You can tell that the Nintendo Wii
is starting to come into full swing now as they are getting more and more
third-party games. Another sure sign of this is that the sports games that are
coming out of the wood works for it. The latest sports game for the Nintendo Wii
is a baseball game entitled The Bigs. Unlike many other baseball games currently
on the market, this game allows just about anyone to pick up the controller and
play, instead of being a simulation game that take a couple of hours to get into
the swing of things.
There are several games modes
included in this game that will keep you occupied for quite some time. The modes
are: Rookie Challenge, Play Now, Exhibition, Home Run Derby, and Multiplayer.
The first mode that I want to discuses is the Rookie Challenge; in this mode you
will be able to take a struggling rookie and turn him into a serious force to be
reckoned with. The player’s ultimate goal is to take this created character from
training through the entire season to get to (and win) the World Series.
When you first choose this mode you
will be asked to pick a team and then create a player and choose the position
you want him to play and give him some attribute points. Then you are whisked
away to spring training. This allows you to get more points that will help you
increase their batting, throwing, running, and fielding abilities. In this mode
you will also find some fun mini-games that will give you even more points to
improve your player.
When you get out of spring training
you will then see various locations and events on your map. You must go play
these locations in order to get make your player better and get more recognized.
The thing about these locations is that sometimes you will be placed in a middle
of a game, such as you are down by two run as the bottom of the ninth and you
are last at bat with bases loaded, and many more. Eventually, as you get good
enough, you can even steal players from other teams, and when you get enough
players you will be invited to play in the All-Star game and even the World
Series.
Play Now is a mode that will allow
you to get straight into the action. First off select a team and then start your
game. There are not many options in this mode; the stadium that you will play in
is the home team. Exhibition is similar to Play Now but there are more options
that you will be able to choose from in your game. You will be able to change
the team uniform, various difficulty levels, handicaps, tinker with your lineup
and pitches, and even get to choose the stadium and amount of innings to play.
Home Run Derby mode allows you to go
head to head against another player to be the first person to score 10 homeruns
first. To make this game more interesting every fifth pitch is considered a
bonus pitch and if you score a home run off that then you get two points instead
of one. If both players reach 10 home runs on the same pitch the game will go
into overtime and the first person to hit a home run wins.
The Bigs offers a nice multiplayer
mode; the only bad thing is that you can only play it with your friends in your
living room instead of online. This is a huge shame because it is hard to get
enough friends that are actually interested in playing baseball games to get
together and play it with you. If you do have four friends to play with you,
then you are in luck because every mode that is available in single player you
can play multiplayer.
The controls for this game are both
good and bad. First off pitching and batting are good, but could use some slight
improvement, especially with the timing. Most of the time it is not much of an
issue, but ever so often the timing will be off slightly and you could miss a
huge opportunity to get a couple of runs in or prevent them from coming in. My
biggest complaint is the fielding and base-running controls. They rarely work
and most the time you will end up giving many points away because you can’t do
what needs to be done. Hopefully next year’s version will correct these flaws to
make this game better.
The graphics for The Bigs are
decent, but could definitely use some improvement. The developers did a good job
by making sure that the likeness of the characters are top notch, but you will
quickly notice that the actual models look a lot bigger than they do in real
life, but this can be attributed to the fact that this is an arcade game instead
of a simulation. The stadiums look a lot like their real-life counterparts, and
have their landmarks that they are so well known for. The bad thing about this
game is that the animations, while they are good, are too few and far
in-between. There is not enough variety of the animations for the characters;
after you play for a while you will see almost all of the animations that are
included in this game. Also some of the animation clips seem to be missing a few
frames, which make for some awkward transitions.
The soundtrack for this game is
really good and you will enjoy jamming to them as you are hitting balls out of
the park. The only problem with the soundtrack is that there are only 14 songs
available and most of the songs are not all that recent. The commentary fits the
game really well and keeps things pretty exciting instead of boring as most
sports commentary does now-a-days. The sound effects are also really well done,
from the bat hitting the balls, catching them, and even crowds sounds pretty
realistic.
The Bigs is rated for everyone.
|
|
Gameplay: 7.2
The gameplay is good, but still needs some
additional refinement. Pitching and hitting are decent, but sometimes
problematic.
Graphics: 6.9
The graphics are decent but the Wii can do much better.
Sound: 7.1
The soundtrack for this game is pretty good. The sound effects and
commentary get the job done as well.
Difficulty: Easy
This game was definitely made for the younger gaming audience, as you
will have no trouble breezing through it.
Concept: 7.1
For a first generation Wii baseball game it is decent. Hopefully next
year the game will have more options to play with as well as refined controls.
Multiplayer 6.5
Getting to play with up to four people is good, but the lack of playing
online really hurts this game.
Overall: 7.1
The Bigs is currently the only dedicated baseball game currently on the
Nintendo Wii. The main problem with this game is that the controls are not as
polished as they could have been and lack of online mode hurts it. Hopefully
next year’s version will correct that these flaws and make this game the
dominate baseball game out there.
