A whole lot of people tell me all the time that baseball is America's pastime, the sport to be cherished by all Americans. To be honest I have always found the game to be quite boring, both to play in real life or to watch on television. On the other hand I have never been too fond about playing the sport in the virtual world either, baseball video games just never really did it for me, I even found hockey games to be more fun to play. All that changed recently when developer 2K Sports released their arcade baseball title for the Xbox 360 titled The BIGS. Taking some cues from similar sports games such as NBA Jam, NFL Street, and obviously MLB Slugfest it takes a mundane sport and transforms it into a really fun arcade game that focuses on the most exciting aspects of a single baseball game. Anyone who has played any of the slew of baseball simulators out there knows that unless you are a hardcore fan of the sport it will leave you quite bored after a while and the game will end up gathering dust on your shelf; even though there have been some really quality baseball games to hit consoles over the years. While everything is not perfect The BIGS is a well rounded title that should be given a chance in your 360 whether you are a baseball fan or not.
The first thing you will notice after popping The BIGS into your disc tray is that the presentation of this game is fantastic, everything oozes that arcade feel that we all loved from NBA Jam and other similar titles. A game like this simply will not work if the developers take it too seriously and forget the main purpose which is to have fun. And have fun you will. As far as a single player mode goes there is no "campaign season" in the normal sense of the word but there is a pretty good "build a rookie" mode that allows you to start off at the bottom (minor leagues) and through a number of games/challenges build him up until he tops out at MVP of the World Series. Basically you take a nobody amateur and by winning player points improve his skills until he can hit, throw, and run with the best players out there. Once you beat a team a few times you can improve your own team by stealing their players which adds a really cool strategy element to The BIGS. Say you want to pick up that awesome first baseman on the Dodgers, well to do so you must replace your own first baseman, choose your trades wisely. Using this feature you can have one hell of a dream team by the time you get to the playoffs and winning should almost be a given.
Control wise The BIGS takes more of a easy route than one of the more normal baseball video games. Pitching is done with the single push of a button, and a little timing; different buttons choose any one of a number of pitch types (fastball, curve-ball, screwball, etc.). Be careful though because throw any one type of pitch too many times and it will be taken off your list of choices, replaced with something else. The dynamic between pitcher and batter is very unique in The BIGS in that how well you pitch has to do with how good of a batter you are going up against. Each baseball character in The BIGS has a star rating for all different types of gameplay abilities. For example your best fielder will have a high "glove" rating while your fastest base runner will be able to steal home plate under any circumstance. Hitting these crazy pitches is all about timing as well, hit the swing button at just the right moment and you will send one over the fences, miss by a second and here comes a pop fly to the catcher. Playing in the field is done very similar to 2K's other MLB game and it works quite well. I have always said developers should not touch something unless it is broken and the easy pick-up-and-play fielding just adds fun to The BIGS. There are two very other important factors when it comes to the controls of this game and those are the turbo meter and the big play meter. The turbo meter builds up throughout the game when you get a good pitch, base hit, big play in the field, or do things such as steal a base. You have five turbo meters and you can use your turbo once one or all five up them are filled up. Using the turbo meter is not a guaranteed big play but it does help you out in running faster, throwing faster, or hitting farther.
The other meter, the big play one, on the other hand will guarantee you an out of the park home run if executed at exactly the right time, as well as connecting with the ball when batting. This feature can be used to swing the momentum of the game back in your favor late in the game when down by a few runs. My favorite was to fill up the bases and then pound one over the fence using my big play meter. Because the game of baseball can be quite dull this feature really makes those "Sports Center" moments shine throughout the game. Overall the controls are quite simple and compliment The BIGS very well, with a perfect balance between baseball simulation and arcade fun. While there are a variety of different types of situations to play through (as well as normal 6/9 inning games) the "build a rookie" mode will only take about 15 hours to complete; luckily the developers included one hell of a fun multi-player mode and a few mini games that spice up the action. Playing this game with a buddy next to you on the couch, or thousands of miles away over Xbox Live, is truly the way it was designed to be enjoyed. These type of games are just more fun when beating the crap out of a human rather than whipping up on the computer game after game. There is nothing too crazy in terms of the multi-player aspect of The BIGS but it does everything it needs to do as well as including a solid online experience that will keep baseball fans happy for months. One of the best little addition to the game is a mini-game called "home run pinball" which places you in the middle of times square with the sole purpose of acquiring points by smashing the hell out of everything around you. I spent quite a lot of time playing this and the home run derby so I never once felt bored with The BIGS, even after hours of gameplay.
