Little League World Series Baseball 2008 (Wii) Preview

Posted by Ramon Aranda on 06.02.2008

Put me in coach, I'm ready to play.....

With baseball titles slowly trickling their way onto the Nintendo Wii, only a few have been enjoyable to say the least. We all loved Wii Sports but it lacked real depth while games like MLB Power Pros took baseball with an old school approach of easy pick up and play controls. Now enter Activision with Little League World Series. I got a chance to go hands-on with the game recently and came away pretty impressed.

The game is being developed by Now Productions, a company based in Japan that have worked on Katamari and Mario Super All-Star Baseball and has been built from the ground-up for the Nintendo Wii (with a DS port coming). I was explained and showed right off the bat that the game includes authentic uniforms such as Russell uniforms, Wilson helmets, New Era caps and the fields have been modeled to their real life counterparts.



There are various modes such as Exhibition, World Series, Skills Challenges. In World Series mode, you pick one of a long list of teams to represent in the tournament. If you're not to keen on any of the teams' looks, you can customize an existing team with a new logo and uniforms though the actual players will remain the same. You'll also be able to customize a star player that is available on each team. This star player can be edited to have a different name, attributes and the overall look such as wristbands, glove and bat color, batting gloves etc. You can also go check out the Clubhouse which is a place where you can see the various trophies and achievements that you've gained in the game. You'll have championship banners for instance when you win it all and should you win some more, you can see those listed in a records book. You can also collect baseball cards that represents some of the challenges you've completed in the game.

After perusing through the menus, we got right into some World Series action. The game plays very similar to Wii Sports which was a pleasant surprise. I started off as the away team so I got to bat first. To swing, you simply take a swing or make a flick of the wrist if you're a lazy ass to swing the bat. The response is immediate so there's no lag between your swing and the animation on the screen. In the first inning, I smashed a homerun which was pretty sweet as I used an uppercut swing to send into the stands. The game will recognize whether you use a downward swing or if you're trying to hit the ball in the air with an upward swing. You can also bunt the ball and aim it down to your left or right.

On defense, the computer controls the players' movements but you select which base to throw using the d-pad and by making a throwing motion. If you shake the controller, this speeds up the player on defense and as a runner. On pitching, you swing the controller up and as the pitcher makes his pitching motion, you swing the controller back down on the release. You can time it to get a faster and more accurate pitch. Of course you can also use other buttons to throw different types of pitches while rotating your wrist to the left or right will get you a curveball and screwball. I found that on pitching, the game was pretty responsive as well and I was able to make the pitches that I was looking for.



As you're playing, you'll earn points based on your offensive and defensive plays. When you earn enough points, you'll fill up a meter that corresponds to your star player. If you activate the meter, your star player will basically turn into Mr. Baseball, smashing the hell out of a pitch and sending it back to Japan. On defense, you'll get some ESPN-worthy plays while as a pitcher, you'll send that pitch down the strike zone like a meteor. You can also use that meter on other players but you won't get as great of an effect as if you use it with your star player. It makes for some interesting strategy and helps you turn things around if need be.

After playing a full game, I ended up on the losing end but I was very satisfied with how the game played. Swinging was accurate, the action was well paced and overall it was very fun to play. I was also shown how the game keeps all sorts of stats and you can make all sorts of decisions on defense and offense in the game, proving that the game has a surprising amount of depth.

I also got a chance to check out the homerun derby. In the game, I was given ten pitches but the derby doesn't work like it does on Wii Sports. Instead of being credited with the amount of homeruns, you're given points based off the distance of the homerun. So a 300-foot homerun, nets you 300 points. You also get bonus points for going on a homerun streak and also hitting balloons that adorn the stands. There are different points assigned to each balloon.

Little League World Series Baseball 2008 comes off as Wii Sports on steroids, and I'm all for it. Though it handles like the Wii's baby, the amount of depth and customization leaves me wanting to play this game more and more. My only gripe that I found is that you can't create separate profiles to keep your own stats so if you have more than one person playing on your Wii, you really won't know who won what titles or achievements aside from seeing what date they were won on. Still, the game shows lots of promise and I'll eagerly await to play it again when the game releases on August 5th.

Screenshots
All 11 Little League World Series 2008 Screenshots