MLB The Show 24

Genre: Sports (Baseball)

Players: 1-4 Team Competitive (Local), 2-8 Team Competitive (Online)

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Review:

We are now three years into the odd spectacle of seeing a major Sony franchise on the Nintendo Switch, something that’s almost starting to seem… normal. And at this point… I kinda’ feel like I’m running out of things to say about this series. As I’ve said elsewhere, I tend to stay away from yearly sports franchises – I enjoy these games, but I just can’t keep track of all the features and changes, so I feel like my opinion on these isn’t going to be worth as much as someone with more experience who can put these games in the context of both the history of the sport and the history of videogames based on the sport.

In my view, MLB The Show 24 is much like the previous games in the series. That means you are getting a quality, well-crafted Simulation-style Baseball game with an absolute wealth of different control options for both casual players and expert gamers alike. It’s the easy answer, but no less true – you simply cannot go wrong with MLB The Show if you want a great baseball game.

Having said that, what is also true is that the Nintendo Switch was never going to be the ideal platform to play these games on. All of the issues of prior games are back here – ugly character models, lower-quality textures, nasty aliasing, and framerate issues in cutscenes, along with lower-quality video footage and occasionally long load times. Also, the over 32GB of space this game’s digital version takes up may be a drop in the bucket on other platforms, but on Nintendo Switch it is a huge investment of space. And even if you get the physical version of the game you’ll still be looking at taking up 25GB of space.

That said, the amount of space being taken up here does seem justified, due to the plentiful amount of archival footage, as well as the excellent audio and voiced commentary. What’s more, don’t think that the performance issues I mentioned above mean that the graphics here are bad, because those issues come alongside great lighting and some truly outstanding animation. Basically, this is a game with a magnificent presentation that had to make severe sacrifices and cutbacks to work on Nintendo Switch, and both the original greatness and the cutbacks are on full display here.

As for what’s new in this year’s edition, I am pleased to report that the prior year’s Negro League has returned, but this time it has been included in an expanded Storylines mode, alongside another historical snapshot with a focus on Derek Jeter. While this wasn’t quite the way I hoped this mode would be expanded on, I appreciate the new content all the same. Also, another series first is that players now have the option to create a female player in the game’s Road to the Show mode, which doesn’t have any effect on the gameplay but is a nice addition all the same.

In the end, MLB The Show 24 is still a great game of Baseball. This year’s changes seem relatively minor, and the Nintendo Switch version still suffers from the same issues we saw in previous installments of the series on Nintendo’s hybrid console, but despite this it’s still a must-have for any baseball fan on Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – MLB The Show 24 doesn’t seem to change too much from last year’s entry in the series, but it is nevertheless still a truly superb baseball game that is both deep and also highly accessible. All of the graphical and performance issues of prior years’ versions on Nintendo Switch are still present here, and the game’s massive file size is a major consideration in both digital and physical versions of the game, but those whose only gaming platform is Nintendo Switch will still find this a fantastic baseball game.

Grade: A-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Winner:

Best Driving/Racing/Sports Game – It’s probably fair to say that MLB The Show 24 is merely an iterative improvement over the prior year’s game rather than a huge shift to something new. But it makes plenty of small improvements throughout that overall make this a better game. And a better game than one of the best Baseball videogames of all time makes this, in turn, one of the best Baseball videogames of all-time. In my mind that absolutely makes MLB The Show 24 deserving of this honor.

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