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With MLB 08: The Show, Sony’s baseball franchise is finally ready for primetime. MLB 08: The Show improves on the already solid (on PS2 and PSP) MLB 07, by tightening up the gameplay, improving the AI and making the Road to Show mode more engaging. There isn’t much sacrificed from the PS3 version, although surprisingly, the PSP ends up edging out the PS2 in terms of features.
You’ll spend most of your time in the game’s Road to the Show mode, which shares many of the improvements from its PS3 brother on both the PS2 and PSP. The mode has seen quite the facelift, from the improved player creation system to the improved goals that lay out increasingly tougher goals as you get used to the game. These goals are also graded better, since the game takes into account that some things are out of control and even if you played well, you may not have accomplished the goal.
Likewise, many of changes in the batting and pitching mechanism of the PS3 version have found their way to the PS2 and PSP. One of the most noticeable is the addition of new pitching and batting tools that give you as much information as you desire about the player’s style and weaknesses. Against a pitcher, you can see how they fare against certain types of players, how successful they are with certain pitches, and even micro information about their last 25 pitches for people who really want to control the experience. Against batters, you can see which types of pitches they hit more often, where they go, etc. This mechanism also plays into the Progressive Batting Performance of the game, which tracks how batters are doing and indicates how much confidence the player has going into the game. Players with a ton of confidence will obviously play better, and the game manages to introduce this without sacrificing the game’s balance.
There are also other improvements. For example, the AI seems tighter this time around and performs more realistically, in line with what you’d expect from a human opponent. There is a Rob Home Run feature that lets you know when you effectively “steal” a home run by catching the ball before it hits the fences and baserunning is more responsive this time around. The PSP version (like the PS3 version) supports in-game saves, though neither the PS2 or PSP version support the PS3’s version’s ability to save replays.
MLB 08: The Show’s online component, on PS2 and PSP, is similar to last year’s game. You’ll get player cards, the ability to download rosters, message board and tournaments, and the actual online performance is fine. The games don’t share the Scout feature of the PS3, version, though which made it very easy to find opponents that met certain criteria.
Visually, MLB 08 on the PS2 and PSP isn’t quite the stunner that its PS3 brother is. Nonetheless, considering the relative strengths of those platforms, the game looks quite good. Player models look great for their respective platforms and some of the new animations have made their way to these versions, too. There are some texture and aliasing issues, which show the engine’s age but overall, the game looks fine. In addition, the framerate of the PSP version has been much improved over last year’s version, so both the PS2 and PSP versions run smoothly.
The game’s audio is good, though. There is a new feature that lets you add songs from the PSP’s memory stick to the game, although this is limited to the menu screens. Obviously, this user customizable soundtrack feature isn’t available in the PS2 version. The game’s sound effects accurately capture the sounds of baseball, and the crowd effects are particularly good. The commentary in the game is provided by Rex Hudler, Matt Vasgersian and Dave Campbell, who sound great together.
Given that MLB 07 was pretty solid on PS2 and PSP (compared to not nearly as good on the PS3), MLB 08: The Show isn’t the same leap over its predecessor that the PS3 version demonstrated. However, on the PS2 and PSP, Sony San Diego was able to bring over a lot of the gameplay and AI improvements, making MLB 08 one of the best playing baseball games on either platform. The PS3 version is definitely the version of MLB 08 to pick up thanks to much better graphics, improved online matchmaking, and replay vault, but these versions hold their own and are definitely recommended if you don’t have a PS3. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Mar 5, 2008
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