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I'll be the first to admit that I was more than skeptical about 2K's newest baseball title The Bigs. Despite my unabashed love of almost all things sports game-related, the genre I always enjoy least within the world of virtual athletics is the so-called "arcade" game. It seems that for every good non-sim game (such as NBA Jam), there are four lousy ones (like NFL and FIFA Street). Sure, to me, some "arcadey" games offer a bit of modest diversionary enjoyment, but their shelf lives are much shorter than their realistic counterparts. And then comes The Bigs.
Out of nowhere, The Bigs has instantly become one of my favorite sports titles of the past few years.
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Before I describe what it is, I'll tell you what it isn't. It's not a shameless cash-in attempt based upon Take Two's exclusive MLB license. It's not a half-assed one-off that uses assets or the engine from their superb MLB 2K7 game. It's not an embarrassing so-called baseball game like the abysmal Slugfest games of years gone by (you know, with baserunners punching fielders or pitchers crying on the mound when they give up home runs). Nope, it's none of those things. In fact, The Bigs might celebrate the great sport of baseball better than most of its other predecessors. It's simply a fun, accessible, and gorgeous game that's a winner in every way.
to take anything away from MLB 2K7 – quite the opposite, since it's a very satisfying title – but The Bigs is the best next-generation baseball game yet. It eschews a deep learning curve and hour-plus-long games for a pick-up-and-play, 15-minute long experience. In addition, there are no 162-game seasons that track each statistic ever known to mankind; instead, you're cast in the role of a rookie who needs to go from breaking in to the major leagues to becoming the MVP of the World Series. Sure, it's not the traditional sports-based experience; in more ways than not, it's better. So much so that you're likely to wonder why this approach hasn't been taken more often.
From a gameplay perspective, much of the setup will be instantly recognizable to sporting aficionados. Pitching is performed with a familiar power meter, pitch type, and location setting, while hitting is executed by aiming your bat and timing the swing correctly with the incoming pitch. However, there are a few key differentiators that set The Bigs apart. First off is the ability to accumulate and execute small turbo boosts, based upon successes you have during pitcher-batter confrontations. For example, when you're on the mound, each thrown strike earns a little boost for your turbo meter. Build up enough, and you can use a chunk of it to get some extra oomph needed to get that third strike and get out of a jam. Conversely, when you're at the plate, each taken ball gives you some turbo in the bank you can use to pick a spot to guarantee that a pitch will be in the strike zone. What's more is that both pitcher and batter can use these tactics at the same time, which sets up some terribly interesting moments.
The other significant in-game mechanics are the Big Heat Pitch and Power Blast Hit, which get filled upon reaching point milestones during the course of the game (similar scores-within-the-real-score are Gamebreakers in NBA Street). They have no impact on the final outcome of the game, per se (whoever scores the most runs still wins), but each successful hit, stolen base, strikeout, and so on garners these points that'll ultimately allow you to pull out the big guns and get those tough outs or smash a fireball-trailing home run when you really need it. The strategic choices you make with the turbo boosts and Big Heat/Power Blasts will go a long way towards determining victories and losses. Should you use the Big Heat to get out of a jam, or save it to blast that game-winning roundtripper? You're constantly evaluating your tactics inning to inning, which makes for addictive and deep gameplay.
The heart of The Bigs is the Rookie Challenge, which replaces the traditional season/franchise mode of your typical sports game. You start out creating a buff ballplayer and dole out a few attributes to power, contact, speed, and so on. Once he's all set, you'll prove your worth in spring training. These serve as a small tutorial and terrific introduction to the game, teaching the ins and outs of hitting, pitching, and fielding. Once you've completed these tasks, you allocate a few more skills to your man based upon how well you've done, and away you go into the heart of a big-league season.
Joining your teammates in the regular season is its own moment of exhilaration, but you quickly realize that there's a lot more work to do.
There are loads of game situations and challenges ahead, which you can unlock as others are successfully completed. The schedule is pretty open ended, allowing you to choose different scenarios and challenges, such as 5-inning games, 9th-inning comebacks, and minigames. Ultimately, your quest is to help your team capture the world championship and become the most valuable player of the World Series. It's fun, immersive, and can be experienced a couple of times with different kinds of players and teams before you'll feel a jones to move on to other types of competition.
Luckily, there are those as well, including offline and online multiplayer over Xbox Live or the Playstation Network. The quick nature of the games make them especially playable in a head-to-head setting, as most matches last just 15 to 20 minutes – the perfect amount of time for some solid multiplayer gaming experience without a significant investment of hours. There's also the nifty Home Run Pinball minigame, a fun if briefly interesting batting challenge taking place in a glittering Times Square that shows off the fabulous graphical prowess of the title.
Speaking of visuals, The Bigs is beautiful to behold. From the gorgeously rendered stadiums – where many individual quirks like Fenway's Green Monster is larger than life – to the lively crowds and superb player faces, both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are true next-generation accomplishments. The announcer does have a tendency to repeat himself quite often, but otherwise the sound effects are on par with the graphics.
Out of nowhere, The Bigs has instantly become one of my favorite sports titles of the past few years. Unlike so many games of its ilk, it takes the over-the-top arcade style of sports games and breathes new life into the genre. Between the campaign and multiplayer games, there's plenty of depth and replayability to last all season long. The bottom line? No baseball fan that owns a next-generation console should skip The Bigs. It's a winner from top to bottom.
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