The Cages: Pro Style Batting Practice

by Konami

• Experience 19 different pitch types thrown by real life pitchers
• Use the Wii Motion Plus to experience real batting controls and drive them deep
• Slug it out with your friends in various hitting challenges like home run challenge, distance challenge and most points challenges
• Track your cardio by seeing how many calories you burn while swinging the stick!

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002W5GI9S
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches ; 3.7 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,537 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #20 in Video Games > Wii > Games > Sports > Baseball
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com

Swing for the fences (without the fences) in this game that lets you take batting practice right in your living room! The Cages: Pro Style Batting Practice is a virtual pitching machine with a Cy Young-caliber array of pitches. Step into the box and take some cuts against 19 different pitch types, including fastballs, sliders, cutters, 12-6 curveballs, off-speed junk, the high cheese, and more.

Experience 19 different pitch types. View larger.

Slug it out with your friends. View larger.

Track your cardio. View larger.

Use the Wii Motion Plus to experience real batting controls. View larger.

Synopsis Get off the pine, grab your favorite bat - or Wiimote and step into the batter's box. Take your hacks against the smartest pitching machine around. Step your game up using The Cages then use your newfound skills to dominate your friends in small batting mini-games. The Cages pitching machine will dish out a pitches to mirror like fast balls, cut fast balls, 12-6 curves, sliders, off-speed pitches and more! Take your new found skills and compete against your friends in home run competitions or challenge yourself by challenges that require to spray the ball to all areas of the field. The Cages will help players to hone their hand-eye coordination and put them on track to be a digital hitting menace! Features: True to life - Experience 19 different pitch types thrown by real life pitchers Functionality - Use the Wii Motion Plus to experience real batting controls and drive them deep Challenges - Slug it out with your friends in various hitting challenges like home run challenge, distance challenge and most points challenges Train - Track your cardio by seeing how many calories you burn while swinging the stick!

Product Description

Get off the pine, grab your favorite bat – or Wiimote – and step into the batter’s box. Take your hacks against the smartest pitching machine around. Step your game up using The Cages then use your newfound skills to dominate your friends in small batting mini-games. The Cages pitching machine will dish out a pitches to mirror like fast balls, cut fast balls, 12-6 curves, sliders, off-speed pitches and more! Take your new found skills and compete against your friends in home run competitions or challenge yourself by challenges that require to spray the ball to all areas of the field. The Cages will help players to hone their hand-eye coordination and put them on track to be a digital hitting menace!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great...as long as you go in with the right expectations November 6, 2010

By Nutwiisystem.Com TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

I love baseball. As most baseball fans, I've dreamed of walking up to the plate with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth and crushing the game-winning home run. I'll never know this feeling in real life, of course, but that's what video games are for.

Last time I looked for a batting cage in my town, I found that almost every one close to me has closed down, and the ones that are still open are an hour away. And they cost a ton of money. The batting cages near my park cost $3 for 25 balls. Given the way I hit, the math comes out to about $0.75 for each time I make contact.

And so when I heard that Konami was working on a batting cage simulation for the Wii, which used the advanced motion gaming features of the Wii MotionPlus, I was excited. Could this experience come close to a real batting cage?

I have to admit. I love this game. But I love it because I approached it with the right expectations.

I'll start off by saying this game is very, very technical and very, very realistic in its approach. If you're the type who wants to just close your eyes, swing your bat with all your might, and hit towering home runs, this is not the game for you at all. In fact, you will find the game incredibly frustrating. For that, your best bet is still good ol' Wii Sports.

The Cages is a batting cage simulator. Nothing more, nothing less. You can't play a real game of baseball, you can't pitch, field, or run. You just stand in a cage and let a pitching maching throw to you.

The pitching machine will throw you up to 20 different types of pitches (from fastballs to sliders to curveballs to knuckleballs and changeups). As pitches are thrown at you, their motion and trajectory are very realistic, or at realistic as it can be on a two-dimensional TV screen.... Just like the real thing, it's maddeningly difficult to hit a fastball after you've been served a bunch of breaking balls. The machine will throw at different speeds, and the virtual ball travels the virtual 60 feet, 6 inches in the exact same time it'd take on a real ballfield.

To prepare to hit the ball, you hold your Wii remote straight out at chest level and press and hold "B". To hit the ball, while holding down the "B" button, you swing. Sounds simple enough. But what's remarkable (and enervating) about this game is that it doesn't just take the timing of the swing into account. It takes your bat speed, the angle of your swing, your bat height, and the follow-through of your swing all into account, just like in real life. They say baseball is a game of inches. The Cages captures your swing accurately to the millimeter.

After each swing, the game will instantly show you a split-screen video showing your swing in slow motion from the top and the side. The game does an incredible job capturing the details of your swing in relation to the pitched ball. It is actually the single best implemention of Wii MotionPlus I've seen in a game yet.

