92
This may be the first time since Sega Dreamcast that 989 or another sports video game maker made one better than EA. 989 beat EA in a landslide with all of their games. MLB is a well put-together Baseball games. Everything from slides, catcher collisions, base rounds, infield flies, and tag-ups is perfect for a portable device. If you are looking for a good baseball game, I highly recommend getting MLB over EA anytime.
Loading Times - Not terrible, but not like EA or Midnight Club.
Graphics - Good and times, and bad at times. Such as tags at bases, the fielder's glove goes through the runner.
Playability - Easy to pick up and very addictive. Terrible online play, yet more is to come of the infrastructure.
Sound - Quite good. Commentary is asstounding, and not to many slip ups. Bat's shattering, pop flies, and crowds sound very good.
90
I'll admit it. I'm not much of a fan of sports video games. And until recently, the most recent baseball sim I had played was Bases Loaded 4.
But I recently took the plunge and tried this game out. I have to say that it is quite a lot of fun, easy enough to pick up with plenty of room for difficulty.
Graphics: 9/10
The graphics in this game truly show off why so many people own a PSP. The player models, stadiums and animation are absolutely superb. The only reason this is not a 10 is because it lacks quite a few sections (most likely due to it being portable) that the PS2 version has, such as batter introductions.
Sound: 10/10
The sound in the game is nearly flawless from what I have heard. Being a portable game, it has limited commentary, but what it does have doesn't feel repetitive, and is quite endearing to the series. It almost makes you feel as though you're watching the game. The crowd is an absolute bore (can we get some heckling in here???), but fortunately you can turn off the crowd noise. Thank god.
Gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay is not quite as swift and fluid as the PS2 counterpart (MLB 2006), but the best ever seen on a portable. And one of the more appealing points for the gameplay is the fact that pitching decisions by the CPU don't take forever, which makes games go very quickly and fluidly.
Overall: 9/10
If you have the chance to pick up a baseball game for the PSP, go with MLB, and not MVP.
80
When I first got MLB baseball, I'll admit I was a litttle bit weary becuase I have always been an MVP guy. I loosened up a bit after playing my first game. The gameplay was a little sketchy, and the announcing repetitive, but all in all it was a fun game. Unfortunately, after having the game for a week, my interest has gotten low.
86
I just rented MLB and I thought it was a great game. The controls were easy to me and gamplay was fun. I dont even like sports games and I liked this game. Rent it.
88
This game is fun but when you're on the go you don't exactlly have time for 9 innings and you can't save it while you're in the middle of the game. One tip for this problem is to pause the game with the start button and push down the PSP's power button (don't hold it down) so it goes on standby. This way you don't waste any battery power and can actually complete a full baseball game.
70
As playable as this game is, 989's first baseball title (as well as the PSP's first title for the sport) is further proof of the companies's bad reputation being well-earned. While the controls are good, the sounds are acceptable, and the commentators actually can go for ten minutes before showing their limited vocabulary (versus every other sport game running their comments into the dirt in SECONDS), the graphics just...
The game looks rushed, and at times I found the animations and character movements to be robotic. The home run clips of the character moving to run then - within a nanosecond in time - switches to the character JOGGING, just doesn't look right. And when the ball goes over a fence and suddenly you can see where the ball bouned against the fence as it is rebounding in the dugout, through a fence that should be at least one and a half feet THICK, I get irritated.
The game is full of options, and is customizable to an insane degree. But, even with all of the options available, the game just seems like it would have been better to go buy a used GBA baseball game for less and get the same.
Don't get me wrong: MLB is a decent game. But it just doesn't live up to what a polished PSP baseball game should have been. As it is, it is just a step above what a DS release would have been. Not exactly a good thing for a system that is "superior" to an "inferior" system.
60
One Player this game is ok, however it lacks any mini games. With MVP coming out in a couple weeks, MLB's only advantage was it had online infrastructure support. It may as well not. The games lags horribly online, and is not even playable. 989 should be ashamed of themselves for not testing the online capabilities before releasing this game. EA may delay their launch dates, but their games work.
55
I can't wait until EA's MVP Baseball comes out, I will trade in and get that instead. This Game reminds me of a basebal game for the original Playstation, but not as good.
91
All around a good baseball game, graphics and animations are great. Plays very well, online kinda slow takes awhile to get in a game or find someone to actually challenge you.
88
I bought MLB this morning. Due to the fact that MVP is coming out next month, and that (at the time I left my house) there were no reviews for this game, I took a gamble. A $39.99 gamble. It could work out, and the game could be good.
Take note that I enjoy the game of baseball, I played from T-ball up to around the age of 18. However, I am not a baseball junkie, I hardly watch it on tv, and I go to one or two games a year. I do not know the player's names, I do not know what teams they are on, etc, etc. I bought this game because it looked like a lot of fun, and fun is exactly what it is.
Looking at the main menu you see that the game has four modes; quick play, online, season mode and options. I started off with a quick play game and you are greeted with the team selection screen, with each team showing you their placement rating. After choosing your team you get to choose your game options:
• difficulty
• play by play audio (on/off)
• pitch interface (meter/classic)
• pitching ball marker (on/fade/off)
• strike zone (on/off)
• hot zones (on/off)
• guess pitch display (on/off)
• auto throwing (on/off)
• auto baserunning (on/off)
• fielder assist (manual/assist/auto)
• innings (1 - 9)
• batting view (catcher/wide/high/offset/pitcher/outfield)
• pitching view (catcher/wide/high/offset/pitcher/outfield)
• fielding view (medium/high)
• runner windows (on/off)
Then you can choose your starting pitcher, the pregame lineup, and finally which stadium you want to play at and then what time of day to play at (day or night). Then the game spends about 45 seconds loading. not too quick, but not long enough to want to return the game. Since this is baseball and a 9 inning game takes a while to play, you don't have to sit though a loading screen very often.
In the season mode you can view your schedule, view standings/stats/awards, adjust lineups, free agents, make trades, and view the inactive roster. This mode looks standard (to me) after choosing your team, you are greeted with the quick play game options, with these added:
• cpu trading (on/off)
• time of day (auto/day/night)
• dh (auto/on/off)
• pitch callout (full/off/simple)
• tag up indicator (on/off)
• catch region marker (on/off)
• catch positioning marker (on/off)
The play-by-play commentary is nice. A little slow sometimes; with them commenting after it happens, but most of the time, it's very nice to have.
Graphics
The graphics are very good. The player animations/models are well done, and I even shattered a bat. I read the gamespot preview of the game a while ago and they said that fielding was not good since you loose sight of the ball. I have to disagree with them. I did not have any trouble fielding those ground balls, and the fly balls have a target on the field showing where they will land. I do have to admit that the crowds are flat looking, something minor, but it does not detract from the game though. The stadiums look great.
Controls
The controls work really well -- you choose a pitch with the face buttons and then using a really the nub you move a really sensitive dot around the strike box to choose where to pitch too. Then it is a press for power, press for accuracy bar appears. It all works really well.
Fielding is easy enough. You control your fielder and then press a corresponding face button depending on which base you want to through to. x for home, o for first and so on. Pressing the r trigger causes your fielder or dive for the ball.
Batting is pretty standard (well it is on rookie mode, I have not tried the others). You can aim up or down when you hit to ground or fly ball. X to hit and O to bunt.
Online
I wanted to try out the online play, but since the game is so new, there was no one online for me to challenge.
From the few games I have played I feel that this is a very good baseball game, it's a lot of fun, it is $39.99 and has online play. I suggest it.
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