The entire idea of attaching the Blitz style to a baseball game sounds ludicrous at first, I’ll admit. In fact, I wasn’t looking forward to playing this at all, which is why I’m so surprised how well the game has handed the transition.

MLB Slugfest features authentic lineups and teams, standard rosters, just as you’d expect from an MLB-licensed game. The basic baseball rules still apply. But any similarity to a standard baseball sim stops there. You can intentionally “bean” a batter (inciting the batter to rush the mound and beat the pitcher to a pulp), throw wild knuckleballs, knock players off-base to tag them out … all things that would never be tolerated by field officials. Players can catch fire when they’re on a roll, and once well practiced, scores can quickly escalate. You can’t direct pitches, you can’t direct your swing … you make contact or you don’t. While many will not care for this change, it speeds up gameplay considerably.

The controls are incredibly simple, and displayed on-screen to boot. Some of the options will change depending on the player, for example, one pitcher may be a slider while another may have a curveball. Batting is also just as easy, with Contact, Bunt, and Power options.

This version was still early with some very odd bugs, such as a third-base runner taking a lead will all of a sudden be right in front of you when you’re batting. The Midway representative told me that the GameCube port of MLB Slugfest is being handled by another company, and as of right now, the graphics quality is not on part with the PS2 version. Hopefully, Midway will have learned a lesson with SpyHunter, and that gamers will not be happy with lackluster ports from other machines. If they take the time to thoroughly explore the power of the Cube, MLB Slugfest could be a great “turn your brain off” kind of game.