The Bigs 2

Rating: T

Score: 8.5/10

In the world of real baseball, you’ll find steroids, and both amazing and horrible players. In virtual baseball, you’ll get the effects of steroids and amazing players, without the need of either one! Welcome to The Bigs video game series, a fairly unrealistic view of the world of baseball. The newest game in this series, The Bigs 2, is available on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Nintendo Wii, PSP, and Nintendo DS.

Baseball needs no explaining, but how The Bigs puts a twist on it might. Basically, The Bigs baseball is like normal baseball, but with a small bit of unrealistic cartoony activity (like baseballs being set on fire if thrown hard enough, people running up walls, etc...). It’s almost like Mario baseball, but with real players. Not only will you find real players on real teams, you’ll have the chance to make your own team and your own players. This is where “Become a Legend” begins.

The storyline is you’re a big league player that got kicked out after being injured, so now you must play gingerly to start, and work your way back up to superstardom. Of course, you start off horribly. A single, lone star in every stat while your teammates have about 2-3 stars every stats. This limits your use at first, but after a while you can play some minigames to increase your skills, and become superior again.

Players can do some weird things, like running up walls and catching baseballs from a mile away. These stylish moves add a lot of points to your “Bigs” meter that, when full, can unleash a powerful game-altering shot while batting, or a game-stopping shot while pitching. Either way, these usually go well for the user of the “Big Slam”, but can be futile if the other team plays skilfully. These stylish moves can get fairly cheap on harder difficulties. You’ll think you have a homerun, but then some guy will start running up the wall, jump, and catch the ball in his glove from under his leg. So, unless your homeruns are out of the park, someone can probably stop it. You’ll try to do the same only to find out you...can’t. You just are completely unable to mimic it, despite being a better player. I think someone has some steroids he’s hiding.

To actually perform these special stylish moves, you’ll need to play a small minigame mid-game to see if you can successfully complete it, or just fall flat on your face trying. These minigames range from holding a button and letting go at a certain point, pressing different buttons, or just pressing one button at a certain time. You’ll never know the “certain point” or “certain time” first time trying it, so you’ll be forced to learn through trial and error.

Batters also have “wheelhouses”, where if the ball is pitched at a certain point, and you hit it successfully, you’ll get an extra boost in speed and height of the ball. If you fail, the opponent gets a nice turbo bonus. Turbos are used to speed pitches to lightning fast speeds, or to bat with thunderous strength and power.

This game is not going to blow you away, but it has its moments. From completely blocking an amazing hit by re-enacting “The Matrix”, or destroying billboards with a perfect hit, this game will probably drop some jaws every now and again. It’s a homerun for The Bigs 2.