IvanF's Cut and Paste, No-Name, Nintendo Gamecube Reviews of 2K Sports' Major League Baseball 2K6 and Acclaim's All-Star Baseball 2004 2006...

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IvanF's Cut and Paste, No-Name, Nintendo Gamecube Reviews of
2K Sports' / Visual Concepts' / Kush Games' Major League Baseball 2K6
and Acclaim's All-Star Baseball 2004 2006

Okay, I'm really not getting it here. 2K Sports and Visual Concepts have completely ignored Nintendo and the Gamecube for how many years now? Since the days of NHL and NFL 2K3? And hell, they never released their MLB series on the Nintendo Gamecube before, so why the fuck did they start now, especially now that the Gamecube is essentially dead? WTF?...

For those of you who don't know why there are huge DS Lite advertisements at every single Seattle Mariners game, it's because Nintendo owns the team. Howard Lincoln specifically actually, which is where all those god-awful Ken Griffey Baseball games used to stem from back in the good ol' days of the SNES and N64...

The Nintendo Gamecube as a result has gotten pretty much every single decent baseball game made in the past ten years as a result. Whether we're talking about the MVP Baseball series here or the All-Star Baseball series (or Nintendo's own version of a baseball simulator, which was canned and moved to the Wii), Nintendo fans actually got their fair share of the sport. Which is more than I can say for the video games of any of the other major sports in North America, especially those coming from 2K Sports and Visual Concepts of all goddam companies...

So why start now? Why bring MLB 2K6 to the Gamecube at the end of its life, I may never know. Did Nintendo force them to in order for Take-Two to get the rights to the Seattle Mariners franchise? Who the fuck knows? All I do know, is that when I briefly tried it, MLB 2K6 did seem like a decent enough port of the Xbox version of the game that I already owned...

"I used to be the hugest fan of baseball. Or the goddam biggest bandwagon fan, at least...

The '92 and '93 era of sports were the absolutely birth of my fanaticism for all things Toronto. Those were the years I became obsessed with the Toronto Raptors NBA expansion team, those were the years where I was screaming my lungs out to support Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and those were the years I remember literally standing by my television set with a goddam baseball bat, and swinging on every fucking damn pitch that John Olerud, Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter did back in the day for the Toronto Blue Jays...

But things went downhill after the union strikes for each of those respective three sports though. I lost interest in basketball ironically enough during the glory years of the Vince Carter era, I just can't seem to muster a real boner for Leafs hockey anymore after all the players bitched and complained during the recent lockout, and as for baseball? I used to love that sport so damn much as a kid, and yet after the strike that happened shortly after the Blue Jays had been on the top of the world? I completely forgot about the sport, and went along with the rest of the hockey nation crowds later on, claiming that American baseball was simply the most boring and lazy shit out there...

Now that I'm out of university, things have started to return back to the way they were. It's September 24th right now, and already I'm salivating at the prospect of getting NBA Raptors tickets all season long, and already I'm desperate for the Toronto Maple Leafs to return to fucking Hockey Night in Canada already...

This was the first year in a very long time, where I actually sat down, watched baseball for hours at a time, and actually enjoyed the game for what it was worth. For years, I had mocked my former passion for the game as being just an innocent child who didn't know better back during the World Series era, but now I truly do appreciate the art and form and actual cerebral intelligence that gets pushed and popped into every fucking pitch, every damn throw and every goddam play call. Baseball, just like with American football, is one of the most strategic sports I have ever gotten to witness in my entire damn life, once you sit back to actually analyze and study its worth. And it's now just awe inspiring to me once again to see Roy Halladay or AJ Burnett pitch a near perfect game, as if I was reliving the glory days of Pat fucking Hentgen all over again...

So yeah, short story short, I've fallen back in love with baseball all over again. So why wouldn't I get the latest baseball game for the Xbox, hoping that my love for the simulation of the sport would be rekindled as well?...

The thing was, in essence I fell in love with MVP Baseball 2005 earlier this year before the MLB season even began. And I was disheartened, to say the least, when I remembered that Electronic Arts' had ironically lost the MLB license out of all goddam licenses, to goddam Rockstar and fucking 2K Sports (who had completely massacred MLB 2K5 as a franchise, if memory serves me right)...

