MVP Baseball 2004

"I good baseball title, but it lacks some of the fundamentals."

MVP Baseball 2004 is a good baseball game, though it lacks some things. Like it has no "real" home run showdown. You don't just hit dingers and see who has the most, no. That will be explained later. Now, I'll be reviewing these areas: Graphics, Sound/Music Game play and game modes.

Firstly the graphics: 7/10.
Nothing real special for the Playstation 2. The player models look good, for example you can tell what player it is without being told their name. They have that down. The crow models look pretty bad, like 2-d, or a better example, paper. They aren't 3-d they have 2 sides. That wasn't done right. The game also has only 14 generic models for create-a-player. That's not really enough since their are hundreds of AA and AAA players that use generic faces.

Sound/ Music: 8/10
The sound is done good. You can hear the ball hit off of bats, and sometimes, the bat cracks. You can clearly hear the ball dropping into gloves of outfielders. But where the money is is the music. They have about 15 songs in this game, and my favorite songs are: Steriogram with "Walkie Talkie Man", Lucky Boys confusion with "hey Driver", and the last of my favorite songs is Snow Patrol with "Splitting Games". The main reason this area got a score of an 8 is mainly because of the music. There are only 1 or two songs I simply cannot stand, and if so, you can switch between songs with R3 (the analogue stick) The bad thing about this is the commentary. The one announcer tells you what's going on, and the other one says dumb things like: "grab some pine, meat!" when you get struck out. Also, they say it's time for a pitching change, sometimes, when you give up only one hit..

Gameplay: 8/10.
The gameplay is pretty good. The controls may seem slightly confusing(not for me, but for everybody else I've played with) The baserunning just may be confusing to you, but once you sit down and read the manual it will probably become clear. You can do an array of special grabs with your outfielder, and numerous special slides with your baserunner like a takeout slide to second. Pitching is done nicely. Your pitcher will lose stamina based on his stamina attribute. You can warmup a pitcher in the pen, and if your pitcher has lost his stuff a mound visit may be just the thing. It may give your pitcher more stamina, or more confidence, or it just may as the announcers say "jack up with his rhythm." One low point about pitching is that if you pitcher throws a 97 MPH fastball regularly, he will still throw it 97 in the ninth inning. I know guys like Bartolo Colon and Randy Johnson can throw their fastest in the ninth, but not everyone can do it. On to batting. When your batter steps up to the plate, it shows a little bit of what he has done in the game so far, and a picture of him. They make it fairly simple. They use the good old hot and cold zones that display where the batter hits his best(red) and worst(blue). Clear is neutral. Now, you can just press X to swing, but the ball could go anywhere. They use the left analogue stick as what they call it the "pure swing system". Move the stick down for ground balls, and up for fly balls and homers. Fielding is simple. Move the player under the ball and he will catch it. To throw the ball, the buttons correspond with a diamond. X= home, Circle=first triangle=second, and square third. Baserunning isn't that hard either. You press the button for the corresponding runner, and you can tell him to go back a base, or foreward a base, or you can advance all runners a base or back a base. You can use the left analogue stick to slide when the runner gets near a base. One bad thing is that almost every time the CPU tries a diving catch or something, they catch it.

Gameplay: 6.5/10 Dynasty mode sure got screwed. The bad: They don't ask for you name as manager, and when you get fired, and you don't get a new job offer, that's it: you're dynasty is over. They also don't keep track of career managing stats. Now the dynasty mode isn;t that bad. You can sign player/ negotiate contracts. They have stuff like rained out games, and suspensions. It's really nothing special. You can quickly simulate games, play them, or you can manage them by making decisions for you team. They also utilize the use of AAA and AA minor league teams, which will be the major source of young talent. The other game modes they have are :Quick Game, Exhibition, pitcher showdown, situation creator, and homerun showdown. First up is Quick game. Nothing special, pick the two teams, and your off. Next is Exhibition. This is like quick game, but more in depth. You can pick the starting pitchers and lineup, nothing special. Next, on to situation mode. You can set the situation, anything you like. A blowout in the 7th inning and see if you can come back, for example. You can pick the starting pitchers, the score, what inning, and who's up to bat. Another game mode is the pitcher showdown. You pick two pitchers, and you try to beat the other one in getting the designated number of strikeouts. You get points for each strikeout, and a deduction for homeruns. The last game mode is homerun showdown. You pick two batters, and a distance, like 1,000 feet 10 10,000 feet. You try to get to that distance before the other batter by hitting the ball, and it calculates your distance, and whoever gets to the set distance wins. That's it. No homerun hitting mode.

Well, that's my review. I'd say it's worth the 50 bucks. I have had hours of fun, with it., it lacks some things, but it's actually very good. Best baseball game out there. Oh yeah, Barry Bonds ain't in the game. He is replaced with a Generic player "Jon Dowd" and he has similar ratings. Bond's CAN'T be in the game, so EA just didn't mess anything up.
Final Verdict: Buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/17/04