The Cages from Konami is a game based around one aspect of baseball – hitting. In the game, you are asked to hit pitches from a machine in an attempt to either hit the ball certain way, or to complete one of many different hitting challenges.
We think The Cages is actually a really cool concept, because the basic motions of the Wii-mote suit themselves great for batting practice – as evidenced by the Home Run Derby game in Wii Sports. But if you pick up The Cages thinking it will be more of that kind of fun, you need to be prepared: Hitting a baseball in The Cages is hard work with a steep learning curve.
The game does provide some on-screen instruction, but ultimately seems to acknowledge that you should start by barely swinging and slowly work your way up.
We think there’s a fun idea in the Cages, but we found the difficulty to be overly frustrating at times. For families who have kids that are big baseball fans and that are willing to put in the time to improve and focus on how to succeed in this game, then this is a neat title to add to your collection. For young kids, or even casual baseball fans just looking to have fun slugging time, we think The Cages is way too difficult and might lead to more frustration then fun.
INFORMATION FROM COMPANY FACT SHEET
Get off the pine, grab your favorite bat - or Wiimote - and step into the batter's box. Take your hacks against the smartest pitching machine around. Step your game up using The Cages: Pro Style Batting Practice then use your newfound skills to dominate your friends in small batting mini-games. The Cages pitching machine will dish out a pitches to mirror like fast balls, cut fast balls, 12-6 curves, sliders, off-speed pitches and more!
Take your new found skills and compete against your friends in home run competitions or challenge yourself by challenges that require to spray the ball to all areas of the field. The Cages will help players to hone their hand-eye coordination and put them on track to be a digital hitting menace!
Features
• True to life: Experience 19 different pitch types thrown by real life pitchers.
• Functionality: Use the Wii Motion Plus to experience real batting controls and drive them deep.
• Challenges: Slug it out with your friends in various hitting challenges like home run challenge, distance challenge and most points challenges.
• Train: Track your cardio by seeing how many calories you burn while "swinging the stick!"