I was hoping that as being the only real Major League Baseball game out on the market today (sans Sony's offerings), that 2K Sports' would've learned their lessons from EA and actually improved their gameplay to the point of it actually being fun. Or at least simulate the sport as much as they could, just like they managed to do with their NFL, NBA and NHL offerings over the past few years...

Instead though, MLB 2K6 took the cheap way out. They copied MVP Baseball in almost every way they could, although in some respects, I do kind of thank them for that. A lot of the pitching from MVP made it into MLB, and while obviously the controls are not as tight or concise as they were from EA, I can still feel the raw art form of the sport emanating from the title every time I make a breaking ball with Halladay or a piercing curve from Chacin. I love pitching in baseball, always have and always will, and it's nice to know that at least MLB 2K6 got that part of the formula right (even if they had to steal it, EA style, ironically from an EA Sports game itself...)...

But for everything else? 2K Sports really fucked with the formula, to the point where MLB 2K6 is almost a pure embarrassment of the sport it's supposed to emulate. Take batting for instance, where the default controls have been switched over to the right analog stick. It was supposed to give the user more control over the direction and power of their swing, but all it did was unnecessarily overcomplicate bullshit to the point where either I was always fouling the ball, or I was always goddam swinging early...

It was only a matter of time until I switched back to the classic control style and then almost everything was fine again, except for the fact that the swings that you have in this game are just not nearly as smooth or tweaked as they were in MVP. 2K Sports tried to add some new features, like being able to buy scouting reports for pitchers and batters and shit like that, but considering I never ever bother with dynasty modes or user points in any sports series but NBA ones? Why the fuck should I care if I can learn what pitches Halladay or Santana does most often when the count is 3-2, when the game sucks too much to ever earn those scouting reports through gameplay in the first place? WTF?...

Outfielding is just a pure mess in MLB 2K6, and it hurts to see why. Literally it pains the eyes, as you can't tell where the fuck the ball is coming from, where the fuck it's going, and the movement of the players you control is as goddam awkward as it is skating backwards in NHL 2K6 (which was not good). So damn often I've missed an easy fly-ball, and so damn often I find it impossible to make a diving save or jump to grab the ball before it sails for a home run just over the wall. And even after all that, there's just something damn weird about throwing the baseball back to the infield, as the tweaking and dweaking done to the strength of each of your tosses just seems completely off and random, depending on who you're playing or whatever the fuck is happening when you hold down the Xbox face buttons...

The angels and angles and camera in the outfield are mind-numbingly boggling enough at times, but absolutely the worst aspect of MLB 2K6 lies in the infield. So damn often my players make unforced defensive errors for really no damn reason but bad AI and pathfinding. I've literally had first baseball have a ball dribble right to them, yet they just stand there at first base waiting for somebody else to pick up the ball and toss it to them. On the flip side of things, I've seen a ball head right for the pitcher, yet he just stands there as the fucking first baseman comes to pick it up instead, yet nobody is at first base anymore to receive. WTF?...

Running in the diamond on offence is even worse of a nightmare. The D-pad on the Xbox has never really been precise, but neither are the completely unintuitive controls in MLB 2K6. I've tried stealing bases, only to find myself either not moving until its too late, or stealing the wrong base with the wrong guy at the fucking wrong time. Whenever a sacrificial fly ball is made, I try to only move up one runner (2nd to 3rd base), yet my guy at first always ends up fucking things over by starting towards second base as well. And WTF was with 2K Sports when they thought it would actually be fun to constantly keep tapping the Xbox face buttons to sprint between the bases? Not only does that completely ruin at times the speed stats of each of the players in the game, but more often than not I completely forget to tap the run button, and then get fucking out at first base when I should've had an easy double. WTF?...

