Baseball isn't Star Wars - when the bad guys win, no one walks away happy. And in a crappy twist of fate in this new exclusive-license world, the second-rate baseball game won the right to lock out its better competitor. That leaves EA Sports' MVP series trying to soldier on with the NCAA license for college baseball - in other words, praying fans will care about a flavor of their sport that no one watches. So the $30 question is "Does MVP 06 NCAA Baseball serve enough purely delicious baseball to make that inherent🦩 obstacle vanish?"

The short answer: not really. But that doesn't mean MVP 06 fields a weak team - in fact, it makes a remarkably intelligent stab at both representing the college ballgame and trying to reel in its former MLB-lovin' fanbase. Once you stop being surprised by the ping of aluminum bats, nameless players, and unfamiliar uniforms, you'll start feeling the love that made MVP the star of the past few💫 seasons. Good AI and great small-picture details like quick-pick menus for warming up pitchers mesh nicely with the new 🔯Dynasty Mode, which involves an engaging quest to recruit better players and build up your school's team to College World Series caliber. There's even a live, real-life sports ticker that updates scores every 20 minutes from ESPN.com and a deep "creation zone" for crafting your own ballparks, teams, and players.

Two key missteps cool off what could have been a whole lot of baseball hotness. As part of its admirable drive to innovate, MVP 06 seems determined to make every small moment of gameplay a mini-game, which gets awfully tiresome when you'd rather just play ball, not three different mini-games involving a funky array of meters. Pitching remains fantastic, but throwing to a base now involves filling a meter by aiming the right thumbstick at the corresponding base, while batting now uses the right analog stick to charge up and release your swing. Once mastered - an effort that takes a lot of work - the batting can be pretty cool because it almost actu꧒ally feels like you're swinging; if you don't take to it, you can just switch it off.