Building on MVP 2003's surprisingly successful rookie effort, the 2004 edition made major refinements to both the game's control scheme and its dynasty mode. In a baseball gaming first, MVP 2004 was licensed by both the MLB and Minor League Baseball, featuring real minor-league teams at the Class AA & AAA levels. These improvements netted the PS2 and Xbox versions of MVP 2004 twin scores of 90/100 at Metacritic,[5] far outpacing the competing All-Star Baseball 2005[6] and ESPN Major League Baseball.[7] GameSpot named MVP Baseball 2004 the best PlayStation 2 game of March 2004.[8] It received a runner-up position in GameSpot's 2004 "Best Traditional Sports Game" award category across all platforms, losing to ESPN NFL 2K5.[9]
Albert Pujols was the cover player for the 2004 installment of the series.
MVP Baseball 2005 brought subtle changes to the MVP 2004 formula, including a "hitter's eye" system with color codes that helped players identify pitch types out of the pitcher's hand, as well as an owner mode, the addition of Class A minor-league teams to dynasty mode, and spring training minigames. Reviewers continued to rate MVP highly, with Metacritic scores of 86 and 87 for the Xbox and PS2 versions, respectively,[10][11] though MVP 2005′s marks were slightly lower than those of its predecessor. Even so, the game still edged out 2k Sports' Major League Baseball 2K5 among critics.
