The Bigs


The Bigs is an arcade-style baseball video game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii and PlayStation Portable. It was released in June 2007 in North America, and in October in Europe. A sequel, The Bigs 2, was released on July 7, 2009.

Gameplay

It features "outrageous visuals and intuitive gameplay mechanics," focusing on stylistic rather than realistic design, and gameplay featuring power-ups and turbo. It has also given the game of baseball a more "street" feel to it. The game features online play capability for up to four players on most of the seventh generation consoles, though online play is not compatible on the Wii. The St. Louis Cardinals' first baseman, Albert Pujols, is on the cover. Minnesota Twins first baseman and former MVP Justin Morneau is featured on the cover of limited edition Canadian version sold exclusively by Future Shop and Best Buy. Radio host Damon Bruce provides play-by-play commentary. It was released on June 25, 2007 in the United States on all formats. The game was also released in Europe exclusively on Wii on October 26, 2007.
When the first trailer was released, gameplay bore a striking resemblance to Midway Games' MLB Slugfest series. However, in an IGN interview, producer Dan Brady stated that "The Slugfest design team made a lot of choices that really made it difficult for a fan of baseball to take the game seriously. Punching on the base path was just one of many of those decisions. The Bigs is authentic baseball taken to arcade proportions."

Game modes

Offline multiplayer supports up to four players, with Xbox Live support for two.

Reception

Reviews of the game have been positive, with critics praising the games "Rookie Challenge" mode, and the simplistic controls. However many considered that the "Rookie Challenge" was not long enough and the baserunning along with defensive controls were poorly made.