the game itself looks great in its own ways.

While all the SMB games are the top tier in baseball gaming, SMB 3 is the weakest of the lot. I aim to point out the flaws (and some improvements) in no particular order. It seems for every step forward, they took a couple back.

First off, it is inherently obvious that they fired the design team. The design team is tasked with designing the game; such as gameplay mechanics and menu layout. Their primary purpose is to decide every facet of what the game should be. Game programmers are like brainless dogs, they're incapable of self-thought and proper decision making. The design team are the dog trainers. Well, it's clear the design team either quit or got replaced, because we're gonna look at a plethora of idiotic decisions only a game programmer could've made. I even wonder if they sent the game through QA.

But let's start with a good decision! There is no DLC, and the previous game's DLC is included for free! This is unheard of in the present day. I'm tempted to recommend the game on this alone. Such a bold business decision should set the standard for others to follow. Hopefully SMB 4 follows such a standard (It won't).

But now into the bad. The menu design... I'm incapable of making an assessment of it without cussing. It is generally terrible, maybe the worst menu I've ever seen in a sports game of this caliber. It's ripped straight out of baseball mogul (and I'm doing baseball mogul dirty by saying that). I have no idea how they could take the excellent and flavorful menu design of the previous game and somehow turn it into this ♥♥♥♥♥. It leaves a terrible taste in my mouth. I genuinely question quitting the game as soon as I open it. While SMB 1 & 2 menu's felt very down to earth and baseball-ey, this does not. This menu feels like corporate drovel, like something I'd see when checking into an airport. You may say "It's just the menu" but apart from gameplay, it is what the player interacts with most. It's as if Metalhead's ego was hyper-inflated from the last game's success, so they thought they could do whatever they want, as long as we buy it. This really sets the tone for the rest of the game. As a longtime fan, I feel extremely violated that Metalhead is now treating its customers like statistics and not people. We want the game to feel like baseball, damn it!!! Don't give me this McDonald's esque menu! It is NOT trendy, not even when the game came out!

As a side note, in general all the aspects of the menu (especially players and their portraits) are much blurrier than the previous game. I am running the game at max settings. It is possibly a graphical error, but it seems unlikely.

It only gets worse. The actual character and ballpark design is more gritty, a tad more realistic. This feels like eating peanut butter mixed with cat hair. The game is supposed to feel aracdey, like a game. If I wanted realism I'd just play MVP 05. While they shifted this game design in certain areas (mainly ballpark size!), they did not do so in others (player attributes). The worst offender is the lighting. It feels more cold and gritty; think of GTA IV compared to GTA V. An arcade game should have colors that pop off the screen, not dull. The shadows and lighting affects are too realistic. It all implies that the designer was a confused moron, unable to decide how the game wanted to go. I wouldn't mind a realistic SMB, but it would lose most of its charm. While the increased ballpark size makes robbing home runs and diving catches feel spectacular, it comes with its own set of flaws (more on that later). I'm about as torn on this subject as the game itself is. It's just too confusing! Pick a genre, Metalhead (oops I meant EA)!

We descend even further into the worst aspects of the game; the gameplay and controls. The controls have been screwed over completely. I'd like to meet a Metalhead designer and ask them personally how they thought these changes were in any form good. I'm almost lead to believe that the design team (who is probably a single literal chimpanzee) has no logical ability. Baserunning, for some reason, has been extremely over complicated. From a simple button and trigger system, to a complex and easily broken stick control system. The problem with stick control is it's heavily prone to mistakes and not nearly as responsive as pressing a button. Removing the trigger control of "All go" or "All return" was a grievous injustice to the best baserunning control scheme in modern baseball gaming. I am clueless as to why they could take the simplest part of the game and absolutely mangle it. Baserunning as a whole is entirely broken. While the field size was increased, they did not increase the player's speed aspect in the physics engine. Which isn't a huge issue because they didn't increase throwing power either. But it is clearly noticeable at times, resulting in you feeling absolutely robbed by the game. You also have to manually jump to steal bases. It's not very difficult, but it's a step in the wrong direction for an arcade game. I don't want this game to feel like The Show or MVP 05!!! I would just play those games instead! The flaws don't stop there. The pitching in the game has become ridiculously easy. I'm not sure if they made the AI dumber, or if they're trying to cater to children. The control scheme was changed from RT to X as the power pitch button, which feels very uncomfortable when aiming a pitch. Again, a sign of no QA. Sure, they added pickoffs. But it's offset by the terrible controls. Sure, they added Franchise. But it's barely complete and the new "player traits" system taints it.

But the worst of the entire game is the hitting. When playing an ego above 75, hitting power is sharply nerfed. In multiple instances, I was playing as a player who had above 70 power, charged up a 99+ power swing, timed for a slight pull, and hit a right-up-the-middle meatball, in the sweet spot just a hair below the dot... ONLY FOR IT TO BLOOP BARELY PAST THE SHORTSTOP. That is absolutely inexcusable! In the previous two games, that would've been a home run at ANY ego. Then I proceeded to smack a pitch outside and high for a homer with a player who had 30~ power with barely a charge. It almost seems like the hit you are given is simply RNG (with an ego modifier) and not physics based anymore. It was very Madden-esque, which makes sense considering EA snatched this one up. Such jackass design gives companies like EA a boner, so it was only a matter of time. This leaves me deeply disappointed in Metalhead, a company I've followed from nearly the beginning. They created a great game in SMB: EI. They further improved and changed baseball gaming with SMB 2. But this one brings shame to the name. I wouldn't even call it Mega Baseball, let alone Baseball.

I think this properly concludes my review. Thankfully, fielding was not touched much. But it doesn't matter when the hitting is just the same as rolling the dice. You should not support this hollow shell of a company. Go buy SMB 2, it is a proper game.