The BIGS
July 13,2007 - Baseball games in the past have faithfully and realistically re-created the glory and splendor of America’s favorite pastime. While traditional simulation baseball titles on consoles tend to be as accurate and time-consuming as real games, it was hard for many gamers to appreciate the bombardment of controls and slow paced action. The Bigs is a great baseball rendition and proves that even the most impatient of gamers can enjoy a solid, fast-paced game of baseball when not dragged down by ridiculous control schemes or lengthy games.

The Bigs is an arcade style game, meaning you won’t find your typical fifteen-minute innings or seventh inning stretches, but rather a quick pick-me-up with an average game length of no more than thirty minutes. What makes The Bigs so appealing is how monstrous the hits can be and how fast the pitches can be thrown. Almost identically similar to the Slugfest games from year prior, players will have the option to unleash these special moves anytime during the game. What sets the game apart from Slugfest, however, is the use of a Turbo button. Almost instantly this can change the pace of the game in one’s favor, whacking balls 500 yards into the outfield, or pitching 115 MPH fastballs. The Turbo button isn’t always in effect however, and players must perform great plays, strikeouts, or hit fair balls in order to rack up Turbo points.

While the Turbo button can create larger than life moments, racking up points seems unbalanced in some areas. For example, it’s much easier to accumulate Turbo points while playing defense, catching unreachable balls, robbing homers, or strikes outs gives massive amounts of Turbo boost in comparison to their offensive counterparts. The only manageable way to get Turbo while batting is to wait for the pitcher to throw strikes (which is very rare), or hit fair balls. Sure, hitting is not exactly hard to do, but you never get the same amount of point deferential as you would on defense. While gaining boost is a great incentive for players to go all out while they play, earning points also improves your chances of winning as well. Similar to Turbo, performing different tasks racks up points, which fills up a bar at the top of the screen. Like the Turbo buttons, players receive more points for doing things on defense. The points spread seems almost unfair at times, as you can constantly hit ball after ball to get a solid amount, but once the defense robs you of that homerun they take the points lead from you almost instantly.

Once you manage to reach 100,000 points you can unleash either a massive blast from the plate, which is an instant home run if hit, or pitches that will never be hit. Learning when to use these special moves can become strategic at times, like loading the bases before unleashing an untouchable grand slam. Unlike other baseball games, hitting isn’t as complex as it seems. To put it plainly, just swing at the ball as it crosses the plate. Technically there is no need to line up pitches, as long as the batter has perfect timing than they should hit the ball with little or no problems. However you can choose which side of the field to hit the ball to, which adds some emphasis on picking apart broken defenses in the outfield.

While hitting has become loads easier to manage, base running and playing outfield feels like a constant struggle. Players would run full speed at a base only to stop inches before touching the bag, and getting to be tagged out. This nuisance is caused by a faulty control scheme, which has you pulling as hard as you can towards the base you are running to with no definitive way of slowing down. So naturally you will either overrun the base (and be caught in a rundown) or fall short and be tagged out. Your players will run on their own if you so choose, but watching them run twice as fast can sometimes help you if you manage to get them on base. Outfielding follows the same trend as base running in that the controls aren’t as fluent as they could be. Whenever a ball gets hit, the closest player to the ball will have an icon over their head, instructing you to press that button to take control. Sounds easy enough to manage, except that the game sometimes picks players farther away from the ball, which makes catching grounders and flies almost impossible at some points.

Pitching is probably the best way to shut down the opposition at the plate. If you can literally stop them from getting on base than you might not even have to worry about the clumsy controls at all. Pitching is as simplistic and fun to use as hitting, as it requires little or no skill to be effective. A button on the controller designates the types of pitches for each pitcher. Holding down a corresponding button will throw the ball at a designated speed, depending on how well you maxed out the throw. At the top of the pitching gauge is a line, which displays how fast and powerful the throw will ultimately be thrown. Let go too early and your ball will be less effective and likely to be hit, but unleashing the ball in the green or at the very top for a perfect pitch usually means a strike. Positioning the ball and utilizing strength and speed can make all the difference in a hit and a strike, and usually both together will result in easy pitching.

The Bigs also has a very interesting take on season mode called Rookie Challenge. In this mode you create your own star and bring him up from the Minors for a chance to play in the Big Leagues. Along the way you will earn points depending on your efforts through each game – for instance hitting doubles earns you 10,000 points - which can be used to upgrade your Rookie’s attributes. There are five stats which can be enhanced, ranging from speed to power hitting. There is a significant difference in each stat once upgraded, so knowing which skill to enhance first depending on the teams you face can be hard to manage. The Rookie Challenge forces different scenarios upon you in certain games, like coming back from a three run deficit in the ninth inning to win, or getting ten strikeouts in one game. The different scenarios will keep fans occupied long enough to eventually win the World Series, which is no short task as the season lasts up to ten hours.

Earning points in games will also increase your appearance, which you can edit constantly throughout the season. Certain things such as tattoos, bat paint, and even entrance music (which plays when you bat) are nice, subtle features, which give a sense of customization to the game. The music also fits the game well, with a nice mix of rock and alternative songs from fairly well known bands, such as Jane’s Addiction, White Zombie, and Motorhead. The same cannot be said for the game’s commentator, who repeats himself far too often, and the sound effects for some of the ball hits sound clunky in certain spots. Visually the game looks pretty nice for an arcade sports title, and there are enough hints of flair to make it look truly stunning.  Flags wave in the background in stadiums, light gleams off empty seats, and all of the stadiums are beautifully re-created to almost the exact detail. There are slight incidents when players change colors (like black to white) when they go to bat, and uniforms look jaded during night games, but these aren’t big enough problems to detract from the overall look.

The extra features are plentiful enough to entertain players for hours on end. One of the most is Home Run Pinball, which has you hitting balls in the middle of Times Square. The more things you hit and destroy, the more points you rack up. Online leaderboards allow you to see the highest scores as well as which player everyone used. Of course, the usual Home Run Derby and co-op multiplayer matches are available, allowing players to go head-to-head against each other. Online matches are not as seamless however, as constant lag and server crashes make fast-paced games run at a snail’s pace. Games often look like they are being filmed with stop motion technology, and it’s almost impossible to complete an entire game because of the lag.

The Bigs puts tons of great ideas to life to give players a much more fast-paced and turbo induced game of baseball that everyone will surely enjoy. While the fielding and base running could have used a little more fine tuning, the overall package is fun enough for all fans to enjoy a game of baseball without having to labor through hours of gameplay.

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