Hey, Batta, Batta... Swing! -- MLB 2K8 (Wii) Review

It's almost that time of year again; time to dust off the old glove, drag your spikes from the dark recesses of the closet, and begin the stretching routine. Baseball season is near, and with no EA offering this year, 2K Sports has a monopoly on all the baseball-related content on two out of 3 consoles (Sony's MLB 08: The Show is available on the PS3). That may not necessarily be the best situation for baseball fans, however.

MLB 2K8 is your traditional baseball sim, featuring exhibition, season, franchise, home run derby, tournament, situational, and quick play modes, along with management options such as roster, lineup, and rotation adjustments and a full create-a-player mode. These are pretty much standard fare for a modern baseball game, and throughout the various modes there are plenty of customization options, ranging from game rules to weather conditions to team and league configurations. Baseball fans will find enough to tinker with, and more casual players can choose to ignore as much of it as they want.

A few of MLB 2K8's features are conspicuously absent from this version of the game, however. There are no trading cards, no minor league games, and no online play. It's understandable that 2K is working with a new system of control on the Wii, and have stated that this was their focus in 2008, but to leave out entire portions of the game - especially online play - just doesn't seem like the best move.

Graphically, the Wii version of MLB 2K8 is obviously inferior to the other, high definition versions of the game. The players and stadiums lack the texture detail of their Xbox 360 and PS3 counterparts, and the ballplayers have an overall stiff feeling about them. The entire visual presentation feels very last-gen.

The audio, on the other hand, is pretty solid. Joe Morgan and Jon Miller deliver excellent commentary, augmenting their play-by-play call of the game with plenty of extra discussion about players, the game, and even a bit of history. I feel like could sit and talk baseball with these guys for hours - and I mean the digitized versions of them. The sound effects cover the basic aural necessities of a baseball sim, from the between-the-lines cracks and whizzes to crowd cheering, heckling, and the like. It's not the best I've heard, but gets the job done.

Now, on to the controls - a key component of any sports title. For the most part, the controls in the Wii version of MLB 2K8 work very well, but are not perfect. The Wii remote is a very good match for baseball games, not only because of its motion sensitivity, but also because of the button layout. 2K8 capitalizes on this. The d-pad is optimally placed for throwing to each base (although the game also features flick controls where the CPU chooses the appropriate base to throw to), and the location of the B button near players' fingers rather than their thumbs lends itself to intuitive pitching control. To fire one over the plate in 2K8, players first select a pitch type with the control stick and aim at the strike zone with the Wiimote's infrared sensor. Holding the B trigger while lifting the Wiimote vertically begins the pitcher's windup, and flicking it forward lets it fly. There is also a meter involved in pitching; players must perform the forward motion while the circular cursor is in the optimal green zone in order to throw accurately.

Batting is as simple as swinging the Wiimote as the ball approaches the plate, or holding the A button and aiming with the Wiimote to bunt. It is all very intuitive, but there are a couple of flaws in the setup. First, for some reason the game often has trouble detecting the Wiimote pointer during pitching. I found that every so often the cursor would be stuck in one place, and I would have to shake the Wiimote to elicit a response. The second gripe may be more of a personal issue, but it is still worth mentioning. When batting, I found the wire connecting the Wiimote and Nunchuk to be a hindrance to my swinging motion. Either the cord would flail about or I would tug at it as my hands drifted apart. This caused me to have to tone down all my motions and lose the smooth feeling I would prefer from motion sensitive controls. After doing so I had no trouble, but it did detract from the experience a bit.

MLB 2K8 is a solid and enjoyable baseball game, but has plenty of room for improvement in the years to come. If you're strictly looking for a baseball simulation on the Wii, 2K8 is your only option, and it gets the job done. To those who are less die-hard fans, I recommend giving MLB Power Pros a look, because I'm a lifelong ballplayer and prefer that title to anything else available on the Wii. I would have loved to see how EA Sports would implement the Wii's input system into a baseball sim, but this year it's all about 2K.