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.