MLB The Show is unique because of its commitment to diversity, nuance and iteration. The baseball simulation has re-contextualized sports gaming since the series’ arrival on Xbox 2021. It emphasizes the importance of community while adding new features such as Pinpoint Pitching and custom stadiums. Storylines: the Negro Leagues was an interactive museum which detailed eight baseball stars from segregated times. The Show 24 mirrors the previous year with new Storyline stories, an hour-long tribute to Yankee legend DerekJeter and a RTTS original narrative “Women pave their way.”
The gameplay of MLB The Show 24 is nearly identical to that in The Show 23. This includes 23’s quirky features (Breakoutlier, Pickoff Artist), the throwing interfaces and swing feedback as well as updates to attribute values which associate clutch attributes with RISP. 24 features 400 new animations, plus new base sizes and logic improvements. It also includes “Impact Plays,” which adds major league realism for defensive assist. It lacks a new innovation to the hitting and pitching engines we have seen before. It’s a beautiful sight when Bryce Harper or Fernando Tatis Jr. flip home runs against cherry-kissed sky, but immersion is broken when star players drop a pop-fly, fail to make a routine grounder at third base, or soft-toss a ball into a double-play in extra innings. Updated lighting in Show 24 provides sharper and more detailed views of the Major League Baseball diamonds. It also takes advantage of an increase in exit velocity. The new lighting system makes it much easier to strike the ball at Petco Park and Chase Field.
The second season of Storylines is as expected a joy. This docuseries is narrated, by Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick. It continues the NLBM mission of “educating, enlightening, and inspiring” and uses archival material, game-driven scenarios and personal stories to show why baseball has become the world’s most romanticized sport. This new season features 10 Negro League Heroes, and four episodes are available to launch. Kendrick will be narrating the stories in a much more engaging way.
It doesn’t. The second season focuses on the Negro Leagues and their architects. It explains how “night” baseball in the 1930s led the Negro Leagues to discover a young phenom named Josh “The Black Babe Ruth”. The show recalls the time when Walter “Buck Leonard” was an enigmatic player who played for Pittsburgh’s Homestead Greys. It also shows how Henry “The Hammer Aaron” began his professional career in 1952 with Indianapolis Clowns, as a “skinny” cross-handed shortstop. And how Toni “The Trailblazer Stone” learned to play baseball with men before she became the first woman to make it to the major leagues. The four stories are all accompanied with iconic moments, such as Stone’s hit against Satchel Paige or Aaron’s home run in Sportsman’s Park. It never feels too dramatic. Every photograph, audio clip, and subtle nod to Pennsylvania’s Greenlee Field, or Newark’s Ruppert Stadium, is a lesson on American history. The music of Stevie Wonder and A Tribe Called Quest is bold and soulful.
Storylines: DerekJeter, a spinoff mode based in the ’90s that pays tribute to “The Captain”, and his New York Yankees influenced path to baseball neblity. It’s similar to Season Two in that it is a collection career-defining moments, from 1995-2000. These include his first hit against the Mariners at Seattle’s Kingdome and his “jump-throw” in Game 1 of 1998’s American League Championship. The story is not very compelling, especially if you are a Yankees fan. However, thanks to San Diego Studio Live Content, the game offers a lot of rewards. These include Atlanta’s All-Star Game 2000 uniforms as well as Subway Series items for Diamond Dynasty.
Storylines is a unique voice that speaks to pockets of culture less commercialized. There’s an interactive map of New York’s subway system, with billboards and graffiti.
The Show 23 has been combined with the “Ohtani Rule”, postseason formats and The Show 23 amateur scouting systems to create custom game conditions. The Road To The Show has been directly linked to the Draft Combine. This is a four day event that grades hitting, pitching and fielding to give an accurate prediction of attributes, club interest, and comparisons for the MLB Draft. The game explains the different ballplayer archetypes, their focus and how they fit into specific positions. However, its core story lacks creativity that extends beyond minigames or dialogue systems. It’s especially disappointing when the game confirms what everyone already knows, that RTTS games are for mullets from the ’80s and XP bug fixes.
Women Pave Their Way is an exciting new addition to the Road To The Show series. It presents a narrative that’s atypical about women breaking down barriers in baseball. This is a pivotal move, spearheaded by Mollie Braley, USA Baseball’s Kelsie Whimore and aimed at raising awareness about women in baseball, as well as the fact that other athletes can compete on multiple levels. Braley, SDS, and MLB Network’s Robert Flores use prerecorded videos with Melanie Newman and Carlos Pena, to emphasize the mental and physical challenges of a minor-league career. The videos don’t try to sugarcoat anxiety or change baseball tradition. Instead, they aim to encourage new and returning players by inspiring them to pursue their dreams.
Diamond Dynasty has its most successful start since years thanks to the high exit velocity. The Show 24 changes 23’s Ultimate Team concept to reintroduce ‘Seasons 1.0, an expansion of “Sets & Seasons”, which ditches the 99 OVR items for players on Day One in favor of a power creep. It also introduces multiple Wild Card Slots, monthly Team Affinity Drops, and different reward paths for Ranked, Conquest, and Events. Cornerstone captains implement seasonal archetypes and Team Captains add similar boosts to pitching and hitting attributes for each MLB club. This is to make hypotheticals such as Yankees vs Dodgers and Cubs against Phillies and Rays against Padres. The Show has microtransactions. Yes, there are some. But its monetization policy is less unfair than Madden NFL’s or FIFA’s. They don’t “gatekeep limited drops” when they have hundreds of diamond items at home.
It’s not necessary for MLB The Show 24 to hit every home run. It’s in an experimental phase, trying to reduce the “online vs. off-line” battle. It has managed to engage a young generation who are interested in history despite a lack of innovation. Its art team, which includes Eladio, IDLES and Flowdan with the ease of a 2 Chainz song, is unmatched. The “Grind 99”, the mantra of the game, has also been re-edited to reflect a more modern philosophy – “Play however, whenever.” The great Toni Stone said: “Get one because I have mine.”