“With The BIGS 2, the goal was to improve on everything we’ve done … We’re not taking any steps back; we’re taking two steps forward.”
Every sport has had a magical moment where it goes from being a simulator, such as the dominating Madden franchise, to an arcade-inspired masterpiece that anyone will enjoy – even those who don’t typically like sports games. Starting with basketball in the early ’90s (NBA Jam), then football at the end of the decade (NFL Blitz), followed by hockey (NHL Hitz) and finally baseball (The BIGS), these unconventional sports games have given us some of the most memorable moments in video game history.
After the dust settled and numerous sequels were released, NBA Jam eventually died. Blitz soon followed, though Midway tried to revive the series before its own demise. Hitz – we haven’t heard from that series in several years, and likely never will again. This leaves one franchise to carry the load of pleasing sports and non-sports fans alike. With The BIGS 2, 2K Sports intends to do just that.
“We’re arcade. We’re over-the-top,” said Producer Rob Nelson. He says he believes that playing The BIGS 2 is akin to the experience of watching a highlight reel. “But [this is] a real baseball [game]. We’re not out to make you play the game in a way that takes you away from what baseball is.”
Those words seemed to be the most essential part of The BIGS 2’s development. 2K Sports was determined to make a game that was different from the usual baseball experience yet still retain everything we love about the sport. “The BIGS 1 was about finding out what kind of a game this was. How far can we go [with arcade gameplay], finding that balance, we feel like we did that with The BIGS 1. With The BIGS 2, the goal was to improve on everything we’ve done. Now that we have a firm mold and identity of the game, the basics, controls, and everything we wanted to do, we [now] wanted to pile on tons of new features. We’re not taking any steps back; we’re taking two steps forward.”
In doing so, you have to wonder: what changes have been made to accommodate those steps? “In terms of what we change and what we leave alone, we’ve pretty much touched everything,” he says. “There’s no part of the game where we just kind of let it go. Everything has been tweaked, everything has been changed. Even things that haven’t been massively changed, you play the game differently based on other [new] features. The game is very much a new experience.
