Extremely addicting, although quite flawed.

User Rating: 8 | MLB 09: The Show PS3


The Road to the Show mode is a lot of fun (Understatement). It is realistic and it speeds up to only the parts that the player plays, so the gameplay doesn't get too boring. The level of customization of your player is incredible. You can customize everything from ears to cheek bones. There is also a huge list of pre-recorded audio clips of first names and last names to choose from for when your player steps up to bat. Another cool feature is that you can record (using a microphone/headset) cheers that you can assign to players to play whenever they step up to the plate.

However, the game can be VERY frustrating. Hitting is pretty difficult, especially because you start out with such little stats. It is also frustrating when I have games where I bat 3 for 4 with a HR, a 2B, and a 1B, and I threw out two would-be base stealers (I play catcher), but my team still does not win. I guess this is how it really goes though.

Also, the announcers get very repetitive. (As with all sports games.) One thing that annoys me is that they use some of the EXACT same commentary clips as they did in the PSP game released in 2005 (only other game I had in the series, maybe they have reused the same clips in all the games.) For example, both games have the clip "And he leaps HIGH as he makes the catch, Well Done!"
Other issues I have encountered such as a fielder reaching through a wall to make a catch, fielders being yards off the base and still given a force out, and movement being inexplicably prevented when trying to make a play have all contributed to frustration while playing this game.

And now, the most infuriating thing I have encountered in this game are the horrendous baserunning controls in the Road To The Show mode. Movement along the basepaths is controlled by the left analog stick in relation to where the camera is, so if the camera is in front of the batter you push the stick backward to move forward, and if the camera is behind the player then you push the stick forwards to go forwards. The issue here is that sometimes while running the basepaths the camera angle will change, so that the direction that you were pushing the stick in to go forward, will now make you start to run backwards. This has happened to me about 10 times (in the 10-20 hours I have played) and has often occurred at the worst times. (One run games, 9th inning etc.) It still is way too common for the amount of grief it can cause.

Even with all of its flaws, MLB 09 The Show is extremely addicting and it is probably my most played game on the system. It is just a shame to let such success in the gameplay be hindered by silly things that should have been easy to fix.