If you placed MLB Slugfest 2004 next to its close cousins like Blitz and Hitz, you'll notice a striking similarity between their looks. The only differences will be the locales, and whatever equipment the players happen to be wearing at the time. Despite its almost clone-like appearance, Slugfest delivers the same pleasing visuals and special effects that were so common in the other extreme sports titles.

The audio, on the other hand, is lacking in more than one area. The music, whenever it is played, is a disturbing mix of heavy metal and revamped tracks from other Midway titles. Thankfully, the music is mostly kept quiet during an actual game, save for the homeruns and inning changes. The sound effects seem to have inverse problems. They are heard about as often as the music, but they are good enough not to get annoying. The game seems to keep to an eerie calm most of the time, and could have done with a higher consistency of sound effects.

Midway has spent a lot of time trying to differentiate MLB Slugfest 2004 from the actual game of baseball. Though this is only the second installment in their extreme baseball series, it still carries with it a stench of stale beer and old hotdogs that have been left under the bleachers for far too long.

As a rule of thumb, these sports titles are more violent, faster, and easier to grasp than their real life counterparts. This watermark has been kept most of the time, but MLB Slugfest 2004 somehow missed a few of its targets. Not a very complicated sport, baseball is arguably America's favorite pastime. However, it has been blamed more than once for its slow pace. There is really no way in speeding up this age-old game without losing the essence of what it stands for; that is, hitting a ball with a stick.

With every MLB team, player, and stadium accounted for, it is hard not to automatically label this game as a pure sim. You can trade players, take part in tournaments and homerun derbies, and even lead your favorite team through an entire season. However, you cannot create a new team from scratch. You must instead alter the lineup of an existing team, which in turn screws up the rosters for whichever teams you trade with.

Of course, when one of your players does something really good, like hit a homer, they will spontaneously combust into a walking mass of flames, upping all of their stats at the same time. This doesn't have the same impact in Slugfest as it did in the other Midway games though. Each player must catch on fire individually, and will stay that way throughout most of the game, but the number of times you use them are limited, and the number of times you get to use their cool 'on-fire' abilities are even less.

You don't have to learn all the rules of baseball to play MLB Slugfest 2004. Indeed, most of the technical stuff has been thrown out the window. The difficult part comes in trying to handle your field players once the ball is in play. Outfielders will converge on a fly ball, only to stop dead in their tracks at the last second and let it hit the ground unless you do something first. Also, trying to throw the ball to the correct base is annoying at best, and it will usually sail squarely into the catcher's mitt when you intended for it to go to third base.

With four different aspects of play, you have to learn four different control schemes for the same controller. To Pitch you simply select the throw and then decide whether you want it to go over home plate or into the batter's rib cage. Batting is a little more complicated than it should be, since you can rotate the batter and move him towards or away from the plate. You will have to hold this stance until you swing, and reset it on the next pitch, which leaves a less than accurate aiming system.

Running around the bases is still accomplished classically, but this time not only can you slide, you can knock over the baseman when he is trying to tag you out. Either he'll drop the ball, or your runner returns to the dugout with his head hanging low. Fielding is by far the most difficult to master, especially in the outfield. Your fielders can make spectacular flying catches, but you have to have a very quick and steady hand to do it, as well as what seems like all too much practice to get it down right every time.

MLB Slugfest 2004 has a lot of road to make up for between itself and its extreme sports counterparts. Baseball fans still have something to hope for, though. It doesn't seem like this game is going to disappear any time soon, so just sit tight, sports fans and hope for a better future.