The unfortunate buzz surrounding MVP NCAA 06 has little to do with the game itself, but rather that EA Sports was forced to go down the college baseball route in the first place after losing the MLB license. However, to dismiss this game solely based on the fact that you're playing with South Carolina rather than San Diego is missing the forest for the trees – this is a fantastic baseball game regardless of the teams and players involved.

Thankfully, EA Sports didn't just slap some college uniforms and aluminum bats on top of last year's MVP game engine and sell it as a new game. MVP NCAA 06, plays like a college game. In fact, you can make the argument than this game plays more like college baseball than MVP 05 played like the pro game.

Most teams hit around .300 collectively; ERAs are higher, home runs are less frequent than in the Majors, and singles and doubles rule the day. If you're a college player hitting under .300, you aren't headed for The Show anytime soon. Deep bullpens are as common as a three-legged elephant—once the starter gets pulled, just hold on for the ride! The college game, at least statistically, is very different to that of the Major Leagues and MVP NCAA 06 does a fantastic job of emulating this. This is not a Major League game with a fresh coat of college primer and, quite frankly, it's a surprise that EA Sports went the extra mile to give it a more college feel outside of the game's look and recruiting model.

In addition to making it play more like the college game, EA tweaked last year's design in several important areas to help it play more realistically. First off, pitcher control is way down; you can expect the CPU pitchers, if you show decent plate patience, to issue anywhere from zero to six walks per game, which was unheard if in MVP 05. It's so refreshing to play a baseball game that values the walk—it's such a crucial component of baseball that so many arcade games fail to simulate. In addition, throwing strikes when trying to hit the corners is much more difficult this year, partly because the pitching meter is more challenging but it's also due to the fact that if a pitch just grazes the strike zone it doesn't automatically register as a strike. Umpires will flat out miss calls in this game, and it adds to the tension of an at bat.

Perhaps the biggest change is the new hitting models. You can still use the old (and terribly flawed) MVP batting system from last year, or you may opt to use a Zone hitting method similar to the old High Heat Baseball games where you need good timing and also basic bat placement in order to make good contact. For those looking for something totally new, there's the Load and Fire hitting system which requires you to pull down on the right analog stick to "load" your swing and then as the ball enters the zone, you press the stick forward to simulate the swing. It's not perfect, but it's a huge step in the right direction and provides a terrific hands-on feel to hitting.

It's important to note that hitting in MVP NCAA 06 is very, very tough. It's easily the most challenging hitting model of any of the MVP games and arguably of any baseball game ever made. Just jumping into the game and swinging away is a surefire way to get frustrated; this game demands practice—and lots of it. In addition to the new hitting methods, a new throwing model is in place that also requires using the right analog stick. This isn't as refined as the hitting model, as using the analog throwing dramatically increases the chances of making a throwing error—too much so in fact.

With any college game you need some form of career mode with a good recruiting model and MVP NCAA 06 does not disappoint. As with most EA Sports college games, the recruiting isn't terribly deep but it's very effective and keeps the rosters dynamic. It's also tougher to turn around a bad program in this game compared to other college games in the EA stable. If you have a low prestige program the top prospects may not even give your school a cursory glance let alone visit your campus. You need to build your program from the ground up in order to attract good high school talent. The new scouting model is a great addition and hopefully one that other college games will adopt. Basically, the more you investigate a recruit, the more information you glean from him. A good scout can predict how much of a talent ceiling a recruit has so maybe a player who won't tear up the conference as a freshman will be a solid player as an upperclassman.

Despite the advancement in gameplay and design, there are a few significant stumbling blocks that hold the game back from being a true A-List title. First off, the graphics aren't mind blowing. They aren't bad, but everything looks a tad grainy. The animations are fine, but the clarity of the visuals is lacking a bit. Speaking of animations, the hitters love to fidget and mess around in the batter's box way too much. They'll tap their spikes with the bat, do a few stretches, and generally waste a lot of time. The problem is that you can't skip this stuff to get the game going again. This may sound like a small or even trivial complaint but it really does make the games play longer than they should because nearly every batter does this—every at bat. Finally, there's a surprising lack of stadiums, 19 in all, which is obviously a lot less than you'd find in a Major League game. There is a stadium editor/creator in the package, but it's strange that EA didn't include more in the base design seeing as how the game sports a ton of college teams.

The sound is buggy and pretty much a train wreck. Announcer Mike Patrick, who does have a great voice, unfortunately says the wrong thing way too often. He calls sliders fastballs, says that a match up between Villanova and Ohio State is a great "conference match-up" and calls Northwestern "Northwestern State." It's just sloppy. On the plus side, you do get the satisfying sound of the "ting" from the aluminum.

The problems aren't limited to the aesthetics. It's easy to look past some rough graphic edges and the occasional sound mix up. It's a bit more disconcerting when the AI behaves in an erratic manner, which the game has a tendency to do from time to time. For example, no manager in his right mind would call for back to back sacrifice bunts after the first was successful. Putting a runner on 3rd with two outs doesn't accomplish a whole lot. Along these same lines, it makes no sense to try to steal 2nd base when you have a runner on 3rd and it's the bottom of the 10th inning and the score's tied. That's pretty weak AI and something that EA needs to address next year.