s this game supposed to be a biographical recreation of Jose Canseco’s life? Not only does every player look like he’s been popping ‘roids since the day he was at his mother’s teat, you’ll actually see fly balls bounce off of players’ heads for home runs. The only elements missing are the occasional bar fight and a night in Madonna’s penthouse.

Gamers are certainly familiar with juiced up baseball experiences, but unlike Midway’s now-deceased MLB Slugfest series, this title is still true to the rules of the game. You won’t see fights breaking out on the basepaths or pitchers with the ability to throw physics-breaking screwballs. The Bigs is more of an exaggeration of the real sport – a nice change of pace for the zany arcade-style sports genre. Fastballs have more zip and movement, and curveballs that originally would have broken 12 inches now have a drop of 20. Fielder reflexes have been honed to cat-like levels, which allows for bullets to be snagged, and any wall in the park to be scaled. Sluggers are even deadlier. If a ball is served up as meat, it’ll likely reach orbit. These elements come together to create an entertaining baseball package that pushes players skills.

The only aspect of the game that has been altered is its length. Rather than playing a full nine innings, the default is set to five. Naturally, this leads to much shorter games, but there isn’t a drought of scoring. The turbo system, which allows players to add some juice to certain actions, is balanced perfectly for the shorter five-inning game, with players usually saving their big plays for the final nail-biting inning.

The gameplay is simple, but nicely polished, and effective in setting a fast-paced experience. Unfortunately, this bite-size formula also passes into the game modes. Rookie Challenge is a bare-bones and uneventful affair that only takes you through 25 games. Home Run Pinball, as amusing as it is, will likely bore you in a few hours.

The Bigs delivers engrossing arcade-styled gameplay, but there’s little here that you can really wrap your mitt around. There’s a good chance that you’ll grow disinterested in this game faster than you threw Jose Canseco’s book into the trash.