About two weeks ago, I was watching the Minnesota Twins play the Cleveland Indians on TV. The Twins’ Torii Hunter was at bat, and pitching was Cleveland’s Danys Baez. Baez fired a fastball at Hunter and it nailed him in the side. Hunter fell to the ground in pain, and then got up, grabbed the baseball and rocketed it at the pitcher. That had to be one of the coolest thing I’ve seen happen in a baseball game. Sure he got suspended for three games, but I’m sure any player that was in the same situation would have wanted to do the same thing. Enter Midway’s MLB SlugFest 20-03.

As one of only three games Midway had running on the GameCube at the Midway Gamers’ Day, MLB SlugFest 20-03 takes the “NFL Blitz” extreme sports concept to yet another sport and reworks baseball. The first thing I noticed was its pick-up-and playability. Pitching, hitting, and fielding are very simple. Every pitch can be hit (unless the pitcher is trying to take you out), and because of that, these games will have high scores. I even cracked a couple hits out of the park, and I haven’t played this game for more than 20-30 minutes. Some of the more advanced moves like punches, slides, and steals take a little more practice, and that does matter because I got schooled playing against the computer.

SlugFest is just as over-the-top as NFL Blitz, or even NHL Hitz. If you connect completely solid with the ball, chances are, that puppy will be sailing out of the park. If a runner makes it to the base, you can knock him off the base by punching him. The runner can also punch you back, make you drop the ball and steal bases. You can even slide and take out basemen. Players can also get “On-Fire” make them quicker and more powerful. You can turn a single into a triple by sliding and punching your way. But players will tag you out so you can’t over do it.

The players are well detailed, and the stadiums are very accurate. I played as the Twins against the Brewers in Miller Park and was happily surprised to see Bernie Brewers beer-less slide intact, as well as the accurate radio frequency of one of the local radio stations that buys advertising in Milwaukee, even though for copyright issues they changed the call letters. The player animations look good and are entertaining. Fielders will do no-look or even between the leg catches. Batters get the bats thrown to them, and they’ll juggle them at bat. Get struck out and your players will sulk or get pissed off. If you try and hit a player that’s on fire with a pitch, he’ll catch it and throw it back to you before he trots off to first base. Small but nice touches like that are littered through out this game. The crowd joins the 2-frame-cardboard-cut-out-crowd-club, and they do something that sort of reminds me of the Tomahawk Chop…over and over again. Hopefully this will change by the final version.

There are plenty of modes included in MLB SlugFest including Quick Play (single game), Challenge (challenge all 30 MLB teams ala’ NHL Hitz), Season (1 player full season), Tournament (play against CPU or friends in a 4 or 8 team bracketed tournament), and Theater (music video and other FMV videos). I think the meat of MLB Slugfest is in the main multiplayer mode, but there seems to be enough in this game to keep any baseball fan happy. A few things that I think are missing in this edition are instant replays (automatic or manual), create-a-player and create-a-team modes, or 4-player support. These are things I hope they include in the next edition.

NFL Blitz, and NFL Hitz announcer Tim Kitzrow returns and now added is Chicago talk show host Kevin Matthews. Kevin Matthews’s character “Jim Shorts” irritated me at first, but as I played the commentary grew on me, and a few times I have caught myself chuckling at the banter. Kev-heads (he’s got quite a following in the Midwest) will surely be happy. Hard rock band Dry Kill Logic and techno/electronica band Curve provide music to accompany the gameplay. Overall the sound and music add to the hard-hitting experience.

I get bored quickly with most baseball simulations. It could be the fact that I’m not the biggest baseball fan around, but by the time I get the batting down I’ve already returned the game to the store. I believe with MLB SlugFest, Midway took the boring out of baseball games. The hitting and fielding remind me of the simplicity of Ken Griffey Jr. on the N64, with a few punches and elbows thrown in for good measure. I think it’s a total blast elbowing players in the head, and punching runners after I just tagged them out, but not only that, it’s nice to be able to actually hit the ball your first or second time at bat. Possibly immature, but hey, if baseball goes on strike, at least you’ll be able to bash players’ heads in over and over again.