Sonic Superstar Baseball

***Sonic Superstar Baseball*** is a ***Sonic*** sport title for the Nintendo GameCube and is the first installment of the ***Sonic Baseball series***, being the first dedicated baseball game in the ***Sonic franchise***. As with most ***Sonic Sports*** titles, it has traditional rules of the sport, but with special, Sonic-themed quirks and mechanics to differentiate itself from the real sport. This includes characters using Chaos Emerald Skill abilities to cause the ball behavior to behave differently; team captain's Chaos Emerald Skill abilities are unique and cause a wide variety of special effects such as attacking outfielders if batting and causing the pitched ball to behave erratically. Characters also have field abilities to differentiate themselves from other teammates. Chemistry is a feature unique to the ***Sonic Baseball*** games where players perform differently whether they are neutral, like, or dislike another character they are cooperating with. Additionally, most fields in the game have stage hazards that can affect outfielders such as the Plant Mobius serving as obstacles in Chaos Park.

Aside from the main Exhibition mode, where players can play baseball freely with up to two players, players can participate in a single-player oriented Challenge mode that has them playing as a designated team captain and their preset team and recruiting other captains and team players to face off against Dr. Eggman. This game also introduces the Toy Field mode where individual characters play on an interactive baseball field and get rings based on where the ball lands. Finally, players can play in Sonic-themed minigames that have baseball mechanics, such as hitting Chao to create fireworks or collecting gems in the baseball diamond while avoiding a Chao. Toy Field and Minigames mode are the only modes that can support up to four players.

## Gameplay

***Sonic Superstar Baseball*** plays similarly to actual baseball; teams take turn batting to run on the bases and fielding. The team who bats hits the ball to the field while the fielders attempt to make the batters out. Once a runner touches the home base, their team earns a point. There are three outs on an inning for the batting team. Once a team gets three outs, they switch sides. Whichever team obtains the most points wins. Teams, led by specific team captains, can have up to nine members.

## Characters

* Sonic the Hedgehog
* Miles "Tails" Prower
* Knuckles the Echidna
* Princess Sally Acorn
* Cream the Rabbit
* Amy Rose
* Big the Cat
* Tikal the Echidna
* E-102 Gamma
* Shadow the Hedgehog
* Rouge the Bat
* E-123 Omega
* Espio the Chameleon
* Charmy Bee
* Vector the Crocodile
* Jet the Hawk
* Wave the Swallow
* Storm the Albatross
* Blaze the Cat
* Silver the Hedgehog
* Marine the Raccoon
* Metal Sonic
* Dr. Eggma

## Teams

This is a list of teams formed by team captains in Exhibition Mode. One of them is a common team formed by a captain as the teammates is mostly a different character type than the captain's, another one must be formed by using the majority of the captain's character type, and two of them must be formed by putting in the four required characters in the captain's team. The only exception is Dr. Eggman, who needs only three required characters to play on his team. Bolded names indicate that the team name returns in ***Sonic Super Sluggers***.

## Stadiums

* Sonic Stadium
* Cream's Garden
* Tails' Park
* Knuckles' Jungle
* Amy's Palace
* Eggman Lair

## Toy Field

Toy Field is a mode up to four players can participate in a special field. Players take turns hitting pitched balls into a field made up of many spaces. Players earn coins depending on where the ball has landed. The player with the most rings win. Items can be used to either help or deter a player's progress depending if the ball landed on a ? area. Players can also get coins by striking a player out or catching a fly ball.

## Mini Games

Minigames are extra games outside of playing regular baseball. They usually feature baseball rules, but with a tweak added to it. Unlike exhibition, up to fours players can participate and players choose single characters instead of constructing a team. All minigames correspond to a stadium, such as Chao Derby to Sonic Stadium. Four difficulties are involved, though only one is available in the start for all minigames from easiest to hardest: Mushroom, Rings, Chaos Emerald, and Special. Flower and Star difficulties are simply harder than Mushroom, but Special usually has a tweak to it: players who play Special difficulty sets records if they beat the standard high score of the minigame.

When players beat Star difficulty for all minigames, they unlock Grand Prix Mode. Grand Prix mode is basically a collection of all minigames in this order, in Special difficulty: Chao Derby, Wall Ball, Hero Chao Sprint, Dark Chao Panic, Barrel Batter, and Chaos Emerald Dash. When completed, the player will earn a Grand Prix medal, which is stored in the Records mode.