MVP 2004 is a great baseball simulation, and you shouldn't miss out if you like baseball.
User Rating: 9.1 | MVP Baseball 2004 PS2
EA Sports put together a great baseball simulation this year in MVP Baseball 2004. With innovative gameplay, good graphics, and a deep, deep franchise mode, MVP is definitely the baseball game to play this year. MVP Baseball 2004 has all of the standards in the baseball simulation genre. The game includes an exhibition mode, Dynasty mode, Home Run Showdown (a “home run derby race,” if you will), and Pitcher Showdown (similar to HRS but with strikeouts instead of home runs). There are some unlockables, including old stadiums, throwback jerseys, and old players, which you unlock as you gain MVP points by completing certain challenges in a game, exhibition or in Dynasty mode. The player models are good, and the stadium models are easily recognizable and look like their real-life counterparts. The difficulty level varies by setting: rookie mode is a cinch, while MVP can be pretty challenging to seasoned players, and you can pick between manual, assisted, or automatic fielding schemes. An online mode is included, though a league mode is not an option as of now. The staple of the MVP series is the innovative gameplay, and EA surely crafted an addictive engine in this game. What sets MVP apart from other baseball simulations is the “throwing meter,” as I like to call it. Whenever a player throws the baseball, be it a pitcher or a fielder, a curved meter appears over his head (though the fielder and pitcher’s meters vary a little.) When a button assigned to a base is held down, the throwing meter goes up, meaning that the impending throw will be harder. In this way, you can completely control how hard you want your player to throw. However, this does come with a caveat; the longer you hold down the button, the chance of an error on the throw increases. The pitching meter works a little differently. Basically, you hold down the appropriate pitch button, and the meter goes up. When it reaches its climax, you must let go of the button, and the marker on the meter swings back to the beginning. However, a green area appears after you release the pitch button, and in order to throw an accurate pitch you must hit the same pitch button again when the meter passes through the green zone (the size of the green zone varies by difficulty level: rookie mode has a bigger green zone while the one in MVP mode is smaller.) I know this may sound confusing, as the process is difficult to describe, but after some practice it becomes second nature. What also distinguishes MVP from the rest of the pack lies in its Dynasty mode, which is simply fantastic. Just like a regular franchise mode, you pick a MLB team, and choose to do a fantasy draft or just keep the regular rosters (you must have a 162-game schedule, which may annoy some.) Once finished with this, you encounter the main Dynasty screen, in which you can control every aspect of your franchise. You can trade players, sign free agents, check stats and standings, fool around with your batting order and pitching staff, and check your MVP mailbox (which contains news from around the league. The novel aspects of EA’s Dynasty mode are the ability to control (and play the games of) your AAA and AA minor league affiliates, and the Team Chemistry meter. You control your minor league teams just as you would with your MLB team, and it feels good because you get to really feel what the future of your franchise will be. The team chemistry basically works like this: players’ happiness levels affect your team’s performance, so if you have an unhappy player who complains about his playing time, your team will suffer (albeit slightly, depending on the strength of your team) if you don’t put him on the field more frequently. If you do not meet your three year contract goals as a result of a failure to address your team’s issues, then you will be fired and must be hired by another organization (a worse one.) All the Chemistry meter basically does is give you incentive to really be a part of your team, which makes the Dynasty mode all the better. The only noticeable omissions from MVP’s Dynasty mode is the ability to control the prices of tickets, concessions, etc., and deep stats (for example, you can’t see the losses of other pitchers around the league in the league statistics screen.) They’re small omissions, though, which are not that sorely missed. The presentation is pretty standard, and the commentators are nothing special, either. As with most sports simulations, the commentators become boring fast, but luckily you have the option to shut their voices off. The game is not perfect in all aspects, however. The players move a little sluggishly, and turning double plays is more of a hassle than in other games. The menus in Dynasty mode may be daunting to some players, and can take some time to learn how to navigate. Also, sometimes after an out or after a strikeout in Pitcher’s Showdown, the game stalls for a second, but it rarely freezes. The Xbox version probably doesn’t have these problems, but they don’t hamper the PS2 version too badly. However, none of these problems really have a great effect on the game's fun level. Overall, MVP Baseball 2004 is a must buy for any baseball fan. Its innovative gameplay will make you keep coming back time and time again, and its deep franchise mode will keep micromanagers hooked. EA hit gold with this title, and its hold onto sports simulation supremacy continues.
