Written by Brian Beck, 4/29/2006
Played on:
Xbox 360
I can still remember playing my first-ever baseball game. Back in 1986, my parents had bought me a Nintendo Entertainment System. We got Mario with it but shortly after, picked up the original baseball game. There were no player names, no real teams (there were six different colors total) and no franchise mode of any kind. Even though the game wasn't deep at all, my brother and I played it a lot. We managed to find some bugs in the game - my favorite was the negative four miles-per-hour fastball you could pitch if you threw a slow pitch just right.
Baseball games have come a long way since 1986. The Sega Genesis had Sports Talk Baseball, the first baseball game with actual commentary. There were the games on the Playstation that were in full 3D. Eventually, there was the development of the franchise mode. Now, we have the very first baseball game to appear on the XBOX 360 - Major League Baseball 2k6.
Now, I've always been a fan of the MVP Baseball series. When I heard that 2K Sports now had the license to produce Major League Baseball games, I was worried that I'd only be playing the NCAA series for the next few years. Honestly, I came into this game as a die-hard fan of the MVP series -- I never really enjoyed the 2K series of games.
I've been pleasantly surprised with 2K6, however. While there are a few issues with the game, none of them are game-breaking. The Inside Edge scouting system is great, the revamped swing system is awesome and I love the payoff pitch system. While there were some lockup issues initially after the game was released, 2K Sports worked hard to fix the issue - the game's fatal flaw was fixed by a patch distributed over XBOX Live.
The Inside Edge system is something that seems like it would be an obvious addition to any MLB game - it amounts to purchasing scouting services. Want to find out where to pitch Albert Pujols if the count goes full? How about having a good idea of what kind of pitch Johan Santana will throw you with a 2-2 count? Inside Edge will allow for that and more. You'll pay for information with the money your team earns you during the season and will find out a lot about the players you scout.
My favorite part of the Inside Edge system happens when you scout a batter. You'll find out where the batter has a tendency to hit the ball, where you should pitch him and just what you should throw. The touch that really made this fun for me was that the catcher actually called the spot for the pitch. The catcher will move to the pitch spot and hold his glove in the area that you should hit while the pitch will flash.
If you manage to get two strikes on the batter or get into some other big situation, you'll get a chance to through a payoff pitch. With this, you'll have to hit a certain spot and, if you do, your pitch will get a ratings boost. Of course, if the score is tied and you have the game-winning run on second, you'll have a harder time hitting your spot - the controller will vibrate and the spot that normally doesn't move around will jump all over the strike zone. Solid pitchers won't feel this as much as a rookie, however.
This makes sense - some pitchers will get more confident in a pitch as the game goes on (or, if they can't hit a spot with it, they'll just stop throwing it) while big situations will really shake up some pitchers. Overall, the additions to the pitching system have really helped to make it the most enjoyable one in any baseball game that I've ever played. This system is far more interactive than any other I have seen and does the best to capture what it is like to be pitching with the bases loaded and Barry Bonds at bat in the bottom of the ninth.
If you can manage to get three batters out, you'll get a chance to hit. Another element of Inside Edge is the "Batter's Eye" system. If you've scouted a pitcher, you'll know a few areas where he likes to pitch dependent on the count and can try to guess where the ball will come across the plate. If you haven't researched the pitcher, though, you can still guess where the pitch will end up. Batters with higher skill will have a larger area they can guess at. Taking a ball will increase the size of the zone while a strike will lower it - it also seems that the player being tired lowers it. If you guess the pitch location right, you'll have an added bonus when you swing at it.
