Baseball and I have quite a love/hate relationship. On one side of coin I think the sport itself is absolutely boring and it pains me to watch more than five minutes of it. However, the same cannot be said of baseball videogames, which I absolutely love, so I was pretty excited when Jamdat handed me a cell phone with its latest title Jamdat Sports MLB 2005 already installed, and no sooner did I whip my first fast ball to the pitcher did I realize that the developers have almost perfectly captured baseball's essence and shoved it onto mobile phones.

If you're used to playing games like MVP and ESPN on consoles, then you're going to need to make some adjustments in order to fully enjoy this game. MLB 2005 contains all of the teams, players, and statistics, but it's not the most option-heavy pinewood portable game out there, nor is it the most graphically intense, though it most certainly looks amazing for a cell phone title. Much like the first Sega baseball game for the Dreamcast, you can't manually control your players, so when a ball is hit, one of them automatically goes for it and all you can do is instruct them on where to throw by pressing up, down, left, or right on the home button, which is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it totally rocks because you're able to play the game with one hand and it's totally accessible and easy to get into, but on the flip side, throwing to second base from the outfield is a huge pain in the butt because pressing down will default to home plate and right will send the ball to first. There is a system that when learned makes this easier, but as a first time user I gave up more runs than necessary because of it.

At first I thought the auto fielding would be a huge drag, but for this type of game it really works. Players always get to the ball in time and they don't bobble pop-ups. However, just because they're powered by AI doesn't mean the game doesn't provide you with some form of control. You can change your pitchers and hitters at any time, and each (both left and right handed) have options you can select from before firing the ball, so if you're pitching you can choose whether you want fast or curve balls, among others, and then you can throw to specific locations.

On the batter's side, you have a few options including power, contact, and bunt, so you can pummel the opposition with a home run, get a single, or sacrifice yourself to drive in a run, and don't think that the game isn't competitive. I went through a grueling 15 inning war that ended in a 9-10 loss. The AI is more than capable of holding its own, as it'll watch for balls and occasionally bean your player.

MLB was designed for quick play, so you can't enjoy a full season, but you won't miss it. You can jump right into Quick Play, Exhibition, or the World Series, and in the case of the playoffs you can choose whether you want to partake in a 3, 5, or 7 game series. You can also adjust the difficulty (rookie, pro, and all-star), as well as check out your statistics. It's not the meatiest sports game on the market, but when you're stuck in a line, it's not like you should dive into a franchise mode. It's baseball in its purest form and it's a quality experience.

I really didn't expect MLB to have great sound, so you can imagine my surprise when I threw a ball and "STRIKE" erupted from the phone's speakers. While the audio isn't fantastic (you're limited to "strike", "ball", "you're out", and "you're out of there"), the voiceovers are a nice touch. Other sounds, such as the baseball zipping past home plate, the sound of a bat crushing a ball (though for some reason there are wimpy bat sounds that seem like you're striking a old orange), and the limited music are decent. However, the sounds aren't always consistent because there are times where you won't hear anything for several moments.

When it comes to complaints there's only one that really bothers me. If you pop up, a ball an icon appears to let you know where it's going to land, and for the most part it works great except for when it appears inside the stands (which suggests a home run) and it plops onto the field, which is confusing because during that time where you don't know if a homerun was hit, you're losing a second or two off your reaction time.

While MLB 2005 has its share of issues, they don't mar the overall experience. In fact, it's actually a marvelous achievement when you consider what Jamdat crammed into this game and also the wide assortment of hand sets it's available on, though it's meant to be played on a high tech phone. A quality game for baseball and videogame fans, MLB is a World Series Champion.