MLB 09: The Show (PlayStation Portable, 2009)

MLB The Show is an amazing game. If you love baseball you will love this game. The best feature in The Show is the Road to the Show mode where you create your own player. You have your player play any position. This adds replay value because the game is experienced differently in different positions. You start out at AA and move your way up to the Majors. You play with the view focused behind your player. You only play when your player is going to do something. For example if you're a right fielder you'll only play when you bat, when your on base, and when the ball is hit to right field when you're on defense. You build your player RPG style by increasing your different stats through points you earn in the games you play. This is what makes it fun as you feel your player getting better and better. RTTS is hours and hours of addicting fun. It's not all perfect though. The load times are really long on the PSP. They're not near as bad on the PS3 version of the game which I recommend over the PSP version. I already had MLB 10 on PS3 and bought this second for portability.

The game is extremely realistic. You can hit a pitch with perfect timing and solid contact only to get a pop fly or a foul ball. The game is hard at first. You'll have to spend time getting use to the game and become a smart hitter. Pitching isn't nearly as difficult as hitting but at the same time you can hit the pitch meter perfect and still miss sometimes. This is what makes the game great is the realism.

This game is packed with new and proven features every year. Unlike other sports games MLB offers more than a roster update each year. I can't imagine how amazing it would be if there was an NFL game this good. I love Madden but it doesn't seem to change or improve at all and is a game that seems to only offer a roster update on the new year. This game series is unrivaled by all sports games. MLB 2K doesn't even come close the threatening The Show. This continues to be one of the funnest most polished games in the industry. There's slight problems here and there that get ironed out year on year and even through patches on PS3. Even with the small amount of problems MLB The Show is still one hell of a game.

While I've owned several different gaming systems and various baseball game titles for these systems, I had never owned any version of the MLB: The Show series. I purchased this game for my PSP mainly because of price.
While the graphics are good and game play is fairly easy and straight forward, the team management and other functions leave a little to be desired. I would have to imagine that game play is the same on any gaming system, the set up for the PSP was not as enjoyable as the 2K series of baseball games.

Good graphics, smooth gameplay, it's better than 08, you can send people to the minor leagues, do more stuff as a coach, etc.

Love the graphics, commentary and presentation... but it's too hard to play. Some of us play for fun. This game is extremely hard to play no matter how you finess the settings. For serious gamers only.

It's a great series. The '09 edition has an even harder level of difficulty (legend) which truly is a challenge.
Only bad thing is that this seems to be one of the only new additions to this new edition. Announcers say the same things....at the same times as previous editions. Highly addictive!