2K Sports scored a hit with its 2007 arcade baseball title, The Bigs, and after two years of lackluster baseball sims, they’re trying to recapture past glory with a sequel, The Bigs 2. I got my hands on the game at E3, and last week, I listened in on a conference call with Producer Rob Nelson and Associate Producer Damon Purdue, both of whom gave details on the game.

So what can you expect to see in The Bigs 2 when it hits stores tomorrow? Follow me to the jump to find out.

The Bigs 2 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2)
Developer: Blue Castle Games
Publisher: 2K Sports
To be released: July 7, 2009

As you might expect, The Bigs 2 is an over-the-top sports game; as Nelson told it, “playing the game is like watching a highlight reel of baseball.” But he also noted that developer Blue Castle Games was “not out to break baseball” -- perhaps a subtle jab at Midway’s last-gen MLB SlugFest series, where infielders could literally punch baserunners. The challenge with this kind of game, Nelson explained, is to provide a fun, easy-to-grasp, pick-up-and-play experience ... without going too far into the arcade realm. So for more dedicated veteran sports gamers, there’s actually a level of baseball strategy to The Bigs 2 -- but the game doesn’t require less-skilled gamers to know the ins and outs of the sport.

Since the original Bigs provided such a solid foundation, they didn’t want to change the controls too much; the goals with the sequel were to improve on the original by tweaking things that hadn’t been done right and adding new features. The three major additions to the franchise are: a full 162-game season mode, which gamers had been clamoring for; the Legendary catch system on defense; and the Wheelhouse mechanic. And the gameplay has been improved as well -- for example, you have to make many more choices about when to use turbo.

Each hitter has a part of the strike zone that glows orange -- their “Wheelhouse,” an area where they have an increased chance of getting a hit, and where their hits will be harder. Better hitters have larger Wheelhouses. As a pitcher, there’s a classic risk/reward situation with the Wheelhouse: you’re taking a chance by throwing into it, but if you’re able to get the pitch past the hitter, his Wheelhouse will shrink for the rest of the game.

On defense, players who you might consistently see on the “Web Gems” segment on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight will be able to make “Legendary” catches. This entails things like leaping ten feet into the air to snag a line drive or snaring a would-be home run from high above the wall. Legendary catches are controlled by context-sensitive mini-games (in other words, quick-time events that will require you to press a certain button at the right time). For example, a circle that shows where a fly ball is going to land will flash green when you’re supposed to dive for the ball.

The Bigs 2 also features a varied power-up system. Again, it’s baseball’s upper-echelon players who feature special characteristics. A-Rod has the “all home runs are no-doubters” power-up (in other words, his homers can’t be caught, even by outfielders with a Legendary catch rating), while Derek Jeter -- Captain Clutch himself -- gets a boost to his attributes when the Yankees are behind. Red Sox DH David Ortiz also has no-doubter home runs, but after seeing how anemic his hitting has been this season, maybe that’ll be changed in a later roster update (PS3/360 only).

Blue Castle has also changed up the franchise’s unique career mode, Become A Legend. In the first Bigs, you simply created a player and attempted to lead your team to World Series glory. This time around, things have taken a turn for the worse: your player has suffered a career-threatening injury, and after rehab, you start off in a Mexican league to build up your reputation from scratch and work your way back up to the majors. On the way, you’ll play in Japan as well, though Nelson and Purdue were quick to point out that the game doesn’t have any affiliation with real Mexican or Japanese baseball leagues. The game actually offers a full career this time, instead of just one year.

In the career mode, your player starts off with a one-star rating for each attribute (out of a possible six; the first Bigs only had five rating stars), and he improves as you go along. The create-a-player interface is more robust, with new swing animations and options for home run celebrations and walkup music. The end goal here is to make it into the Hall of Fame; you collect votes as you go along by performing well. Sadly, you’re limited to only creating hitters once again -- maybe pitchers will be available in The Bigs 3. New to The Bigs 2 are mini-games: power, contact, glove, and speed. They’re intended as fun diversions: the speed mini-game, for example, has you racing along rooftops outside of Chicago’s Wrigley Field.

The all-new season mode wasn’t designed to be as deep an experience as what you’d find in a baseball sim -- you’re not going to be managing players’ salaries or anything like that, and there aren’t any injuries -- but you’ll be able to take a team through a full 162-game season with trades and an All-Star Game. Damon Bruce returns as the game’s commentator, and he’s just as great as he was last time, though it isn’t clear if new audio was recorded for the sequel.

Purdue and Nelson also touched on online play. The Bigs 2 offers an exciting new feature: 2-on-2 online co-op, which is something that the developers of the first game wanted to implement but couldn’t get done in time. The graphics have been altered, as well -- players’ body sizes were decreased slightly to look less outlandish. With all these enhancements to the gameplay from the original, as well as the new features, The Bigs 2 is looking like a solid follow-up. Check out the game tomorrow!