MLB The Show 26 review: Ground rule double

The latest iteration of the storied MLB The Show series is good, it’s really good — but it’s been good for years now. Routinely one of the best sports video games of the year, The Show is truly hitting the point of diminishing returns, and while MLB The Show 26 is the best iteration of the series, it’s also not that much better to the point of an overwhelming recommendation unless you’re a die-hard fan who keeps up with the live service elements of the game each season.

It begins with the on-field action, and to this end MLB The Show 26 still reigns supreme. No sports game feels as true to life as this series in capturing not just hitting, pitching, and fielding — but the minutia in between. Top pitchers will paint the zone with infuriating accuracy, hitters will manage to get the barrel on balls outside of the zone, and an elite shortstop will really shine through with their ability to create double plays and rifle incredible throws into first.

One big quality of life improvement for more casual players is the addition of “Big Zone Hitting,” this is a happy medium between the incredible ease of simple timing hitting and traditional zone hitting — generating more reliable contact if you’ve struggled with batting in the past. There’s enough granularity to feel like you actually need to locate the pitch, without the frustration of endless pop-up flies without perfectly guessing which zone the ball is going to.

On the pitching side the added drama of “Bear Down Pitching” amps up the drama in clutch situations. With a press of LT before the pitch crowd noise is drowned out, you can hear the pitcher’s heartbeat, and it offers greater accuracy on one key pitch. These can only be used a couple of times per game, so as not to be abused — but there’s nothing quite like having a tying runner on base in the 9th and activating Bear Down to get that critical out.

Along with these two features are a slew of new niche animations that add even more realism to the game. That said, glitches still happen — including this one where ___ bat became something rather lewd.

The bummer that is the World Baseball Classic

MLB The Show 26 is dripping in World Baseball Classic references, including the cover which boasted Aaron Judge along with the WBC uniform, and Team USA jersey. Unfortunately there isn’t a fully fleshed out WBC mode, or even the option to simply pick up and play the WBC.

Instead, it’s been tucked inside “Diamond Dynasty,” which is The Show’s equivalent of Ultimate Team as special challenges. There are licensing and timing realities that developer San Diego Studios have used to explain why there isn’t a fully-realized WBC mode, but especially releasing well before opening day it’s jarring not to be able to play the biggest international tournament in baseball inside MLB’s flagship game.

The Negro Leagues continue to be incredible

It’s astonishing to me that no other sports video game has played into the history of the game to the depth of MLB The Show. The mode has returned as an ode to the incredible players lost to time and prejudice who deserve to have their stories told. My nine-year-old daughter was glued to the screen as I was playing through the Negro Leagues, loving the real-life interviews woven with watercolor images from the past.

This year’s crop of stories from the Negro Leagues are:

Mamie “Peanut” Johnson
John Henry “Pop” Lloyd
George “Mule” Suttles

We need historical modes like this in other sports games.

Creating my baseball monster

“Road to the Show” is naturally back, and remains one of the best individual career modes in sports video games. The ability to take a player from high school, through college, the minors, and into the pros really highlights the brutal mountain prospective baseball players have to climb on the way to stardom.

This year adds more college recruiting options to choose from, expanding the roster to 19 possible schools to play for en route to The Show: Cal State Fullerton, TCU, Tennessee, South Carolina, UCLA, Texas, Vanderbilt, LSU, UNC, Stanford, Michigan, Florida, Arkansas, Virginia, FSU, Oregon State, Wake Forest, Clemson and Fresno State.

It’s a small addition, but a notable one. On the other end of the spectrum is new “Road to Cooperstown” integration, which formats specific goals when you’re in MLB to try and make the hall of fame and cement your legacy. Otherwise the mode has seen some general improvements in requesting trades, and position changes — but nothing that reinvents the wheel.

Thankfully you can still make absolute monsters as your created players, or scan your own face if you want to be in the game. I’ll let you decide what I did here.

Is MLB The Show 26 worth getting?

If you’ve taken a long break from baseball games and want to get back in then there’s absolutely no reason not to get MLB The Show 26. It’s a brilliant game in a series that always iterates, always gets better, and is constantly improving. Similarly if you enjoy the live service elements of the game like Diamond Dynasty, and that’s your main gaming focus of the year — then you more or less have to buy it to keep up with the player base.

However, if you bought MLB The Show 25 and only played casually, well, there’s nothing really here that reinvents the wheel. At best it will feel like small, iterative improvements that unquestionably make the game look, feel, and play better than ever — but there’s no huge leap over past titles in the series.

Overall, we have a great baseball game that feels like it’s been going back to the well a few times too many. The true lack of the WBC feels like an unforced error, and the core experience is largely the same.