Amazon.com: MVP Baseball 2005: Nintendo Gamecube: Video Games

22 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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4.0 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)

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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Elite of 2005's Lineup, March 13, 2005

By	G. Guberlal - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

MVP Baseball 2005 is the closest game currently on the market to give you the most in-depth baseball experience possible. In my opinion, the only people not liking some aspects of this game will be New York Yankees fans. It's not only Manny on the cover, but also the intro video, cracks and comments throughout the games and even a song praising Boston's first title in 86 years. Well, all I can say is, if you can't overlook those things, you're missing one fantastic game. Let's break it down:

Owner Mode:
New this year is Owner Mode where you begin with picking a stadium (not one of the existing ballparks, but a starter stadium) and making a few upgrades (seating, lights, whatever you can afford before opening day). You can add a restaurant, set ticket prices, make promotional days and on and on.

You have a financial advisor for the season, budget reports, player contracts, etc. One note: Yes, you can be the owner and play the game just like you would in Dynasty Mode. You can sim, play individual games, manage the game or sit in your luxury box and watch it all take place. There is so much to this mode that I couldn't possibly fit it into this review.

Dynasty Mode:
This mode is essentially the same as last year. Keep the owner happy, the players, do contracts and play the games. It's been updated and tweaked for more user friendly experience. And I can't leave out that this year, you even have single-A teams in addition to AA, AAA, and MLB.

Mini Games:
Instead of just a Home Run Derby, EA has included a variety of features that can teach you different aspects of the game. There is batting practice, pitching practice and also a scenario editor. To me, I found it to be an enjoyable experience especially when hitting the cars and busses over the outfield wall. This seems like a throw back to Triple-Play 2000 when you had target practice.

Graphics:
Simply amazing. Need I say more? The players faces and stances are mirrored to their real-life counterparts. Cutscenes, and animations are gorgeous. The only thing I found a proble with was the crowd...even in 2005, they are still wooden-looking. That's a sacrifice you have to make and it doesn't detract from the game experience.

Gameplay:
What a shift from last year! Pitching is now a lot more realistic with the way you use the meter. Instead on the old meter where you set power and tried to hit right spot, they have upgraded it to you having to stop it and exactly the right moment, if not, you risk and early or late breaking pitch. In rookie mode, it's not as big of a deal as it is in MVP mode. Make some mistake pitches in the higher levels and you're asking for trouble.

Batting is great! When you foul off a pitch, a little screen comes up and shows you how you hit it. Fouling off a pitch is a mistimed swing, same as a swing through. Gone is the animation where you swung, missed the ball and it popped up the crazy box to show you missing it. Instead, this year, they have the popup box, yet include the ball trail so you see how you missed it.

Fielding & baserunning is comparable to last years version with some great upgrades to visuals. There are plenty of dives, showboating grabs, wall jumps, and take-out slides.

Ok, I could go on & on with this review because, like I said, this is the most in-depth baseball game I have ever seen. If you want the best out there, MVP Baseball 2005 hits a Home Run.

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38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Version yet, February 27, 2005

By	Jeffrey M. Tedford (Williamsport, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

Unfortunately, it may also be the last version due to TakeTwo's contract with MLB.

Anyway, this is a great addition to EA's collection of sports titles. Some cons include: Commentators have new things to say, in addition to the old things, but they still get dull rather quickly. You can only control one team at a time. I like to play NCAA football and Madden while "playing" one team and "playing owner, gm, etc." for another.

Pros:

1) Graphics: So much smoother in this version. The outfield characters are leaner and better looking. The stadiums look great and even when you create a ballpark, it still looks good.

2) Gameplay: It is tougher to field, hit, etc. but I consider this a good thing. Fielding is tougher because when you're tracking a fly ball you don't automatically stop on the circle. You actually have to pay attention once you get "close". Hitting is tougher, I think, and I actually have had to lower my level of gameplay to make myself more competitive. Baserunning is also more of a challenge. The pitchers are better at picking your runners off, and while you can modify the "gameplay tuning" it doesn't make winning automatic. Additionally, they fixed a "bug" from the 2004 version that made it harder for left-handers to hit homeruns.

3) Game modes:
a. Dynasty: Great. Same as before. 120 years to build a dynasty and see what you can do.

b. Owner mode: Wow! Only 30 years, but still long enough. You create your own stadium from pre-set options (This could be improved). You buy food stands to sell food to the fans. You buy batting cages, souvenir stands, order fireworks night, order magnetic schedules, etc. This is to get the fans to come, keep them interested while they're there, and hopefully make more money. You start off with a stadium of 20,000 and can work your way up to 65,000 (I think). Everything you buy costs money, but in the long run, you'll hopefully be able to turn a profit. This is hard. So far, I'm 30 games in and $5 million in the whole.

c. Mini-games. The pitching mini-game is HARD! Wow! It's not an automatic win. Of course, I could be losing because I'm using the Pirates. You have a "strike-zone" and you have to pitch the ball to certain locations in the strike-zone. THere is a timed game and an un-timed game. The batting mini-game is actually relatively easy, but definitely good for honing your directional hitting skills. You can also play these mini-games in your "season" games during spring training. It allows you to improve, or negate, your players' ratings.

d. Home-run Derby. Same as before.

One thing I really like that I didn't notice in the previous version is that when you do the different mini-games and homerun derby, the computer actually tells you how many points you got based on the level of difficulty. If you put it on higher settings (of difficulty) you get more points, but it's so much harder the higher you go.

I only became a baseball fan a few years ago, but these games have really helped me understand the game a bit better, learn more about the players, and boggled my mind with the number of things we can do with technology.

Great Game. Try www.easports.com first because they're currently offering free shipping.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well, Darn, I really like this Game, August 11, 2005

By	Joseph J. Kaminski (Hammond, In United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

I love baseball, and I really love sim games. This game is a good combination of the two. You can play baseball, any MLB team in exhibition mode and have two types of sims, Dynasty and Owner Mode to play whole seasons.

The game can be tweaked enough to get you winning fairly soon. That's a great help when you want to learn at you own pace. You can learn the batting and pitching first and when you are more comfortable, go on to the fielding and base running.

The sim is fine. Although not the caliber of some online and computer games, it does the job. My main problem with it is the difficulty to find out who is on whose team as you trade and cut players and sign others. Trading is a bit hard to figure out too. But that may be because I'm an old dude and not always up on all these computer gadgets.

But still, it's great for all those would be baseball stars and couch potatoes. You can even be a cyber star on the field. Just create a player and give yourself a chance.