MrBojangles

If you’re familiar with traditional baseball simulations, this game may take a little getting used to. All the same rules still apply. 3 outs. Ground rule doubles. The whole nine yards. But the BIGS takes everything else about baseball, and flips it on its ear. It turns our national pastime into a fast-paced, over the top spectacle, which barely resembles the grace and majesty of the actual game. But that doesn’t mean that this interpretation of this time-honored sport is not a bundle of joy to experience.

The Bigs promotes swift, action packed games, lasting three innings at its minimalist setting. And action packed they are. Instead of the standard 25-man rosters that Major League Baseball teams have, this game features reduced rosters, which reduce the urge to fuss around with line-ups before games. Just pick a starting pitcher and play ball.

The gameplay in the BIGS is nowhere near as complicated as some of the current baseball sims have made it. It’s actually quite the opposite. The batting is simplified to aiming with the analogue stick and pressing a button for a contact swing or a power swing. The pitching doesn’t require much skill either. Just pick a pitch, press the button, hold it down, and let it go. The fielding is much easier as well. Once you gain control of the fielder, he’s automatically moving towards the ball. Fielding can be frustrating at times, as the game’s fielder selection isn’t exemplary. If a ball’s hit to third it will sometimes jump to the left fielder, for example. The jumps and dives in the game are pretty amazing, though in certain games, you’ll be on the negative end of one to many spectacular catches. You’ll be saying, “Enough already!” or “This is ridiculous!” after the fifth and sixth robberies, respectively.

What makes this baseball game special is the Big Play meter. At the top of the screen, both teams are allotted one of these meters. Each team is awarded when they perform well. Getting a hit or retiring the batter via the strikeout will earn you points, among other fundamentally sound plays. These points contribute to the filling of the Big Play meter, and when that meter is filled, you’ll see what your players can really do. By pulling both triggers you’ll activate your Big Play. This Big Play can be activated from either behind the plate or from the mound, and either way, you can expect visually stunning results. The screen becomes blurry, and suspenseful sound effects make you feel like something explosive is about to happen. If you’re the batter, just make contact with the ball, and it’s gone. The ball will fly through the sky, resembling a rocket on the way to the moon and no matter where it lands a massive explosion will ensue, from the stadium scoreboard to the foul pole. From the other end of the spectrum, if you’re the pitcher, you’re pitches will shoot out of your hand as if they were bullets. They’ll be extremely fast, or remarkably slow, depending on the pitch you choose. Unless you’re pitching to the best hitters in the game, you’ll set down any player with ease. On the occasion that both teams fill their Big Play meters, and activate them at the same time, a duel will begin. These duels are the most tension-filled moments in the game. Hitting the ball will be much tougher, though if contact is made, you can put it on the board. If the pitcher, on the other hand, can manage to strike out the jacked up batter, their team’s Big Play meter will be automatically refilled. A fitting reward for dealing with a batter who could’ve hit the ball harder and farther than Barry Bonds, Mark Maguire and Jose Conseco combined. Speaking of those three gentlemen, most of the player models in the game resemble their figures.

The players in the Bigs don’t exactly look like their real life counterparts. Though their faces closely resemble the real life players they’re impersonating, their body structures are bulky, and huge. Steroids come to mind when you see certain gargantuan players, who look as if the could break the bat if they squeeze the handle too hard. When you get an infield full of these jacked-up players, it almost seems as if you’re playing on a softball field. Besides the players, all of the stadiums look beautiful and vibrant, and Big Plays will never get old, as they are a joy to visually experience. The visuals of the BIGS are crisp and stunning at times, if you’re lucky enough to be playing on a high definition screen. 2k did a good job in making the game look like an arcade spectacle, whilst at the same time, they made sure the BIGS didn’t look completely unrealistic.

Contrary to the sights in the BIGS, the sounds of the game are nothing special. All the expected baseball sound effects are present, but sound to over the top to be taken seriously. Besides balls hitting the foul poles and the explosions of the scoreboards, the games’ audio isn’t likely to impress the baseball aficionado passer-by.

Unfortunately, the BIGS doesn’t feature a season or franchise mode, so playing ball is about all you’ll do in this game. No worrying about payrolls or how much tickets to your games cost, just pure hardball at it’s most intense. Besides the basic exhibition games, XBOX Live matches and a mini-game where you can hit baseballs into objects for points, there is a unique mode in the BIGS; Rookie Challenge mode, which becomes the main attraction of the BIGS. In it, you create a rookie and begin to complete challenges that range from batting practice to getting multiple RBI’s in a 5-inning game. Rookie Challenge mode is nothing extraordinary, but it’s an addictive mode that will keep you coming back to the BIGS until you’re rookie takes his team to the World Series.

All in all, the BIGS is an enjoyable alternative to the conventional baseball sim, but in the end it doesn’t have enough to keep you coming back for more. After you’ve seen what Rookie Challenge mode has to offer, chances are you’ll want to go back to whatever baseball game you played before you had a copy of the BIGS in your possession. It’s not a bad game, but it’s not a great game either. The BIGS include a lot of exciting arcade action, but not enough to save it from the depths of mediocrity.