“The Bigs 2″
Genre: Sports, arcade
Developer: Blue Castle Games
Publisher: 2K Sports
Platforms: Nintendo Wii and DS; PlayStations 2, 3 and Portable; Xbox 360
ESRB rating: “E10+” for everyone 10 and older
Price: $59.99
Grade: B+
Baseball is a game of strategy, strength and cunning where one play can turn a team’s fortunes or an athlete’s career. Sport purists believe the game’s innate tension is excitement enough.
For the rest of us, there’s “The Bigs 2,” a second-generation arcade-type title hitting stores this week in which there’s far more flash than substance, because the flash is the substance.
“Bigs 2″ is the title of choice for gamers who enjoy an ESPN highlight reel more than sitting through an actual baseball game. Loud catches and even louder home runs are de rigueur. The first version of this franchise was famous in St. Louis for featuring Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols on the box cover. It’s somewhat ironical then that this year’s box star is division rival first baseman Prince Fielder of Milwaukee.
Of course, Fielder is … well, big. He’s an apt choice for box art, though featuring him so close to the title infers this could also be a ad for a Weight Watchers challenge.
Funnier still, “Bigs 2″ isn’t twice as big as the original title. It’s just as over-the-top, even overblown in places (Outfielders can run up the side of a stadium to snag potential home runs, and hitters can play batting-cage pinball with the lights in Times Square). But better?
A few tweaks are notable. One is the addition of a “Become a Legend” mode, in which a player of the gamer’s design works his way up from a low-level league to the spotlight and beyond. This feature incorporates a full major-league-like season, so people who prefer that kind of thing in virtual baseball have more opportunity than in the first “Bigs” to hone player skill sets and mechanics instead of just swinging for the fences.
Another attractive feature, the Turbo meter, pops up when gamers try pitching past a player. It shows where in the strike zone the hitter is strongest and awards pitchers by reducing power in those areas if they force an errant swing. Certainly, putting a strike through one of these spots can make gamers feel they’ve accomplished something.
But “Bigs 2,” like its predecessor, is above all a basher’s title. Home runs and RBIs are abundant at the easier levels, and players advance further on the results of mini-games that highlight contact, speed, fielding and power more than anything else. After a while, the challenges do become more challenging, but reach a point where gamers may grow weary with the harder levels from lack of progress.
Nevertheless, “Bigs 2″ is a fun waste of 20 minutes, 30 minutes or two hours. There’s plenty of lights and noise for both men and boys, and nobody need worry about the nuances necessary to advance a runner on bunts. Here, the highlight reel is the only thing that matters.
