The Bigs

"A solid arcade baseball game that suffers from a lack of replay value"

This review is based solely on the single player portion of the game. I did not participate in any online multiplayer.

The Bigs is an arcade baseball offering from developer Blue Castle and publisher Take Two. Clearly inspired from Midway's arcade sports games such as Slugfest and Blitz, the Bigs is a solid baseball game that it probably worth a rental, but not quite a purchase. The first thing which stands out when compared to other arcade sports games is the presentation, particularly on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Arcade sports games have never been known for their top of the line graphics. While the Bigs doesn't compare to Gears of War or Resistance, it does look very good. The player models are detailed, the stadiums look very identical to their real life counterparts and the various explosions and fireworks all look nice.

Like all games, the Bigs has its strengths and weaknesses. Hitting, pitching and the tubro meter are where the Bigs excels. Batting is vastly streamlined from the various simulation games. In the Bigs, hitting is all about timing. If you time the pitch right and swing at the most appropriate time, then you will connect with the ball. If your timing is perfect, you will get a “perfect hit” which translates into a hard hit line drive. The analog stick can be used to aim where you hit the ball. This actually becomes important, as you will learn quickly to aim towards poorer fielders, especially when you attempt to hit homeruns. You have two swinging options. The first is a contact swing, which leads to more groundballs and line drives. The second is the power swing, which leads to more flyballs and homeruns. The system is very simply, yet very effective. Pitching is also done very well. Pitchers have anywhere from 3 to 4 pitchers to select. You simply aim where you want to throw and let it rip. The effectiveness of your pitch is determined if you are bale to maximize the pitching meter. Again, both pitching and hitting are simple, but effective and offer appropriate depth.

The turbo meter and power up meter are also done well. You fill up the turbo meter by throwing strikes or taking balls. Once a bar fills up, you can activate it and it will add some extra speed to your pitchers or give you a wider window of making a “perfect hit.” The power up meter is filled up by hits, stolen bases, strikeouts and making great defensive plays. Once it's full, you can use it on either offense or defense for one at-bat. On defense it makes your pitches powered up and nearly unhittable. On offense, if you connect with the ball, it's a homerun. What's nice about the meter is that it isn't unstoppable. Batters using can still be stuck out, and pitchers can still be hit.

With respect to gameplay, where the Bigs falters is pitching and baserunning. This is due primarily to the fact the controls for running are floatly. Fielders often take a second to react. It takes them a long time to change directions, especially when considering how fast the game moves. Also when the ball is hit, the game gives you control over the best player in position to make the play, but sometimes it will switch you to a player whose is not. It doesn't happen that often, but it occurs enough to be an annoyance. Base running is again just sluggish. Players take a second to both accelerate and stop, and sometime it appears they stop short of the base. Once you get a handle on it, you'll be fine; but the first few games you will get picked off a good amount.

A majority of your time will be spent doing the rookie challenge, in which you create a player then try to lead him and his team to the World Series. One thing that disappointed me was the lack of customization options. You can add a little flair but as a whole there's not much to change. During the challenge you'll have an opportunity to play each team within the respective league. Typically you have three contests: (1) situation, in which you team is placed within a certain situation (like down by 2 in the 7th) or has to fulfill certain team stats (3 SB's in a game, or 10 K's in a game) (2) player stats, in which you rookie has to fulfill certain stats (usually referring to hits, RBI's or homeruns) and (3) steal a player, in which you have the opportunity to steal one of its and add them to your team You can only steal 10 players, so you have to pick and choose which team you steal from. Also, you participate in minigames such as batting practice and running an obstacle course. You earn big points for successfully completing these drills, which is good because the points you get from playing actual games don't amount to much.

The rookie challenge is quite a bit of fun for a while, but once you get to the all-star break you have pretty much seen everything the game has to offer and will simply repeat challenges. And this applies to the game as a whole, after 5-6 hours of playing you have pretty much done everything there is to do in the game. I know it isn't very reasonable to expect a general manager simulation mode with free agents, draft picks and etc., but a season mode with stat tracking would have been nice. The Bigs has very little additional play modes. The only substantial one in Home run pinball which puts you in Times Square, and do damage by hitting balls into neon signs, taxi cabs, or huge televisions.

The Bigs is a well made baseball arcade game. It looks pretty good. Pitching, hitting and the two turbo meters are done exceptionally well. Fielding and running suffer, but once you get used to them, you'll be fine. But where the Bigs really suffers is a lack of replay value. Once you completed the rookie mode, there isn't anything else to do, with the exception of homerun pinball, but even that wears out quickly. It is worth the rental, but is defiantly not worth dropping $60 on.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/07