The Bigs
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The Bigs (stylized as The BIGS) is an arcade-style baseball video game that has been released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable. 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 gave 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. A limited edition version, which has been released at Future Shop and Best Buy stores, has the Minnesota Twins' first baseman, Justin Morneau, on the cover. Radio host Damon Bruce provides play-by-play commentary. It was released on June 25, 2007.
Some of the game modes it features are "Roster Management," "Home Run Derby," and "Home Run Pinball." The latter is a unique mode that puts the player in the middle of Times Square, New York and has them hit baseballs into neon signs and windows in order score the highest points possible. The player can then upload their score to the online leader boards and see where they rank. It also features a "Rookie Challenge" career mode, which is the main mode of the game. It allows a player to create a person, try out for a Major League club, and then play through a season and try to lead your team to the World Series and become the MVP.
When the first trailer was released, gameplay bore a striking resemblence 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." 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.
