The BIGS

Chicks dig the long ball. That's what Major League Baseball and Nike would have you believe, at least. The slogan, part of an advertising campaign that featured two pitchers spending time in the batting cages so they could hit home runs like Mark McGwire, found its way into offices, locker rooms, and wardrobes across America. With Barry Bonds currently two home runs away from tying Hank Aaron's legendary record and McGwire last seen repeatedly exercising his Fifth Amendment right in front of the House Government Reform Committee, a sport deeply entwined in American culture is forced to re-examine its celebrating of the big play, highlight reel, me-first machismo represented by that slogan.

The BIGS not only digs the long ball, but eagerly embraces it.

The BIGS bares the official licenses of Major League Baseball and its Players' Association, but it's an arcade baseball game that has more in common with NBA Jam or NFL Blitz than any baseball simulation. Fastballs are thrown to the plate with trails of fire behind them, and pitchers will turn their back to hitters and pump their fists as they walk back to the dugout. Home runs will feature more broken lights than the ending of The Natural, with players taunting crestfallen opponents and booing fans as they round the bases.

Gary Sheffield watches a home run.

The constant showmanship would become annoying if it weren't as tongue-in-cheek as it is over-the-top. Bonds is absent from the game (because the rights to his likeness are not included in the agreements with the Players' Association), so 2K Sports designed the San Francisco Giants' left fielder to have all of Bonds' statistical attributes, but gave him the name Jon Dowd. Look up Pete Rose if you don't get the reference.

The BIGS has style, but lacks the technical polish to match. Player models are rarely exceptional, even though accurate batting stances and pitching windups are present. Player faces range from passable to atrocious, with none looking natural. Every major league ballpark is in the game and every one is modeled accurately, meaning that each ballpark plays like its real-life counterpart, but there is little that sets them apart visually. The game's sound effects are satisfying (thankfully coming from the TV speaker instead of the Wii Remote), but its audio commentary seems extremely limited.

Bonds isn't the only notable absentee from The BIGS' roster. Lineups are admirably up-to-date, but the same can't be said for pitching rotations. Every team's pitching staff is composed of three or four relievers and a closer, but only three starters. If your favorite pitcher is a fourth or fifth starter, he won't be found in The BIGS. The omission of 40 percent of every team's starting staff is a curious decision. Knuckleballs are in the game, but the only pitcher in the league who regularly throws them is not. Thankfully, The BIGS comes with a decent Create-a-Player mode to help rectify glaring omissions.

Where "flamethrower" is no longer cliche.

Missing athletes aside, The BIGS does a fine job of making players feel like real pitchers. Holding the Wii Remote in one hand and the Nunchuk in the other, players use the analog stick to choose the location of the pitch, and then wind up using the Wii Remote. After the windup, players press and hold the A or B button (or both), and then bring the Wii Remote forward as fast as they can before releasing the button(s) at the appropriate time. Whether or not players raise the Nunchuk is purely a matter of preference, as the Nunchuk has no effect on the pitching motion. Pitch speed and effectiveness are determined by how quickly and how smoothly players complete the pitching motion, so the difference between a good pitch and a bad pitch is not the result of some botched button combination, but your actual movements.

A pitching meter at the left of the screen gives players proper visual cues on how to throw an effective pitch. The meter, grey with a white zone near the bottom, fills from top-to-bottom. The object is to time the meter so it lands in the white zone. Stopping too soon will lead to a weak throw - like a grooved fastball or a hanging breaking ball - and stopping too late will overthrow the pitch, making its location unpredictable.

Pitching is remarkable not only because the Wii Remote measures the forward velocity with which you swing the controller, but it also measures any rotation of the controller during the pitch. Holding the A button and keeping the Wii Remote straight while bringing it forward throws a fastball, but holding the A button and turning the Wii Remote clockwise during your delivery throws a slider. There are a total of nine pitches that can be thrown in the game using a combination of the A button, B button, and clockwise or counter-clockwise rotations, and each pitcher in the game has his real-life repertoire.

Pitching is one of the best parts of this game.

Hitting has none of the complexity of pitching. At the plate, the Wii Remote is your bat. The pitcher throws the ball, and the hitter's job is to swing when the ball crosses the plate. Players can press B to bunt or press A to try a power swing, but that's as complicated as it gets. Players don't need to worry about lining up batting cursors, or crazy button combinations to guess where the pitch will be. The character's swing is solely based on timing. It takes perfect timing to find the sweet spot in each player's swing, but if contact is made early or late, the ball will be appropriately pulled or driven to the opposite field - meaning players can time their swings differently to aim their hits to different parts of the ballpark. Of course, if they swing way too early or way too late, they'll miss the ball entirely. Just like in real baseball, hitting is a mostly mental exercise based on reaction time and each player's familiarity with the opposing pitcher.

Hitting can be done standing up or sitting down. Those who prefer to strike a real-life batting stance and emulate their favorite players might find it impractical during most gameplay scenarios, however. The Nunchuk is needed to play the game, so if players want to stand up and raise the "bat" over their shoulder, there will be a Nunchuk dangling from it. The Nunchuk doesn't tend to get in the way while playing the game, it's just awkward to have the extra weight and cord hanging there.

By the time Beltre is done, that sign will read "SAID."

The Nunchuk is used to control baserunners and choose between fly balls or ground balls on offense, so those who choose to let the Nunchuk dangle while putting two hands on the "bat" won't be able to do either of these things. This isn't an issue with the bases empty, of course, but at all other times players who decide to use a real batting stance will have to choose between a professional swing and having an extra degree of control.

These choices can be avoided by sitting down. The game responds just as well to quick flicks of the Wii Remote as it does to a full-motioned swing. While holding the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in the standard positions, the "bat" responds to quick sideways flicks or even downward flicks. The downward flicks might be counterintuitive, but they should be a common and natural motion for most Wii players by now. The BIGS is like Wii Sports in that it is just as playable with quick, efficient motions as it is with exaggerated, elaborate ones. On the mound and at the plate, The BIGS has a very short learning curve that can be mastered as soon as players find the rhythm of the pitch meter and the pitcher's timing to home plate.

Defense is nowhere near as easy to master. Come back for Stage 2, where we'll cover defense, baserunning, the Big Play Meter, and Rookie Challenge mode!

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