MLB 09: The Show (PS3)

For console baseball, Sony notches a PS3-peat.
3/10/2009 7:40 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3

Springtime -- when a young man's fancy turns to steroid scandals. It's March and that can only mean one thing (other than the NCAA basketball tournament, of course): Yup, it's baseball season. For the last few years Sony's MLB series has owned the spring -- and the entire baseball season -- as far as gamers have been concerned. Last year, 2K Sports sent out its most innovative baseball title to date and came up a bit short in its head-to-head battle with Sony. I was excited to see what each publisher would field this year. And while 2K Sports seems to have taken a step backwards with its Major League Baseball 2K9, Sony has simply polished what was already a very shiny product. As a serious journalist, I understand the risks of spouting out hyperbole. That said, MLB 09: The Show is among the nine or 10 greatest things that have ever happened.

Some history: Up until the past few years, Sony-developed sports games were some of the worst things you could put into your console. There were days that I would have rather squirted mustard or sunscreen into the disk tray of my PlayStation or PlayStation 2 than toss another 989 Studios sports game into it. To its credit, Sony revamped its development strategy. It bagged most of its titles and decided to focus on baseball and basketball. Its hoops game is still a work in progress, but its baseball game -- called The Show for the past few years -- has been the way to take the mound and hit the long ball in the next-gen era. Be happy that you have a PlayStation 3, because that trend continues.

Sony was in the enviable position of not having to do a lot to keep its game on top. The development team didn't mess around much with last year's game, but what it did do was almost all positive. Out of the box, MLB 09 will challenge you more than 08 did. The gameplay is essentially the same -- it's just that the initial difficulty level has been kicked up a notch. Ironically, I credit 2K Sports for causing this ramped-up difficulty. Last year's 2K8 may have been one of the most challenging baseball games of all time. At times, it made playing MLB 08: The Show seem a bit easy by comparison. Sony's 2009 release will test you both offensively and defensively.

On the mound, your timing with the pitch meter needs to be a hair sharper than in previous years if you want your pitch to end up where you want it. The various breakpoints for pitches aren't as predictable as in last year's game, which makes it tougher to go all Greg Maddux on the opposition and paint the corners with unrealistic finesse.

The game also isn't as forgiving when it comes to timing on the plate. I prepped for this year's game by playing a mess of MLB 08: The Show. Even so, I still was made to look foolish in the batter's box for the first few games of MLB 09.