Little League World Series Baseball 2008 for Wii Reviews by Gamers

I have been waiting to play a baseball game that uses the wii like wii sports. Finally, someone made that game. The batting, is simple enought to pick up and play, yet has some subtleties to it, that make you better as you keep playing. Same with the pitching. This game is a lot of fun for all ages.

Wasn't sure what to expect with this (fairly) under the radar offering.

The tutorial is a little daunting, particularly when it comes to pitching. As my 5 year old and I were working through all the pitching lessons I began to be concerned that this was going to be way too complicated.

Never fear - once in the game a waggle here and a waggle there sends the ball to the plate. He was pitching and having a blast without a thought about timing or button presses. Meanwhile, his older brother enjoyed the complexities of the pitching interface and took advantage of them.

The batting is the best yet for a Wii baseball game. Other than the contact swing (you have to swing slowly, which the CPU never seems to recognize), everything else works like a charm. You can pull the ball or send it to the opposite field, swing with an uppercut to send the ball into the air, or use a downswing to drive it into the ground.

Fielding is simple, consisting of remote waggle and a button press. Running is taken care of by the CPU.

During the game, points are earned towards power-ups that can be used by the players on the field. They aren't quite as cartoony and off the wall as those found in Backyard Baseball or Mario Super Sluggers.

All in all, a very enjoyable and surprisingly realistic baseball game geared for the younger set. Graphics are more than serviceable and the PING of the aluminum bat is a nice touch.

However, overall it's a fairly sterile presentation - particularly for kids that have experience with Mario Super Sluggers for the Gamecube. Even Backyard Baseball, with it's atrocious graphics seems to offer a more engaging experience presentation wise.

There seems to be a good degree of customization available, but to be honest we haven't delved into much of that yet.

Overall, this is a surprisingly good baseball game for the Wii that will appeal to a range of ages. And I'll reiterate - the batting interface is not only realistic, but way fun.

Rented it to keep my boys off of SCIV on my 360. They're 8 & 6 and so far it has done the job. I heard a lot of thumping coming from the upstairs and when I checked on them they were taking their hacks and bunny hopping at the same time--besides the noise that's ok. This morning, first thing they did after getting up b4 school was fire up the game. I wasn't having any of that but I guess it shows their interest. So, without (me) having actually played the game I asked them if is it better than wii sports baseball and they seemed to agree on that. They haven't asked for any help with the game so I'll give it a parent friendly rating suitable for kids who like baseball and/or hacking away.

For a game that's supposed to be enjoyed by the kids, Little League World Series Baseball 2008 (LLWSB2K8 for short) has very complicated controls.
First, the pitching. You can select where in the strike zone the ball goes to and one of nine pitches by either holding the A or B button down, or hold neither down. Then, during the pitching motion you can turn the Wiimote left, right or not at all.
Each combination of the button holding (or not) and the twisting motion (or not) leads to a different pitch. Problem is, it's easy to forget which combination of button pushing and twisting leads to what pitch. This game needs a cheat sheet in the worst way.
Batting's worse; first, you have to determine if you want to swing at all at the pitch. If you do swing, then you have to determine if you swing the Wiimote in an upwards motion (for a home run type ball or fly out), a level motion (for a line drive or line out), or a downward motion (for a grounder or a ground out)
Then, you have to determine if you want to swing on time to send it center field or a split second early/late to send it into left/right field.
On top of all that, you have to determine if you want to swing the Wiimote slowly for contact or quickly for power.
I have a feeling that most players are going to bypass all this and play this game like the baseball part of WiiSports. If they do, they'll have a good time (especially with friends).
But this begs the question: why put it in the game if it's hardly used?
The Single player works well - until the playoffs. That's when the AI gets brutal. I send my best pitcher and make a variety of perfect pitches, but in four playoff games, the AI averages three runs IN THE FIRST INNING. Let's just say I went 0-4 in those games.
There are mini games, but most of them require you to learn the headache inducing controls, so I passed on them.
LLWSB2K8 is a good game to rent, but the tough AI and complex controls take it off my "buy" list.

This game was pretty dissapointing. I didn't like how hard it was to hit. Other than that the game was "okay". It wasn't spectacular though. I expected a lot more of it.

I love how the game is extra challenging. It always takes at least two tries to win the world series. I have to say Mid-Atlantic is the best. I love playing the home run tourneys and the pitcher bowling. I like putting my self into the game. But when you pick your character put him at number three. Speedy stinks and you would think all around is the best it is not pick built your stats are through the roof. You smack every ball out of the park. I like how you can make the uniforms but I dont like the names they give you. Dragons, Sharks, Bull Dogs? Why cant we make our own name. Never mind pick this game IT IS THE BEST GAME EVER!

Perhaps this game would be more fun if you played against another person vs the computer. I played against the computer and kept losing. I only won one game. I found it hard to bat and harder than the tutorial in a real game. I put my guys on automatic to catch and field but yet they wouldn't run up to the ball to get it sooner or really try to catch it either. I found myself getting mad and super frustrated really quick. I want a game that's easy to figure out how to play and is fun to play not frustrating like this one. I couldn't even get them to run quick enough to first base when playing the exhibition game without them getting out every time. It didn't take me long to put this game back into its envelope and seal it up to go back.

This was a really fun game for all ages!

By far the best Wii baseball game on the market. I hope they will expand the features next time. Kids will enjoy playing with their parents.

i thought this game was perfect till i played and played and it got so boring i couldnt stand it very dumb mini games and u can only use 1 color on ur so called created team not so many choices for logos either

This game is alot of fun as long as your pitching and batting. The fielding leaves alot to be desired. But over all it's a fun game. The graphic's are great too. I will buy it once the price goes down for sure.