When it comes to sports games, I feel like there is a pretty standard formula once you have the gameplay down: some subtle tweaks here and there, and add in new features where you can. MLB The Show 26 has this in spades, as the annual baseball title has made its way back to the market for another turn around the sun.
Featuring World Baseball Classic runner-up Aaron Judge on the cover, MLB The Show 26 aims to expand on some of the best parts of previous games and keep what works best. First of all, an updated UI greets the player after loading up the game, which is long overdue, in my opinion. The four most popular game modes await the player at first (Road to the Show, Diamond Dynasty, Franchise, and Storylines), and there are no extra buttons to click to find them, which makes jumping back into your favourite game mode easier than ever.
The UI update is most prevalent in Diamond Dynasty as everything is streamlined to make the user experience far more user-friendly. I’ll admit it took a little while to get used to the new menu style after years of playing with the same menu system in previous years’ games, but once I found my feet, everything became easy to find. During my time in the early access period and up to the time of writing (March 18), was that the menus were extremely laggy.
It came to the point where I was waiting between 10-15 seconds to get to the next screen after selecting something; a couple of times, I had time to get up and go to the bathroom and come back to see the menu change as I walked back in the room. Hopefully, this is something that is related to server load, as the game was brand new, and not an ongoing optimization issue, but only time will tell.
“MLB The Show 26 aims to expand on some of the best parts of previous games and keep what works best.”
While on the topic of Diamond Dynasty, MLB The Show 26’s flagship game mode has a couple of new feature updates to speak of. The first one I’ll go over is Parallel Mods. Essentially, these mods are earned as you use your players and level them up in the same way as previous years.
The difference is that once you reach a certain parallel level with them, they earn a “mod” which can offer a small upgrade to a specific aspect of their game: contact, power, fielding, and speed, and available in three different levels: silver, gold , and diamond. This offers a lot more reward for using your players more consistently, and the addition of a new, higher parallel level, Red Diamond, gives you more reason to level up your current squad.
Gameplay-wise, Bare Down pitching and Big Zone Hitting make their debut in MLB The Show 26. The former lets you slow down your wind-up, letting you be more precise in your delivery to make sure you hit your spots against even the best hitters in the game.
Big Zone hitting lets you open up the strike zone when hitting to ensure you are on the ball at all times. You can choose from a number of different zones that you think the ball will be pitched to, which will allow you to get the bat on the ball with greater consistency. For someone like me, who has always struggled with Zone hitting, I am a huge fan of the Big Zone hitting.
Road to the Show was granted a new feature update as well, through expanded amateur years and a Road to Cooperstown. Players can now go directly to the pros via the draft right out of high school, or take the college route and try to win the NCAA College World Series to raise their draft stock. MLB The Show 26 has also added in 11 new colleges for you to choose from, should you go the college route (I chose to go to Stanford).
I missed out on winning the college championship in my playthrough, but was pleasantly surprised to see that the game has implemented a “senior year” at your college, allowing you another shot at the trophy. Sadly, my team crashed out earlier than I had the first time around, so I had to settle for going first overall in the draft.
Franchise mode is something I have never really been into in any sort of sports title, but there is a lot to be excited about in MLB The Show 26. One of my biggest pet peeves is the complicated trade system, valuing players and their trade value against other teams. I don’t seem to have the mind for trades, but with the new Trade Logic System, I was able to actually make some good value trades to bring integral players over without breaking the bank.
This trade logic system gives you a lot of insight into what makes a player good and helps you make informed decisions when it comes to the needs of your team. It really is something I can’t live without now when I play my Franchise.
When it comes to new content, I’ve saved my favourite for last: The Negro Leagues storylines. The magnetic Bob Kendrick is back to offer a history lesson on some of baseball’s best players. Not just Negro League players, but players altogether. MLB The Show 26 brings 4 new players to the spotlight: Pop Lloyd, Roy Campanella, Mamie Johnson, and Mule Suttles. Completing the storylines for all 4 players earns you their player cards to use in Diamond Dynasty, as well as a 5th card that belongs to the man with the best nickname ever: Cool Papa Bell.
Graphically, MLB The Show 26 isn’t all that dissimilar to its predecessor. That said, some of the player models look better, and the new stadiums like Tokyo Dome and Terrapin Park look incredible. There just isn’t enough to make a huge jump from last year’s graphics, so I feel like the budget was spent elsewhere, which isn’t a bad thing.
On the whole, I am quite happy with MLB The Show 26, despite the laggy menus and lack of significant graphical improvement, especially since titles like EA Sports FC have some pretty realistic player models. If you like baseball, you’ll like this game, which is about all one can ask for in a sports game. In MLB The Show 26, there is enough for the casual player to do and enough to keep the diehards busy in between content drops.
