The Bigs 2

The Skinny: Newly crowned Home Run Derby champion Prince Fielder lends his portly frame to 2K Sports sequel to its wildly popular arcade baseball franchise, featuring improvement in their Home Run Pinball and Become a Legend modes. Did developers get just enough on this to send it over the fence, or is this destined for the cheap seats?

The Good: Home Run Pinball is, once again, redonkulous. (That's how these Generation Z kiddies describe things these days, right?) There isn't anything particularly new in terms of the mechanics of the thing (it's Home Run Derby but with signs to hit and power-ups to score points) but there are three new unique locations that should hold your attention long enough: Las Vegas, Retro Times Square, and Shibura, Japan where you can send a 100 mph fastball hurtling toward Godzilla-like monster stationed behind billboards. When you're done destroying those cities with eight-dollar baseballs, Become a Legend and Season modes are where most of your other time will be spent. BaL is a lengthy affair spanning five seasons where you build up your character's stats, steal star players from other teams, and create a team that'll make the salary cap cry for its momma. Season mode is your run-of-the-mill pick-a-team-and-win-the-title kind of experience. There are certain challenges that you are tasked to attempt, like hitting a certain No. of homers in a season, but they aren't required. Rounding out the major changes, and one that really throws opponents for a loop, is the Big Slam, a special minigame where you're thrown four random pitches in quick succession, and if you hit all of them, yields a Grand Slam. It's a quick way to catch up, and certainly keeps games interesting even in blowout situations.

Long lost brothers?

The Bad: Graphically and technically, the game is flawed, but not to the point of complete repulsion. Even at our hands-on demo at Citi Field, NY Mets shortstop Jose Reyes jokingly asked the 2K PR people why he was "so black." Sure, this is supposed to be an arcade-style experience, but when Boston Red Sox hurler Josh Beckett looks like Fantasy Island's Hervé Villechaize, we've got a problem.

Monument Dork: In Become a Legend, there's a Cooperstown section where you must carry out certain challenges against Hall of Fame players—pitch a shut out, throw out X No. of base runners—to receive HoF votes. Get enough and you'll be inducted, forever honoring your video game legacy. Or, until your saved games get deleted.

Buy, Rent, or Disembowel: There are a ton of you out there that haven't yet played in these Big Leagues—only 1.2 million copies sold the first time around, according to VGChartz—so feel free to take a break from the simulated baseball crowd and go big.