After months of salivating over what a fully featured baseball game on Wii would look like, 2K Sports is delivering the goods. The Bigs may not be a Wii exclusive, but it certainly packs in the motion control we so eagerly desire. Among a few of the third-party games on display at Nintendo's summer preview event, we took ourselves out to this innovative ballgame.
The Bigs does not splurge on modes, but expect to get plenty of mileage out of what it offers. On the single player front, the Rookie Challenge puts you in the role of a newcomer looking to become the next World Series MVP. You play through a few seasons, participate in an assortment of mini-games to boost abilities along the way, and hopefully make it to the top. Joining this main mode is the Home Run Derby, which is, well…a home run derby.
We didn't get the chance to play either of these modes; instead, we ran the bases in an Exhibition game. Since The Bigs foregoes online multiplayer on Wii, this will be your best bet for playing with your buddies. Given the entertaining motion controls, though, the lack of online play could be forgivable.
Improving upon the mechanic as first seen in the baseball mini-game in Wii Sports, batting is done by waving the Wii remote in response to a pitch. Timing is of the essence, though, as a lackadaisical swing won't yield a hit. Batting is challenging but not because of the motion controls; rather, it is difficult because like true baseball, it requires good timing and form.
While the act of batting is being mimicked, pitching is slightly more abstract—pressing the A or B button while flicking the Wii remote downward results in a pitch. Depending on whether you press the A or B button and the curvature of your movement, the pitch can travel straight, turn into a curve ball, or even a fast pitch. You'll know how successful your pitch was thanks to a gauge showing red for a poor pitch, green for solid, and gray for perfect. Like batting, getting the timing down for a perfect pitch is a welcome challenge.
Points are awarded for good hits and perfect pitches, with these points culminating in super power shots. After filling the power gauge at the top of the screen, you can hit the C and Z buttons to trigger a power shot that lets you hit a home run while batting or a guaranteed strike as pitcher. It may not be accurate to the sport, but it does add a bit of excitement to the game.
Fielding, however, is a different story. Equal parts challenging and frustrating, motion controls don't appear to work as well when the ball is in play. The computer automatically selects the player nearest the ball, so all you have to do is use the control stick to run to it. Shaking the Wii remote will enable you to run faster to catch a high fly ball. If you need to switch players when fielding, tap the Z button.
The controls get iffy when throwing the ball. Flicking the remote throws the ball to the base aligned with the direction of your remote; however, it’s a bit problematic. Throws tend to go directly to home instead of the base. Hopefully this gets tuned before release. (We're chalking this up to user error. Har har -- ed)