The graphics in MLB 2K6 aren't bad per say, but I expected a hell of a lot better considering what we got in MVP Baseball 2005. In the latter, face mappings and body polygons and the fucking lighting in the stadiums were all done to near perfection, because what else could you expect when you really only had three or four characters on screen at once? Yet in MLB 2K6, players just don't look the way that they should, they animate horrendously at times, and the sharpness of the picture on screen looks no better than it does in fucking NHL 2K6. But while NHL 2K6 has the excuse of having ten damn players on the screen at once, why the fuck can't I at least get a clear picture with just a pitcher, a batter, a catcher and a goddam useless umpire in the back? And WTF is with the occasional slowdown still? WTF?...

MVP Baseball also had simply the best kinds of extra baseball modes in the game, as the Dynasty Mode and the Homerun Derby were done to near perfection. I can't say the same for MLB 2K6 though, where the piss poor batting mechanics destroy the entire feat of a home run in the game, and the dynasty mode is worlds behind anything that the 2K NHL, NBA or formerly their NFL franchises once had to offer. How the hell Take Two could've screwed up the MLB franchise so damn horribly when they did so damn well with their other respective sports, I will never know. Especially considering they're the ones who fucking took away the EA MVP series from the bloody hell rest of us in the first place...

Is this all supposed to be some form of payback? Is this shit all because 2K Sports now have a fucking baseball monopoly? They do realize that they still need to sell copies of their goddam games to get back their fucking paychecks, right? Ironically, it's normally EA that I'd be telling this lecturing bullshit to, but ay, there lies the rub...

How the fuck is this fair? Electronic Arts' had finally produced a sports series worthy of the actual sport, and then it gets taken away from them? Hell, if anything, it was the greatness of MVP Baseball 2005 that actually brought me back into the fold of baseball, and let me once again appreciate the sport for the slow yet strategic and graceful samurai of an art that it really is...

It's not like I was glued to my television set for every single Blue Jays game this year or some shit like that. But while in previous seasons, I would've just scoffed whenever a baseball game would rear its slow as molasses head on TV, this year I would leave it on in the background as a perfect background setting to everything I did and enjoyed at home in the summer. Every time Halladay made a picture perfect slider of a pitch, every time AJ Burnett made a stunning curveball, and everytime Gustavo Chacin absolutely embarrassed the batter with a sharp left hook, all I could do was stand up and applaud at perhaps the only real remaining sport out there that really does feel like a true one on one duel of a showdown of the minds...

But how exactly was my rekindled passion for the sport rewarded? By 2K Sports' outright buying of the MLB license, then fucking up everything sweet and holy in MVP Baseball 2005 by copying all of EA's ideas and then massacring them with new bone-headed notions?..

Seriously, WTF is this? Bizarro world or some crap like that? Isn't that normally EA's job? WTF?...

... hell, I never would've thought I'd side with EA Sports in a goddam video gaming debate, but really?...

Please, 2K Sports. Just sell the MLB franchise back to Electronic fucking Arts already...

Game Design - 6.5
Enjoyment Factor - 6.0
Overall (not an average) - 6.0

Why is it that the Nintendo Gamecube gets all the good baseball games out there, yet none of the other damn sports? Gamecube was blessed with the MVP Baseball series (the best baseball games since the RBI and Hardball ones back in the days of the NES) and the All-Star Baseball series from Acclaim, which is weird considering that for the longest time, those were the best two game series in the whole damn sport...

Why is it that Nintendo gets all the baseball games? Is it because Nintendo owns the Seattle Mariners? Could be a factor, though I guess I for one will never really know...

All I do know, is that aside from lesser graphics and some less intuitive controls here and there, the Nintendo Gamecube port of All-Star Baseball 2004 shines almost just as much as it did on the original Xbox. Which is extremely rare for a sports game, considering EA and almost every other company normally butchers their efforts on the Gamecube system...

... sigh... now, if only we could get that shitty ass Ken Griffey series back...

... but I guess my review of the Xbox version of All-Star Baseball 2004 for now will have to do...

"I never really thought Acclaim could pull off a decent simulation of a sports game...

I guess I thought wrong... as even my MVP Baseball loving brother admits, that All-Star Baseball 2004 definitely has its merits...

