- Sports
- 2009
- Buy the Game
Reviewed by Jason Zingale
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ports games as a whole are a pretty predictable bunch. Each year sees a new release with updated rosters and graphics, and maybe a new feature or two, but for the most part, they play exactly the same way. Every once and a while, developers will launch a new franchise aimed at those who don’t want to take their sports games so damn seriously (like “Blitz” or “FIFA Street”), but more often than not, they’re incredibly shallow as a result. One of the few titles to actually deliver a well-rounded arcade experience was 2K Sports’ “The BIGS,” and though it’s taken a little longer than usual for a sequel to arrive, it was well worth the wait.
Once again focusing on a more story-driven campaign mode, “The BIGS 2” opens with your character recovering from a serious injury and playing for Mexico’s San Guerrero Pollos. After a short stint south of the border, you’re finally called back up to the majors where you must once again travel from city to city, completing a series of challenges and stealing players from the teams you beat along the way. This time around, however, you’re also vying for a spot in the Hall of Fame. And when you’re not playing against some of the premier athletes in the league, you’re playing alongside them as a group of Hall of Fame prospects who must face a dream team of MLB legends in an attempt to earn enough votes for a spot in Cooperstown.
Obviously, that isn't easy, but for a game that’s about making baseball more accessible to a wider audience, the Cooperstown challenges are almost too difficult. The opposing team produces world-class catches and home runs like they’re nothing special, and though it makes sense that legendary players would be capable of such feats, it hardly seems like the kind of thing that they should be doing on an inning-to-inning basis. Still, it’s a nice challenge for those that felt that the first game didn’t offer very much beyond the basic campaign, and it’s exactly the kind of addition you’d expect from a sequel.
The game itself plays relatively the same. You still earn turbo for use in boosting attributes like pitches, swings and general speed, while both offense and defense have their respective super moves. Big Blast is certainly the more useful of the two, as you only need to make contact to reap the benefits, but the reward of striking out a batter with Big Heat is almost worth the risk – especially if you can do so while the other player is using Big Blast. Also included this year is the Big Slam feature, which gives you the opportunity to hit a grand slam by hitting four consecutive pitches. Better yet, if you happen to miss any of the first three pitches, you’ll still earn runs for any man on base.
While that would have been enough for the typical Electronic Arts annual update, 2K Sports packs even more new features into the game. Batter Wheelhouses – a sweet spot unique to each athlete – increases the chance of getting a hit if you make contact with a pitch thrown in that zone. Consequently, if a pitcher can throw a strike in said zone, he not only gets bonus turbo points, but the batter’s wheelhouse then reduces in size. Legendary Moves, meanwhile, give certain athletes like Prince Fielderi and Grady Sizemore the ability to make extraordinary plays by completing in-game minigames.
There’s also a full season mode with a 162-game schedule, stat tracker and roster management for diehard baseball nerds, as well as the return of Home Run Pinball – quite possibly the most addictive minigame of any sports title. Blasting apart neon signs in Las Vegas, Hong Kong and Times Square is just as much fun as it sounds, and surprisingly, it never gets old. It’s one of many reasons why the original game worked as well as it did, and "The BIGS 2" takes that experience to a whole new level. Baseball may be boring to watch in real life, but who said it had to be boring to play too?
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