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Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: EA Sports
Genre: Sports
Region: NTSC
Format:
Release Date: 18 Jan 06
User Rating
8 (1 vote) -
- EA works its charm down on college baseball, further perfecting the previous installment with deeper frachise mode and refined controls.
Overview
When video games developers got exclusive license to create official sports titles, there was bit of heated discussion on whether this will stifle creativity and make the license holders less motivated to produce quality games. There seem to be some degree of truth to that, at least on paper. But year after year they've continued to crank up excellent sports titles, with or without official licenses for our enjoyment. So with this year being the first without EA having a professional baseball game, they decided to take their series to the college level. An interesting move that works well with football and basketball, but will it for baseball? Read our full review of MVP 06 NCAA Baseball to find out!
Gameplay
Having been a huge college sports fan (in a gaming sense) for many years now, and with college football and basketball bringing some of the best sports gaming experiences around, I have to say the idea of bringing college baseball to the gaming industry seemed great to me. The whole college atmosphere that you get is just such a thrilling and exciting one, and does differ from the professional level. So the big questions is can EA manage to bring a great baseball game to the college level?
One thing I should start off by doing is explain some of the differences in the way college baseball plays compared to the professionals. Basically one of the key differences is the fact that the college level uses aluminum bats instead of wood. Therefore the games do seem to have a tendency to be higher scoring, and you get to enjoy the ever-popular "ting" noise off the bat. Also you will notice right away the college feel to the game with the stadiums and the crowds. The college level is in no way as consistent as the pros, so you can expect things to get a bit sloppier. And finally there are some rule differentials for the college level, but none of which really change the game of baseball all that much.
Allright let's start talking about the modes in the game, which like most EA titles, are very abundant in this game. You have your fair share of modes, including a standard style franchise mode, where you try and take your school to the number one ranking and of course winning the college world series. The franchise mode is quite deep, but don't have anything you haven't seen before. The mode works well enough that you could literally spend many hours into it. The only other mode that we haven't seen before is the cooperative multiplayer, which has never been done before in a baseball game. This works well, except for the fact that one person is going to be pretty dang bored waiting around, but the idea is good and the execution works as well as it could.
The game offers up a brand new control scheme, but also allows you to go back to a more conventional scheme if you prefer. The game has a new precision throwing feature, which basically makes use of the right analog stick and gives you control over your throws. This works very well, and although it does take a long time to get used to, you do feel much more involved in the experience. Then of course another use of the analog stick is in the batting, which uses the same swing mechanic as was in last year's MVP title. So, if you liked it last year you can expect more of the same in 06.
In the end, I just can't say it enough that what this game does best is not necessarily redefine the baseball experience, but instead just makes college baseball come to life in its own way. I just loved the feel of this game - it felt fresher and just a lot more enjoyable than any other MVP experience has grasped. Sure there isn't a whole lot of new going on in MVP 06, but there really doesn't have to. The ESPN integration I should mention is solid, but I am sure we are going to find much more engaging uses of it with the future sports titles to follow. In the end, the gameplay is as good as good can be, and can definitely be further refined in future installments.
Graphics
Visually, MVP 06 NCAA Baseball is not anything spectacular. I would have to say that the whole college atmosphere is portrayed in a great way, but everything else in the game just feels a bit worn out. I say this because the animation on this game was so-so and the character models just felt so generic that it was hard to appreciate them. Also the stadiums were done beautifully, but it would have been nice to see more of them, as you were kind of limited in the number of stadiums you could play in. In the end I can't say that the visuals of MVP 06 were bad, but at the same token they didn't do anything overly spectacular either.
Fun Factor
MVP 06 is one of those experiences that I had a feeling deep down that I was going to enjoy, and the final product was definitely meeting those expectations. The thing I like about college sports titles in general is they just have a more laid-backed enjoyable feel to them, where as the pro sports just don't give you that happy go lucky attitude. MVP 06 NCAA Baseball had a lot of great things going for it with a good amount of modes, a good solid baseball feel, and the college atmosphere, all combined to make a very enjoyable game.
Overall
As much as people have problems with EA and their games, I have to say that they did a great job with MVP 06 NCAA Baseball for a multitude of reasons. You can see they knew this was really a do or die scenario where they needed to make a great game to possibly make a running franchise out of this, and I think for the most part they successfully managed to do this. I would love to see this series expand and maybe shine the spotlight onto what is normally a forgotten league. College baseball obviously has a lot to offer, and I think a lot of people will enjoy checking it out in MVP 06 NCAA baseball.
- Gameplay
8.0 - Graphics
7.0 - Fun Factor
8.0 - Overall
8.0
