EA separated themselves from the competition this year by including all AAA and AA minor league teams of all 32 major league clubs. Play within the farm system to find tomorrow’s star today. You can play with any of these teams within several different modes. Play Now and Exhibition are the standard one-time games, while Manager Mode allows you to call the game from the dugout as a manager. This is for all you baseball strategists. There’s also a Scenario Editor, where you can create the ultimate baseball drama... like two outs with a full count, bottom of the ninth, down by three with the bases loaded. The innovative Home Run Showdown is back again, where you compete against another batter in a race for a designated distance. New this year is the Pitcher Showdown, where you race to strike out a certain amount of batters. Of course, the bread and butter of
MVP 2004 is the Dynasty Mode. Not that I think you’ll ever have the time unless you simulate each season, but you can play up to 120 years of baseball. Not only do you go through the rigors of 162 games for your favorite MLB team, but you also play through the AA and AAA schedules. Within the season, you’ll deal with players unhappy with their contracts or playing time, forcing you to make decisions on whether or not to trade them away, or maybe just send them back down to the minor leagues and call up their replacement. Being the baseball purist that I am, I fell in love with the minor league addition. However, for those that could care less about the farm system,
MVP Baseball 2004 may be a little overwhelming and tiresome.
The reason for the popularity in the series was the innovative pitcher-batter interface. Similarly to the 3-click swing in many golf games when you can’t line up the target, tip-off pitches are what give MVP a fresh new style. This year you can expect to hit bigger home runs when you see those red, white and blue circles on your screen. In the field, you now have the option of diving or climbing the wall, something that’s new from last year. In addition, make sure not to throw your hardest when making a routine throw to first. If you put too much power behind it, you might end up throwing it away for an error.