MVP Baseball Hands-On

The PSP version of MVP Baseball 2005 will be arriving hot on the heels of the launch of the Sony handheld. Currently scheduled for an early April release, this EA Sports game looks to provide a compelling baseball package that may not be as deep as its console and PC brethren but will surely keep baseball fans on the go busy.

While the build of MVP Baseball that we got a chance to check out wasn't a very stable one, it's apparent that EA has taken a lot of time honing the look of the game. The presentation is well done, featuring attractive menus, good-looking stadiums, and some of the best player models we've seen yet. Like another EA PSP sports game, FIFA Soccer, MVP Baseball features play-by-play and commentary tracks for each game you play, courtesy of Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow, the same team that sounds off in the console versions of MVP.

Pitching and fielding controls will be familiar to you in MVP for the PSP if you've played the MVP series before. On the mound, the popular pitching meter returns: You'll choose your pitch type by pressing the face button associated with that pitch and aim your toss with the left analog stick. If the stick feels a bit too sensitive when aiming your pitch (it's all too easy to aim outside the strike zone), a bit of practice will alleviate the problem. The pitching meter still involves two button presses: one to activate the power of the pitch and one to determine the accuracy of a pitch, unchanged from the console version.

When fielding, the game's play controls let you extend your player's abilities with diving catches, homer-robbing wall climbs, or sliding grabs, and they are easy to pull off by simply combining the right trigger and the analog stick. You'll also be able to control the power (and, thus, the accuracy) of your fielding throws using a strength meter. The stronger the throw, the better chance it has for missing its mark. On the offensive side of the ball, you'll still be batting by pressing the X button and aiming with the analog stick. When running the bases, each runner is shown in a picture-in-picture display with a handy icon above each, used to assign specific running instructions.

While MVP Baseball unfortunately lacks a franchise mode, there will still be several game modes to choose from, including quick play, season mode (no word yet on whether you can string multiple seasons together), a home run showdown (which can also be played in party play mode for up to four players), and one-on-one wireless multiplayer for when you're looking to match diamond wits with a real-life human being. Because the build of the game we had was so unstable, it was tough to get a feel for how the overall gameplay stacks up to the console versions of MVP. We hope to see a more polished version of the game in the coming weeks, and we'll report our findings then.