'Roid Rage: The Bigs (Wii) Review
Posted on
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
by Gary A. Ballard
2k Sports has been my favorite sports video game developers ever since the release of ESPN NFL 2k4. With its first-person perspective football, and it's adherence to a decent standard of action-y simulation of sports, the game was a pure gem. 2k Sports other offerings, from the MLB to the NHL franchises, were also solid, and I still rank ESPN NFL 2k5 as the greatest football game ever created. With their long pedigree of quality sports titles, I greeted the news of an MLB-licensed arcade baseball game developed by 2k Sports for the Wii as manna from heaven. Unfortunately, instead of a Wii-centric rendition of the MLB 2k franchise, I was given The Bigs instead, and it is nothing like a heaven-sent foodstuff.
The Bigs is one long series of disappointing design decisions wrapped in a bland, uninspired package. Though it is a full 9-on-9 game of arcade baseball using the Wii's motion controls, it's not a very good one. The player can choose from three game modes, exhibition, rookie challenge and home run derby. Rookie challenge serves as the only "season-play" mode, tasking the player with creating a rookie and putting him through a full season of games. I can't comment on this game mode as I never tried it. Exhibition and home run derby modes are self-explanatory.
The game on the field is like baseball, with rosters full of MLB players. Curiously, the full rosters are not represented, containing only 6 or so pitchers and a few extra batters outside the starting lineup. With such small rosters, strategic options are extremely limited. These things, along with the lack of a real season mode would be excusable if the on-field game were solid.
The pitching interface is the most interesting of the three facets of the game (batting, pitching and defense). Each pitcher has a set of four pitches, and each pitch requires a different motion and button combo. The motions are actually a good bit like the real wrist motions required to throw each particular pitch, with curveballs requiring a clockwise twist of the wrist as the ball is released, etc. The interface requires a little too much arm motion at times to throw the "perfect" pitch, something which might cause discomfort for less-fit players.
The batting interface isn't as solid as the pitching. For starters, the game requires the nunchuck. Holding the Wiimote as one would a bat while also trying to hold the nunchuk makes the batting motion awkward. I ended up eschewing the batters stance and just swinging the Wiimote one-handed like a tennis racket, something which kills the immersion of motion control. Even worse, the batting interface was so unresponsive that doing anything other than flailing away at the first sign of the ball's release was a sure way to strike out. Timing the swing is almost impossible except on the slowest offspeed pitches, which makes batting frustrating and the home run derby "swing and pray" play. WiiSports did a better job of making a fun batting interface.
But both batting and pitching pale to the horrible implementation of defense. In order to field a batted ball, one first maneuvers the selected player to catch the ball with the nunchuk's control stick. Once the ball is caught, the player must swing the Wiimote in the direction of the base he wishes to throw to. This sounds much better than it works. Throwing to first base means throwing the ball to the left, which is counter-intuitive based on where the first base is in relation to the game's camera. This might be forgivable if the controls were responsive, but I often swung the remote in what I thought was the correct direction, only finding myself throwing the ball to the other side of the diamond. I fail to see why picking the base to throw to with a push on the D-Pad while swinging the Wiimote for power is a worse idea than the implementation that made it in the final game.
The game leans entirely too much on its arcade side than on its sports side. Each hit, run, walk or strikeout gives the teams points. No matter what the run totals are, games will end when certain score differentials are reached. None of my exhibition games ran past 5 innings, which for a baseball game is inexcusable no matter what the scoring context. As each team gains 100,000 points, they get a "Power swing" or "Power Pitch" which are essentially at-bats of almost-impossible to beat prowess. Throwing a pitch to a CPU batter with "Power Swing" is sure to serve up a homerun, and power pitches almost always cause a strikeout.
The final nail in the game's coffin is its graphics. Players look great, even though they are all bulked to be roid-rage fueled monkey men. The stadiums, however, are rather disappointing. Most of the textures lack any real depth, and as a result, the stadiums all look overly bright, and decidedly uninspiring. The size of the players and the choice of camera angles also make the stadiums feel incredibly tiny, almost claustraphobic.
