The Bigs

The Bigs (Wii)

Growing up, there was an arcade in my town that had a virtual baseball game. It let you step into a cage, swing a chintzy aluminum bat with cracked and peeling reflective tape wrapped around it at baseballs hurled from a cartoon character on screen, and you swung the bat in a home-run derby style game. For $1.25, you got 10-12 swings of the bat, and I pumped a lot of tokens into this machine.

With the release of The Bigs last year, that entire experience is completely blown away. When people talk about the revolution of the Wii, this is what they are talking about. You actually play a major league ball game, swinging the bat with velocity through the strike zone, contorting your arm to make the ball dance as a pitcher, fielding with... well, just leave auto-fielding turned on, trust me.

The Bigs is arcadey as hell, and completely unashamed of the fact. Players have gigantic arms, pitchers throw baseballs that actually erupt in flames, and the game features Bullet Time. No joke, bullet time. There's, I guess, a single-player mode, where you create a hitter and take him through training camp and a series of challenges, but this game is all about local multiplayer. Getting off the couch and actually swinging the Wiimote like a bat is pretty much the most awesome feeling I've had with my Wii yet, and I truly feel like this is what they meant when they said "next-gen gaming."

Not that The Bigs is flawless. Obviously if you don't have a roommate or spouse to harass into playing against you, the single-player modes are lacking. Fielding ranges from "low-A ball" to "atrocious." The graphics look like high-end PS2-era pixels, ameliorated by the cartoony art design. And it almost doesn't seem worth complaining about in sports games anymore, but the announcers are repetitive and annoying.

Since pitch speed and hit placement are controlled by the 1-micron-wide accelerometer in the Wiimote, you will find yourself actually going through Major-League-level pitching and batting movements. Keep an ice pack handy for extended play sessions; this game takes at least a moderate amount of physical skill and ability, and you will wear out if you play all night - which leads to the other problem. Since there is physical baseball skill involved, the learning curve is somewhat steep; people with no concept of baseball may struggle their first few games, while you - the owner of the game - soundly thrash them. Not the biggest deal, but this isn't quite the party game that a WiiSports or WarioWare is.

If you like baseball, or trash-talking with your friends, this is a good game. If you like trash-talking your friends about baseball, you need to buy this game immediately.

Graphics: Good for a PS2-era game, but not exactly next-gen. 3.
Sound: Crowd roars and inane announcers ahoy. 2.
Controls: These are who we thought they were, pretty much a baseball simulator. 5.
Tilt: Fun against a competent human opponent, but not a party game or a single-player experience. 4.
Overall (not an average): 3.