The Bigs

Written by Adam Woolcott  on August 17, 2007

Review: So... do you guys work out a lot

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Considering the trouble recently with baseball and, um, УunnaturalФ means of playing the game well, it's amazing a game like The Bigs was even allowed by Major League Baseball. Using their exclusive 3rd party license to the fullest, 2K Sports takes baseball in a more relaxed direction, foregoing the traditional game for NFL Blitz with bats, or NBA Jam with a smaller ball Ц in other words, a different take on our famous pastime. And it works well, though the nature of the game itself doesn't allow for the same kind of crazy stuff you might find in those old Midway classics. Instead, think of The Bigs as more of a Уbaseball for dummiesФ styled game; it keeps the core of the game intact, but eliminates all the complicated stuff to present the game in its purest form, yet also adds in special effects to give it some over-the-top excitement. For baseball diehards it's no replacement for the offerings in MLB 07: The Show, but at the same time because it's stripped down to the basics it makes a great alternative when you don't feel like spending time screwing with lineups or tweaking concession prices.



The Bigs doesn't do much to the core of baseball Ц it's still 9 batters versus 8 fielders and a pitcher. But what it does is simplify things a bit. MLB 2K7 (the baseball simulation from 2K Sports) has a brutally complicated pitching mechanic, making it a bit too frustrating for most people who just want a simple game. In The Bigs, you get that. Different pitches are mapped to the 4 face buttons and all that's necessary is to pick one and aim it where you want. Then you get a little power meter; release it at the optimum time and it'll be faster and more impossible to hit. If the batter doesn't make contact and it's a strike, you earn Turbo, which slows the game down for much faster and more effective pitches. The faster and better the pitch, the more turbo you earn. On the other hand, if you screw up the pitching meter and it doesn't go up to the top, you'll УtipФ the pitch to the hitter and they can pound the hell out of it. Getting a strikeout will earn УGamebreakerФ points which, when maxed out, totally slows down the game and gives the pitcher a crazy advantage against a rival batter, making it almost impossible to make contact with a pitch.

Hitting is also basic by design. There's a button for a regular contact swing, and a button for a power swing when you're aiming for the fences. All you have to do in order to make contact is aim the left analog stick and press either swing button to send the ball in the asked direction. If you save that turbo earned from pitching or earn some more turbo by taking pitches outside the strike zone, it too can be used to slow the game down and allow for more effective hitting. That Gamebreaker-style point meter is far more useful when hitting Ц pressing R1 and L1 at the same time to enable it completely guarantees a home run with any player Ц even the pitcher Ц as long as you make contact with the ball. Even running the bases is fairly simple; though you have full control (simply pressing the button they're mapped you take control of a baserunner), if there's men on base, they'll run automatically on contact and you only control the current batter. Rather than use a button-based system, all you have to do is use the analog stick to move them around Ц hold it to advance, pull it back to return, or let go to leave them standing there to wait out a play before committing to a base.

Playing the field is the only place where The Bigs fails in its mission to deliver simpler gameplay. In the infield it's fairly simple as the ball is easy to pick up (unless it's hit really hard and flies off one player and ends up in the stands for an automatic ground rule double) and turbo can be used to throw it harder and faster to beat out a fast runner. Sometimes you even can make a great leaping or diving play if the guy is in the right spot at the right time. In the outfield though, it's an adventure. The lower camera and extreme speed of the ball allows for no real mistakes, but the squirrelly control means it's possible to miss the spot and thus give a freebie extra base hit. Robbing homers is the bright spot Ц when you leap to rob one, you have to do a button-press mini-game that is simple for higher rated fielders and much more difficult for poorer defenders. Hit all the buttons in the right order and the catch is made Ц screw it up and it's either a homer or it'll bounce off the glove back into the field for a double or triple. The only thing that sucks about this is that you'll grow annoyed by it when the computer AI robs like 10 homers a game from you.

The Bigs, as you'd expect, doesn't come with any in-depth Season/Franchise modes, but it does have enough for this arcade-style experience. The main focal point is the Rookie Challenge, which is the closest thing to a Career setup you're gonna get. In here, you create a rookie using a somewhat robust create-a-player and then select a team to play for, with the goal to be the MVP of the World Series at the conclusion of the season. Progress is a little different, but still familiar Ц your team travels the country, taking on the other teams in the chosen league, playing in the All-Star game, and some occasional home-cooking. Each series against a rival team has different objectives; generally there's a basic game, whether it's 3, 5, 7, or 9 innings, but also stat challenges and scenarios with a specific goal. In a stat challenge the goal is based on performance Ц hit a HR with your rookie, score 10 runs as a team, strike out 10 hitters, etc. Scenarios are usually either come from behind or preserve a lead goals, designed to pressure you. Beat the first two challenges and a Steal Player game comes up Ц win that game and you can take a player of your choosing. The only rule is you can only do 10 steals...which isn't as bad as it sounds given there's only 14 AL teams and 16 NL franchises.

Rookie Challenge has something of an RPG-type feel with its skills system. Your rookie player is always the spotlighted player, and his performance dictates how fast your skills progress. At the outset the rookie has 5 stats at 1 star each, meaning he's pretty weak and more of a burden. However as he performs, points are awarded for various accomplishments on the field, such as hitting a homer or making a great play in the field. These points can then be used to upgrade your rookie into something less mediocre. Along with this, you have a handful of challenges at your home stadium that offer a huge experience point reward in three different categories Ц hitting, fielding, and running. The hitting challenge is basic; just hit the ball as hard as possible. Fielding has you snagging balls, and the running challenge is a maze-like game with both basic running around along with leaping and diving over obstacles. Complete these and usually you get enough points to upgrade the stats of your rookie and make him into an MVP candidate.

In addition to this, you can play basic games against a computer or human, offline or online, using occasionally updated rosters via PlayStation Network. The Bigs also offers a very unique and addictive mini-game dubbed Home Run Pinball. It's not quite the pinball you might expect, but yet the bat works well as a flipper. You choose a batter from any team, and then you're dropped into the middle of Times Square, NYC, with the goal of hitting long shots which bust up and destroy the nearby landmarks and environments, which contain taxi cabs, people watching, and the like. You get a set amount of strikes, so you have to hit the ball, and as you progress the pitcher gets a new pitch which can result in the ball going to different spots than previously. The ultimate goal is to smash a fastball so hard it breaks the famous New Years ball (after getting enough points to unlock the Big Hit power swing), which gives major points. When you run out of pitches your score is uploaded to the Internet for all to see. It's really a good time and works well as a Уpass the controllerФ party game.

The Bigs has a crazy visual style that blends realism with cartoon. The Major League Stadiums are very accurate, and thus present a bit of authenticity to the events. But then you see the players...who look like totally buffed up monsters. This must be what Jose Canseco's dream world looks like, with even the pitchers and little infielders look like the dudes on the covers of all those weightlifting magazines. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't for the whole steroids hassle in MLB these recent years. But anyway, the game runs smooth and quick, and there's some nice special effects, especially when you hit one of those Gamebreaker home runs which tend to destroy scoreboards, video walls, and electronic advertisements. The audio is limited to a surprisingly good 2K Sports Tracks collection of older, better music in menu screens and as Уat batФ music during games (one of the cool things about Rookie Challenge is getting to pick entrance music of sorts before coming to the plate), familiar sounds of baseball during a game, and 1 somewhat cheesy announcer calling the action.