Baseball is a game that is seemingly made for the motion-sensing controls of the Wii, as evidenced by the pick-up-and-play ability of Wii Sports Baseball. With MLB 2K8, 2K Sports has the challenge of utilizing the control features of the Wii, yet designing a realistic and complete game that satisfies serious baseball fans.
The game combines the nunchuk and remote to control the baseball action. Hitting is accomplished by swinging the remote in either a vertical or horizontal position, and using the stick as a directional modifier (up for a fly ball, down for a grounder, etc.). The harder you swing the remote, the harder your hitter swings, as it should be. Nothing is more fun than getting a “meat pitch” with one of your sluggers at the plate and trying to hit it 500 feet! Unfortunately, the same rewards are not felt in using the remote while pitching or fielding.
None of the innovative pitching and fielding controls from the PS3 or Xbox 360 versions of the game has made its way to the Wii. You might think that using a throwing motion with the remote should control the pitch velocity and break, similar to how you control the ball in Wii Sports Bowling (except throwing overhand). That’s not the case at all. Basically, you select the pitch with the nunchuk, and press and release the B button while flipping the remote forward to throw it (in accordance with a timing mechanism on screen). You can vary the pitch speed slightly with the force you use to flip the remote forward, but the difference is negligible. To make a throw after fielding the ball, you can basically “shake” the remote in any direction; the AI will make a “smart throw” for you to the appropriate location. Otherwise, you just use the directional pad. There’s no “powering up” of the throw, so any errors are a result of the gaming engine, instead of user input. Also, there are no motion-sensing controls for running the bases. Although 2K Sports didn’t maximize the potential of the motion-sensing controls, overall, it’s pretty easy to make your players do what you want them to do on the field.
The gameplay is solid, but there are sporadic moments of age-old video game baseball issues that creep up. For example, on occasion, balls hit in the gap or off the wall won’t result in a double, because your computer opponent seems to be satisfied with just a single. Sometimes a runner at third won’t score on a routine grounder to short with the infield playing back. The computer likes to sacrifice bunt too often early in the game, even when average to below average pitchers are on the mound. The lineups can be unrealistic, and you’ll see things like Jim Thome leading off for the White Sox. It’s hard to draw a walk or throw an unintentional walk, and the computer pitcher tries to pick off a fast runner at second way too much (these can be fixed to some degree with slider adjustments). Lastly, your computer opponent robs too many home runs.
Fortunately, the issues mentioned above don’t happen all the time, just occasionally. With the bad, there’s a lot of good. There are broken bats, dropped third strikes, a good variety of hits, and pitchers that get rattled and subsequently uncork a wild pitch. You’ll see some excellent animations, like the home run getting robbed and balls bouncing off a fielder’s glove as he extends to make the catch. AI batters will chase pitches out of the zone, and AI pitchers will retaliate (and sometimes get thrown out) if the game gets ugly. Overall, the majority of the time, MLB 2K8 on the Wii looks and feels like real baseball, with the occasional jarring “what happened?” moment that ruins the immersion.
Wii owners are short-changed in the game modes and features departments compared to the same offering on other consoles. Online play is not available. The card feature is not included. The minor leagues aren’t playable. However, the one addition is Season mode, for those who don’t want the hassle of managing a franchise and just want to play some ball.
The off-the-field action is similar to the on-the-field action, in that there are mostly fun moments that imitate real baseball interspersed with moments that make no sense, like the fact that everyone’s AA roster is completely empty (I guess that’s to facilitate the signing of free agents and the shuffling of players around?). It’s fairly deep, minus things like setting your concession prices, a player’s minor league options, minor league stats, and some other hardcore franchise fan staples. There’s plenty do with free agents, owner interaction and expectations, player morale, contract extensions, coaching staff comings and goings, trades, and the ability to shuffle players to AAA, AA, and the big leagues.
