New License, New Control, New Game
College baseball and MLB is different in many ways. College baseball use aluminum bat instead of wood to produce more speed and more noticeable sound when the bat hit the ball. They also create some special rules to provide safety, rules like no take-out-slide, no home plate collision and smaller strike zone. They also added the 10-runs rule to end the game quicker by letting the leading team win when they ahead by 10 runs. If you're a pro player and wanted to play the pro ways, you can easily remove the rules in the option menu.
The new Load-and-Fire Batting System is what made this game so realistic. In the Load-and-Fire Batting System, inorder to make a swing with the bat, you need to hold your right analog stick down to load the bat, and then press the right analog up make a normal swing. Also, to swing with more power or contact, hold L1 or R1 while swinging.
Load-and-Fire is not the only new batting system. In addition for some gamer needs, EA also added a Zone-Hitting Batting System. In this batting system, all you need to do is to locate the zone with the left analog stick, and then press X to made a normal swing, is very simple. And to made a power or contact swing, hold L1 or R1 while swinging, just like the Load-and-Fire Batting System.
Meanwhile on the defense side, the pitching control is still remain the same as the MVP 05, it was the fielding control that what made this game different. In the pitching system, you will be using a precision pitch meter just like any other baseball video game, you locate your pitch first with the left analog stick, then you hold with any pitch buttom to adjust the effective of the pitch, then release it and push it again to throw an accurate pitch. You won't find any buttom for intentional-hit-batter in this game, but you will eventually figure how to hit a batter after a few day of playing.
On the new fielding control, called the Precision Throw Control, you will be using a throw meter just like the pitching system, but this time you will be using the right analog stick to locate and throw the ball to the fielder. The direction you hold the right analog stick is corresponting to the bases, for examples, east is for 1st base, north is for 2nd base. west is for 3rd base, and south is for home. For the cutoffs men, you need to hold R3 and press it south, it was very confusing. To throw with accurate, you need to hold right analog and release it on the green zone, it might sound easy but it not because you must have the ball in your fielder hand before you start throwing, otherwise, it won't do any good. EA also added a hustle control for the fielder, in my opinion, it didn't do any good because you won't use dive as often as it suppose to be.
For all pro player who like to play the classic ways, you can still change the new system back to classic anytime.
MVP 06 NCAA Baseball still offer the mini game from the MVP 05 for practice. You can still create you own players, teams, and ballparks just like MVP 05, but the things that interest me the most is the dynasty mode. In the dynasty mode, you can pick a choice from hundred of teams, even thought not all college teams is in there, the number is still high. No matter what team you choose, dynasty mode let you feel like you're really the manager of that team. You will be playing the games in schedule, you can play the game as the team, the coach, or just sim. There will be challenge during the season for you to earn some items to improve your team. At the end of each season, you will be enter the tournament to see is you're the best. During the off-season, you will be recruiting high school player to play for you, but you will have to do a little research on them first during the game season. It is fun to decide like a real manager.
The graphic of this game is a little wicky but the sound is great. You can hear what the fan is saying and voice is understandable, sometimes you can even hear the fan call for a play. For the most parts, thank to Mike Patrick and Kyle Peterson for being so natural when speaking about the plays, players, and the teams.
Overall, this game is still great even if you don't like college baseball. The gameplay is good and the new batting system is really realistic. I recommend this game for the pro and the newbie should try the older baseball game first.
On the side note, I don't like college baseball and I don't know anythings about them. But I still like this game a lot.