The videos aren't just for show. You can actually analyze your swing and make adjustments. For example, once I kept fouling pitches off the plate. I could see clearly from the side view that while my swing was timed correctly, my swing was too high. Same thing happened when I started fouling pitches off to the right--I could see from the top view that my swing was too late. After making the adjustments, I was hitting again.

Probably like most people who first started up the game, I started out by trying to time my swings and swing for the fences. This resulted in me striking out time after time. But surprisingly, I was my most successful when I followed the fundamentals of hitting, things like keeping a loose grip on the "bat", shifting my weight from my back foot to my front foot while swinging, and having a smooth, level swing (it helped me when I visualized two things: a batting tee in front of me and the bat fully extended from my Wii remote).

Unlike most video games which provide instant gratification, this video game rewards you after you practice and practice the fundamentals, just like the real thing.

Was it realistic? Almost too much so. When I go to a batting cage, I typically strike out or foul off pitch after pitch and get unbearably frustrated. The exact same thing happened when I started up this game. But the difference is, after I watch the video replays and make the adjustments, eventually I start making contact (the "bling" sound effect doesn't provide quite the same satisfaction as the crack of a bat, but it's still a great feeling!)

There were, of course, things I wasn't too crazy about with this game, as other reviewers have pointed out:

1) It is aggravating to have to hold down the "B" button to swing. After a while, you learn to compensate for it, but it really messes with your ability to do the fundamentals.

2) The graphics and sounds are really very shoddy. I'm willing to overlook this, as whatever development resources they didn't put into the aethetics of the game, they did put into making a very realistic simulation.

The burning question, of course, is: will this game help you hit a real baseball? The answer is, yes and no. Swinging a plastic game controller doesn't feel at all like swinging a real baseball bat (although you can improve your arm strength by playing the game in conjunction with Riiflex Weights). And as much as a video image of a 99-MPH fastball is accurate, it's not the quite as seeing a real one buzzing by your head.

On the other hand, if you study and adhere to the fundamentals of hitting and use the in-game tools to analyze and adjust your swing, it's a surprisingly realistic experience and helps you understand the real things you should be looking for in your mechanics when you do get in front of a real pitched ball. It's also a blast to be able to go to your own virtual "batting cage" any time of the day or night, no matter what the weather.

I'm guessing that the poor response and reviews of this game may have resulted in less-than-stellar sales for Konami. That's too bad, because I hope they keeps trying--the concept and execution were great, but they were probably hampered by the limitations of the Wii. Perhaps this idea was just a little before its time. It may be a better fit for a console like the Playstation Move, with its improved motion sensor capabilities, 3D capabilities, and high resolution graphics. Or, the technology in this game would be amazing if it were incorporated into the "advanced" level of a game like Sony's MLB: The Show or 2KSports' Major League Baseball.

Casual gamers will probably want to pass on this game. But those who are baseball fanatics and want to experience the process (and frustrations) of training to hit Major League-type pitches, this is by far the best simulation out there. Read more ›

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars BATTER UP! August 24, 2010

By J. James

Amazon Verified Purchase

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

This game is good for people like me who just want to swing the the bat. Its a lot of fun and it helps me take some steam off. My biggest problem is that I have to hold the B button while swinging. It causes me to hold the "bat" in an unnatural way.
Special tips in enjoying this product: Even though this game is Wii motion plus-compatable, its best to play it WITHOUT the motion-plus setting. The motion-plus is too realistic and makes way too difficult to hit, unless you are actually a baseball prospect. Another tip is to use a Wii bat, so that you can get the actual "feel" of taking your cuts.

4.0 out of 5 stars good exercise ! February 18, 2012

By 1coss+3nails=4gvn

Amazon Verified Purchase

Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

I really only wanted to hit home runs and this was / is fantastic I like the camera and over look and the whole nine, oh and the seller was great

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars hit the ball December 26, 2011

By kaitnchris

Amazon Verified Purchase

Fun: 3.0 out of 5 stars   

My son just got this for Christmas. Yesterday he could not hit the ball if his life depended on it. Today, he took the motion detector off and he seems to hit it better. He played for about 15 min. Then changed to something different. He said all you do is hit the ball....then he laughed. It's like going to the batting cages, you just hit balls. So he likes it for hitting but would prefer a little more versatility to the batting component. He did say they do throw you curve balls. He has not tried that option yet.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars save your money July 17, 2010

By baseball mom

Amazon Verified Purchase

Fun: 1.0 out of 5 stars   

This game is billed as a training type game that simulates real batting. There is no way to hit the ball without incorrect swings, and as such, we've traded it in locally. It is inaccurate, and definitely does not help improve your swing...further, it is NOT fun, as you have no chance of hitting with a correct stride and swing. Not good at all.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars terrible game September 12, 2011

By Rude One

Amazon Verified Purchase

Fun: 1.0 out of 5 stars   

I went back to 'wii HR derby" on wii sports immediatley. This game stinks, so slow, so hard. Doesn't make any sense ...poorly made.