I hope that 2K Sports used The Bigs as a learning tool, learning the ins and outs of developing for the Wii and its motion controls. What could be a fun diversion ends up being a frustrating disappointment, with poor design decisions and sloppy control response. Perhaps 2008 will usher in a MLB 2k8 for the system, complete with full rosters and perfected motion controls. The Bigs is barely worth a rental, much less a full purchase. I would give the game a 3 out of 10, mostly dreadful, with much wasted potential.
The Bigs is one long series of disappointing design decisions wrapped in a bland, uninspired package. Though it is a full 9-on-9 game of arcade baseball using the Wii's motion controls, it's not a very good one. The player can choose from three game modes, exhibition, rookie challenge and home run derby. Rookie challenge serves as the only "season-play" mode, tasking the player with creating a rookie and putting him through a full season of games. I can't comment on this game mode as I never tried it. Exhibition and home run derby modes are self-explanatory.
The game on the field is like baseball, with rosters full of MLB players. Curiously, the full rosters are not represented, containing only 6 or so pitchers and a few extra batters outside the starting lineup. With such small rosters, strategic options are extremely limited. These things, along with the lack of a real season mode would be excusable if the on-field game were solid.
The pitching interface is the most interesting of the three facets of the game (batting, pitching and defense). Each pitcher has a set of four pitches, and each pitch requires a different motion and button combo. The motions are actually a good bit like the real wrist motions required to throw each particular pitch, with curveballs requiring a clockwise twist of the wrist as the ball is released, etc. The interface requires a little too much arm motion at times to throw the "perfect" pitch, something which might cause discomfort for less-fit players.
The batting interface isn't as solid as the pitching. For starters, the game requires the nunchuck. Holding the Wiimote as one would a bat while also trying to hold the nunchuk makes the batting motion awkward. I ended up eschewing the batters stance and just swinging the Wiimote one-handed like a tennis racket, something which kills the immersion of motion control. Even worse, the batting interface was so unresponsive that doing anything other than flailing away at the first sign of the ball's release was a sure way to strike out. Timing the swing is almost impossible except on the slowest offspeed pitches, which makes batting frustrating and the home run derby "swing and pray" play. WiiSports did a better job of making a fun batting interface.
But both batting and pitching pale to the horrible implementation of defense. In order to field a batted ball, one first maneuvers the selected player to catch the ball with the nunchuk's control stick. Once the ball is caught, the player must swing the Wiimote in the direction of the base he wishes to throw to. This sounds much better than it works. Throwing to first base means throwing the ball to the left, which is counter-intuitive based on where the first base is in relation to the game's camera. This might be forgivable if the controls were responsive, but I often swung the remote in what I thought was the correct direction, only finding myself throwing the ball to the other side of the diamond. I fail to see why picking the base to throw to with a push on the D-Pad while swinging the Wiimote for power is a worse idea than the implementation that made it in the final game.
The game leans entirely too much on its arcade side than on its sports side. Each hit, run, walk or strikeout gives the teams points. No matter what the run totals are, games will end when certain score differentials are reached. None of my exhibition games ran past 5 innings, which for a baseball game is inexcusable no matter what the scoring context. As each team gains 100,000 points, they get a "Power swing" or "Power Pitch" which are essentially at-bats of almost-impossible to beat prowess. Throwing a pitch to a CPU batter with "Power Swing" is sure to serve up a homerun, and power pitches almost always cause a strikeout.
The final nail in the game's coffin is its graphics. Players look great, even though they are all bulked to be roid-rage fueled monkey men. The stadiums, however, are rather disappointing. Most of the textures lack any real depth, and as a result, the stadiums all look overly bright, and decidedly uninspiring. The size of the players and the choice of camera angles also make the stadiums feel incredibly tiny, almost claustraphobic.
I hope that 2K Sports used The Bigs as a learning tool, learning the ins and outs of developing for the Wii and its motion controls. What could be a fun diversion ends up being a frustrating disappointment, with poor design decisions and sloppy control response. Perhaps 2008 will usher in a MLB 2k8 for the system, complete with full rosters and perfected motion controls. The Bigs is barely worth a rental, much less a full purchase. I would give the game a 3 out of 10, mostly dreadful, with much wasted potential.
posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 2:56 PM
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