Amazon.com: The Bigs: Nintendo Wii: Video Games

35 Reviews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

Average Customer Review

3.3 out of 5 stars (35 customer reviews)

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40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The BIGs ... Fun MLB Baseball for the Wii, June 28, 2007

By	jestok "JE" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

Finally, a decent sports game on the Wii. With Madden 07 and Tiger Woods golf, being below average ports of existing games, I had high hopes for the Bigs as being the first Professionaly Licensed sports game on the Wii, to make full use of all the Wii features.

The have all the MLB teams and players. There may be a few not in the game because of contract issues, but I have not noticed any big names missing thus far.

The stadiums are cool. The main architectural features are blown up to stand out more, but the overall feel of the stadium is a pretty realistic portrayal.

The Wii control aspect:

Pitching:

Word of advice... have patience. I almost throw my wii remote at the wall several times in disgust when I first started playing, because I couldn't get the pitcher to do anything. The manual does a very poor job of describing the required motion and button presses to get the desired pitch. Just be prepared to be frustrated in the beginning, but eventually it will start making sense. It is really cool becuase your wrist twist can create a curveball/screwball effect, just like the real thing.

Hitting:

This is where I am disappointed the most. The timing of when you physically swing the wii remote, to when the on screen batter swings is delayed. Unlike Wii Sports baseball, where it is practically perfectly synced, the Bigs has the half second delay that is very weak. You can sort of get used to it, but if you played Wii Sports baseball a lot, you will be disappointed.

Fielding:

Fielding is very good. You move the field with the nunchuk thing and flip the wii remote in different direction to throw to different bases. However, you can also push the control pad on the wii remote to make throws. I have found this to be more reliable than the flip gesture. The flip works though, you just have to be very precise, or you end up throwing to the wrong base.

Baserunning:

Not bad. You simply use the nunchuk and push it towards the base you want the runner to advance to. If, at the same time, you make a drumming motion with the wii remote, they run faster (sprint mode). I think the speed running is overkill. It makes it too easy to get doubles and triples. I found that not using it makes the game a little more realistic.

Powerups:

The game has this powerbar thing. You get points for every hit, great catch, striking someone out, etc. When you powerbar reaches the top you can activate "power mode" or whatever they call it. If you are hitting, it guarantees a home run if you make conatct. If you are pitching, it pretty much guarantees a strikeout. Its is a really fun feature, but should be more geared towards the players real life ability. For example, if some number #8 batter from the Royals with a .203 batting average and has never hit a home run is in power up mode, they should not be able to hit the ball out of the stadium. They should be able to hit the ball better than normal, but not breaking scoreboards with tape measure home runs.

Summary:

If you are a Wii owner and a sports game fan, the Bigs is worth your time. Its has the MLB and the player licensing and has a lot of great aspects utilizing the wii controls. A few flaws prevent it from being even better, but its a fun game.

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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun game. Liked the interface. Bit hard on the wrists, July 19, 2007

By	Joseph M. Siegler (Garland, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

Wii fans who also like baseball have been waiting for this release - it's the first baseball game on the Wii (save for the thing that came with Wii Sports, but that doesn't really count). So I checked this out the day it was released. And it is a lot of fun!

Like most Wii games that require both the nunchuck and the Wiimote, you end up looking rather silly playing the game - so said my wife watching me play. :) But I got a kick out of it.

It also has a learning curve - Unless you want to just throw fastballs all the time, you have to spend some time figuring out how to throw all the other pitches. They all are with the Wiimote and involve holding the A or B button and twisting your wrist to throw the pitch. Plus the speed at which you flick your wrist during that affects the speed. So the bulk of this game is in your wrist of the Wiimote. And that's the crux of my problem with it. You can't play for too long before your wrist starts hurting, and you have to put it down.

But other than that, it's a lot of fun. I like being able to sort of act like the players I'm playing on screen instead of pushing Button A and Button B to swing. If you have a Wii, and are a big fan of baseball, check it out.

Now it's not a pure sim, like say 2K's MLB game, or EA's old MVP Baseball game. This is an "exaggerated" game, in that home runs are much more powerful, it's much more an arcade feel. It's not like the Slugfest game from a few years ago - it's not that silly, but it is definitely not a serious sim baseball game. But it does have one thing I like over pure sim games, and that there are objects. In rookie mode, you make a player, train him, then play games in various towns. But it's not just "9 more innings". You have situations like "down two runs in the 8th, win the game", or "Beat the Texas Rangers in 5 innings while getting 3RBI with your rookie". Stuff like that. Objectives work nicely and keeping it from becoming just "9 more innings of baseball". Which is fine in a sim game.

To be honest, I love the sim games, also I wasn't sure how well I'd like this, but I really have taken to the objectives in the Rookie mode of this game - it's a lot of fun.

And if you love playing games on the Wii, you'll love playing that way, too.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little learning curve but a big reward in fun!, August 9, 2007

By	S. A. Bradshaw "Rhetoric" (VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

I've read the other reviews posted so far and most are pretty accurate. I haven't played a baseball game in something like 5 years because they used to be too difficult and not much fun. When I saw and read about The Bigs, I decided to give it a try. Now, I'm really glad I did.

The Controls:
I actually think they are pretty good. It has a nice Tutorial that you should definitely go through to get the basics. The problem is that there are so many different controls to use, that you can't remember them all. That's ok though. If you can get the basics of hitting, pitching, running, and throwing, which are all pretty intuitive, then you're ready to play. It will take some time to learn diving, jumping, & some others, but they are not really necessary to play the game.

Pitching is pretty good. Each pitcher has 4 pitches to choose from and you must hold different buttons and twist your wrist differently for each. You don't have to do this hard! Just a simple flick and twist is all it takes. There are still a lot of times where it didn't pick up the pitch I was trying to do though, so this could still use a little work. But overall, it works well.

Batting is easy enough. I can see why people feel there is a delay, but it is easy to get used to. I also think that they are so used to the instantaneous swing in Wii Sports, that they forget what it's actually like to swing a bat. In Wii Sports, you swing when the ball is already there and somehow the bat gets around fast enough to hit the ball. In The Bigs, you have to start your swing before the ball gets there like a real batter would.

Fielding is easy as you run with the nunchuck. The flicking left, right, up, or down thing throws to the wrong base a lot. Fortunately, you can use the pad to throw too and this works well.

Base running is easy and intuitive as well. Just make sure to remember to do it when playing multiplayer!

My main problem with the game is that it lacks options and modes. You can't play a full season or start a franchise. You have to do the Rookie Challenge to go through any kind of schedule and even then it's really not a schedule. I also want to be able to play mini-games over and over but haven't found a way to do this yet unless you fail them over and over. But once you complete one, you can't go back to do it again! Strange.... Still, the Rookie Challenge is quite a bit of fun and the Steal Player games are an interesting idea. This means that you can steal a player from another team when you beat them in a particular challenge.

Overall, the game is a LOT of fun. Do the Tutorial before playing a game! Then play a couple exhibition games to get familiar with the basics. In an hour you'll be able to pitch, hit, run, and field. Start your Rookie Challenge and have a great time improving your player, stealing players, and getting better with the more advanced controls playing the mini-games.