Major League Baseball 2K6 Review
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.
A big addition to batting comes in with the usage of the right stick. An idea that took entirely too long to become a big part of baseball games, the swing stick adds a lot to how you play the game. Before, you'd just mash the A button while choosing a direction to try to hit the ball. Now, you have to pull the stick back when the ball leaves the pitcher's hand. To swing contact, let the stick go (or push it to the left or right to push or pull the ball). If you want to swing for power, you push the stick up (or to the up-left or up-right). I like this system better than the one in MVP NCAA 2006 where you have to hold a button while using the swing stick to take a hack at the ball.
After putting the ball in play, you'll want to pound the A button as fast as you can. Why? Well, you now control the speed of the runner to a degree. Hitting the button fast will give your runner an extra burst of speed to beat out a close play. While you won't beat out anything that would have been an out anyways, you'll get a chance to run out that bunt that was almost an out.
Also new for running is the baseburner mode. This was a close second for my favorite additions to the series. With this, you will take control of the base runner and have a few plays you can call - you can tell the batter to swing or bunt, for example. You can control the runner's leadoff and, if you feel so inclined, try to steal a base. If you're on third, tell the batter to bunt and make a run for home on the sacrifice. This addition, while it may seem small, adds a significant amount of strategic depth to the game, particularly in those close ones in the bottom of the ninth.
Of course, the umpires won't always make good calls. If your manager is aggressive enough, you'll be prompted with a chance to argue the call. If you choose to, you'll get to play a type of minigame. On the screen will be a blue bar with a couple of red spots. Keep hitting A and the bar will fill up - stop it in a red spot and get ejected. If you get to the end of the bar, the argument continues and your temper will flare, causing the red spots to expand. Don't fill the bar up and the argument will end, giving you a morale bonus for the rest of the inning based on your argument's success. I really liked being able to see the result of my argument as opposed to just jamming the A button in the MVP series and not knowing what happened or if it benefited my team.
Returning to the series is the VIP system. Also seen in the other 2K series of games, the VIP will actually save information about how you play the game. You can then set a computer opponent to use your VIP and essentially play a game against yourself. You can also use it to study the way your friends play before taking them on, getting a slight advantage in the process.
The franchise mode included in 2K6 feels like the best in gaming. Not only do you have to manage your players, salary and other assorted items, you also have to worry about player morale. While the idea of morale has been seen in other games, this is the first time it has felt so central. For example, I was hitting really well with Troy Glaus. As I did better with him, he became happier and happier, getting to the point where he had some nice bonuses to his stats. Alternatively, I had Elvis Andrus benched and he was mad about it - his stats were lowered. Each player will tell you what it'll take to make them happy and you can even call team meetings to try to help out. In the end, the morale system is a wonderful addition to the franchise.
There are also a few other modes of play. In exhibition, you'll get a chance to just play a quick game with no bearing on stats (Inside Edge can still be used; you'll get points to spend on it instead). GM Career mode is pretty much a franchise mode with some additional goals to accomplish. World Baseball Classic mode also makes an appearance, giving you a chance to actually help the USA win the tournament instead of losing early on. Finally, there's online play - support for leagues is included which is a nice touch.
Sadly, MLB 2K6 is far from perfect. While the most fatal flaw was fixed, there is another huge flaw - the fielding. First of all, you're going to find it a lot harder to time dives for the ball. Flick the stick in a direction and your player will take a bit before making a grab at a hard hit ball. While it would make sense that players will take a split second to make a dive in real life, some sacrifices have to be made when creating a game.
The bigger issue with fielding, however, comes in with the different throwing animations and muddy-feeling physics system. If there is a runner on first, a hard hit to the shortstop would normally result in a double play - not in MLB 2K6, however. After you field the ball, you then have to hope the game doesn't use one of the slower animations - you could miss the runners at both second and first if this happens. While the animations for fielding are nice and smooth, I'd rather the game not force a longer animation on me when I am trying to get out of a rough inning.
Also, the physics system messes with fielding. Now, I'll admit, players were a bit too agile in other previous games - running at full speed and changing directions completely is pretty unrealistic. 2K6 takes this entirely too far, however - if you even think about breaking the wrong way on a fly ball, it'll drop in for a hit. Turning when running at a ball is also near impossible for the player. A physics system needs to take this into account and have the speed be a factor - breaking the wrong way on a fly ball shouldn't be the absolute death sentence that it is now.
The graphics in 2K6 are good. The animations flow smoothly and player faces (well, at least the majority of them) look realistic. There are some glitches that were introduced with the recent patch, though - I've seen small issues with lines flashing across the screen and with my pitcher's jersey number getting garbled as the camera pans down (yes, I made sure my 360 wasn't overheating). The issues, however, are small and don't cause any other problems.
The sound is also well done. You can select a variety of songs to play in your home stadium on a plethora of occasions. Also a neat touch are the sounds made when the ball comes off your bat - a 529 foot home run actually sounds like it. Barely dinking the ball over the first baseman's head will also sound like it should.
The game's presentation is also top-notch. The announcers do an excellent job of calling the game even though there are some issues with the stats they talk about from the previous year. While they will repeat on occasion, it isn't that much of an issue - all game announcers have a tendency to repeat. The replays are nice, too - at least they are when they work. There currently appears to be a bug that keeps replays from properly showing and you instead just see a still picture until you hit the A button. Hopefully, the issue gets fixed soon.
Overall, MLB 2K6 is a worthy replacement to the beloved MVP MLB franchise. While there are some occasional hiccups and glitches and the fielding is off, these are all issues that can be ironed out over the next year - the game is still pretty fun to play. Provided a patch is released to fix the glitches and the other issues are taken care of before next year's edition, the new version has a chance to be the best ever.
