MLB2k8 Wii Review (w/ focus on Padres)

Last Tuesday I went out and bought my first baseball game for the Nintendo Wii: MLB2K8.  I never can resist buying these baseball video games when they come out, just to get a look at the new look Padres every year and see how the Padres are ranked.  This year they are ranked 10th in MLB2k8 on the Wii.  I believe they are ranked 3rd in pitching and 26th or 27th in batting.  The commentary on the game is really good with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan and when talking about the Padres they will either focus on Iguchi or Giles.  Morgan says in the commentary that he loves Iguchi and that Iguchi is one of the most underrated players in the game.  Needless to say he is pretty good in the game, he has pretty good speed (by far the best on the Padres) and has some pop to his bat and can hit one out at random times.  Edmonds also hits very well in the game as well as AGon. The pitching is pretty outstanding on the game.  I started a season and while it took me a while to adapt and I had a bad first game with Peavy, he almost threw a no hitter in his second start.  They have Maddux in the number 2 slot and he is controlled and solid, not overpowering but gets lots of outs.  Chris Young (is portrayed as an African American it looks like?) is overpowering and solid.  Wolf is solid and unfortunately they dont have Prior on the game but they have Germano as the number 5 and he is pretty solid himself.  Petco Park looks pretty terrible, not only are the Wii graphics not that great they really didnt do a good job accurately portraying Petco at all.  After seeing MLB the show 08 on the xbox 360 and how incredibly accurate and sharp it is, I realized it blew the wii out of the water in accuracy of the park.

As far as gameplay this game is totally different than most normal video games just because of the innovative wii controls.  You actually have to flick the controller to pitch each pitch and time it perfectly to get the right pitch while aiming it into the catchers mit.  The pithcing is really fun and it never has felt more satisfying to blow a pitch past a batter.  While batting you have to take a full swing and point your joystick on the nunchuck where you want to hit it.  There are some fun interactive parts such as pumping the nunchuck and wiimote up and down to sprint faster on the basebaths and thrusting them to slide into a base…or thrusting them both to make a diving play in the field or raising them both up quickly to make a catch in the outfield.  The baserunning is real hard, but the fielding is pretty simple and basic (all you need is to flick the wiimote and it will throw to the best base).  Overall it is a really fun game to play and the commentary is really great which makes it feel even more real.  I have a hard time playing it and relaxing though, because it is hard to sit back on the couch when you need to swing fully.  The other downside to the game for out of shape lazy people like me is that after playing 3 full games i woke up the next morning with a sore arm/elbow haha.  I have gotten sore after going intense boxing on the wii too so this is a general problem with the wii system.  But seriously, you have to flick that thing like 100 times each game for the pitches and just as many if not more times to swing the bat on offense.  You play 3 games and if you are swinging and pitching hard you are swinging/pitching 750-1000 times.  It gets tiring.  With more conditioning and maybe a days rest between starts 😉 it will get better.  Overall its a fun game and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a fun interactive realistic baseball game without incredibly accurate graphics.