To be honest? If there's any reason why All-Star Baseball deserves a decent look, it's because of the batting... To be honest, I think it uses the most intuitive of the batting methods in any modern baseball game, in its 2D cursor mode. As you have to do is chase the ball, point the analog stick in the right direction, and let your backbone slide... or whatever sort of crap...

There are definitely faults in All-Star Baseball 2004, and I'm not even going to bother to list them all here...

For one thing, probably the most aggravating thing is running the bases. I mean seriously, why the hell did Acclaim make it so damn hard and non-intuitive, to just get one of your runners to try to make it to home base, when you have the bases loaded or any sort of crap?... If I make a sacrificial fly shot, I only want one of my damn players to fucking run to the next base. But for some damn reason, the current All-Star Baseball controls make it almost impossible just to get one guy to run, as your fingers always seem to fuck things up and make them all run at once... That's never a pretty sight, to get a double play on you before you can ever score the fucking winning run...

And outfielding, while decent enough with the default camera, is somehow more of a pain in All-Star Baseball than it ever was in even RBI baseball back in the day... I mean, the problem is that the camera follows the ball. Meanwhile, where the fuck is the player I'm controlling?... More often then not, I just let control go of the player that I'm controlling offscreen, and try to let the computer handle the fucking outfielding. That doesn't always work either, as there's really no solution to just figuring out where the fuck I'm supposed to be...

There are a myriad of other problems with All-Star Baseball 2004... Namely, some slow down here and there. And some pretty lame ass replays as well, as the game doesn't seem to really register when you make a decent double, for some damn reason or another...

But the commentary ain't so bad. It's plain, and devoid of much of any variety. But at least they don't make the snide and just goddam repetitively dumbass comments that the colour commentary often does in EA Sports games...

The graphics are passable on the Xbox version. I would've expected more from the game, considering you really only have the pitcher, the catcher, and the hitter to worry about on screen at the same time. And no slowdown would've been a big plus, but still... The animations for each character are decent. Face mapping kinda sucks ass, but all the body proportions are there... And the crowd doesn't look bad for a budget value game. They don't animate much, and they go dead silent at some of the dumbest times possible, but they're colourful enough to get the job done...

Really, while decent outfielding and fucking base running would've definitely helped things out a lot, a decent baseball game really only needs two things...

Hitting is just perfect in All-Star Baseball... If you go chasing after a ball, you're going to know it, by making the most awkward of swings possible... And whenever you hit the ball just right? I don't know, but it just feels right somehow, you know?... The sound it makes. The feel on the rumble pack or whatever it shakes... It's a good feeling to hit a home run. Even if the announcers and crowd sound like they couldn't give a single damn about it...

And while pitching obviously can't touch the amazing standards that MVP Baseball has achieved, it's still damn amazingly addicting, to get my brother swinging on a fastball slider just above the strike zone... At first, we were complaining that any pitch outside of the strike zone, made the controller rumble way too loudly (and let the person we're playing against know about it way too much). But in the end, we figured out how to use this to our advantage, as changing up our pitches with change-ups threw anybody listening to the rumble pack off-guard...

And really, Acclaim implemented the pitches just amazingly in the game. When a pitcher is hot, you can just feel it in your pitches, as you just nail perfectly every single corner on that plate... And when your pitcher is not? Oh dear God, my brother fucking got seven fucking runs on me once in that inning, simply because my fucking pitcher couldn't get the ball anywhere near where I wanted the fucking thing... While obviously, part of that was because I fucking suck at baseball games. Another part of the reason, was because pitching really just feels genuine in All-Star Baseball 2004, with all the fatigue factors or whatnot...

Now, All-Star Baseball is not the best baseball game I've ever played. I guess nothing will be, considering the last time I ever really cared about the sport, was when I was mimicking the Toronto Blue Jays Joe Carter era, with fucking Hardball 3 on my PC back in the day...

But All-Star Baseball 2004, for the prices that it can be had now, really is worth every opportunity to try...

... just to realize that Acclaim can make a decent simulation sports game, when they try to, at least..."

Game Design - 7.0
Enjoyment Factor - 7.0
Overall (not an average) - 7.0