If you follow sports at all, you’ve most assuredly seen the commercial for this game featuring Nirvana‘s “Breed.” I’m a huge fan of baseball, video games, and Kurt Cobain, but while I can think of a few less-appropriate uses of Nirvana’s catalog, this certainly ranks pretty high on the list. I’d rather not speak for a dead man, but it’s highly unlikely that Cobain would have given permission to use his music to help sell a sports-related video game – or any video game – especially considering the contempt in which he held most jocks. Just the jerky ones, of course. Oh well, whatever, never mind.
Those hoping 2K Sports makes up for this depressing blunder with a totally kickass baseball game will be further disappointed. Major League Baseball‘s biggest failure is its hitting mechanism. An awkward combination of stepping back and following through with the right stick to accomplish either a contact swing, power swing, defensive swing, or checked swing. Maybe I just suck at it, but I’ve never felt so feeble and frustrated at the virtual plate. I could be upset that Chronicle Music writer and baseball blogger Christopher Gray is finally able to consistently kick my ass on the virtual diamond, but I choose to believe the fault lies with the game. (Gray: “Of course it does.”)
Batting aside, 2K7 is a fairly enjoyable and visually impressive game for those without the superior MLB 07: The Show, which is only available for the PlayStation2, PSP, and PlayStation3. By contrast, 2K7 is available for PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS. Gray assures me he can beat me soundly at all of the above.
As far as the other aspects of the game are concerned, the results are mixed. The pitching mechanism is more than adequate. In an easy two-button-mashing system you can control your pitch location and the amount of “stuff” applied to each pitch. Far more user-friendly than the hitting mechanism. Fielding and base-running are two of the hardest features to master in baseball games, and this holds true with MLB 2K7. The fielding can be – for the most part – mastered within a few weeks of play, but my base-running skills were still lacking after the same amount of time. While I have my reservations with MLB 2K7, it is still a fairly fun way to pass the time until Opening Day.
This article appears in March 23 • 2007.