On March 17, the new edition to the “MLB The Show” line of games came out called “MLB The Show 26”, which is the 21st game to be released. The game is available on Playstation 5, Xbox X|S and Nintendo Switch. It has six main game modes; “Road to the Show,” “Franchise,” “Diamond Dynasty,” “Negro Leagues Season 4,” “Exhibition” and “Moments.” 

In the “Road to the Show”, the player starts as a high school student in their senior year. The player starts off by creating the player character; the player can select between male and female for the player character the player builds, which is a new feature of “MLB the Show 24.” Prior to that, the game only allowed male characters. The player then works to customize the character to the player’s liking, starting with name and other basic information. The player can choose to make the player’s own face or use the face scan feature built into the companion app on the player phone. The player chooses from uniform and gear options, then progresses through high school and tries to bring the player school to a championship. After that, the player can either go to the minor leagues as a lower prospect or go to college and try to become the first overall pick. Either way, the player then progresses to the minor leagues of Double-A and Triple-A once the player progresses the player character’s attributes and increases their overall attributes. The player gets the call up to MLB and the player can continue to play there as long as the player wants and try to become the best player the player can. I find the customization to be very in-depth and fun because of the variety of options. Personally, this has always been one of my favorite modes and will always be fun for me. The game mode is very playable with minimal glitches and problems. The game’s strength is that it’s more laid back, less competitive and has no penalty for leaving a game early, so it is good to pick up and put down. One improvement that this game mode would benefit from is the ability to better choose what MLB team selects the player; the player has to text the player manager several times and almost gamble with getting traded between teams till the right one selects the player. Overall, I give this game mode an 8/10.

In “Franchise,” the player tries to lead the player’s favorite team to a world series win. This game mode is a good mix between “Diamond Dynasty” and “Exhibition.” The player works with a real world team and their real roster in the games in the season to get to the World Series as well as make the manager choices such as trades and other things. I found that this mode became kind of repetitive but still fun. Overall, I give this game mode a 7/10.

In “Diamond Dynasty,” the player creates a squad of MLB players through earning cards and opening card packs. The player uses this squad to play versus a CPU or another player online. This game mode has been one that I used to avoid until the last game, and I loved the challenge that it brought. The gameplay is quite long and does give penalties for leaving a game early so it can be very hard to put down, but if the player has the time the player can have lots of fun. This mode’s strength is definitely its many ways to play and earn cards and packs to build the player team. I think that the game could have less glitches and also implement the ABS challenge system that other modes have to make the game more accurate to the real game. Overall, I give this mode an 8/10.

In “Negro Leagues Season 4,” the player get to play and learn about the the careers of star Negro Leagues players what they did. This game mode is very similar to “moments,” in that the player gets dropped into small snippets of the player’s career in order to learn about them and earn them as a card for the player “Diamond Dynasty” team. This mode was fun because of the historical lessons the player learns throughout and the fun new facts the player learns as well. Overall, I give this game mode an 8/10.

“Exhibition” is the normal sports game format that has been around since the first sports video games. It is player versus player on the same device. It is the standard game mode the player thinks of when it comes to a game like this and that is what makes it good. It’s just good fun to sit down and play with the player’s family or friends. I’ve had many good times so far playing this game against my little brother and he has too. It has brought us together. I think the mode’s strongest aspect is that it’s simple, fun and stress free. It’s just built to have some fun and maybe talk a little friendly trash with the player opponent. This game mode also implements the real world ABS challenge system which allows the batter or pitcher to challenge an umpire’s call on balls and strikes. It really makes it feel like the real game and it adds a fun element to the game. I have no overall complaints about this mode and I have had nothing but fun playing it. So overall, I give this mode a 10/10.

In “Moments” the player plays two minute snippets of MLB players to earn rewards for the player “Diamond Dynasty” team. They’re short and good for when the player wants to play for about 20 minutes and still bet good rewards. There’s not much else to do other than that inside this game mode; it’s very similar to Negro Leagues mode just there new “Moments” every week or so to play. Overall, the strength of this mode is just how quick the player can play and how easy it is to just do for a short amount of time. Its weak point is that the difficulty is locked in theres modes to a high difficulty level so it can be harder for more casual players to get into. So overall, I give this game mode a 8/10.

Overall, I found this game to be very playable, customizable, fun and more casual gamer friendly than other sports games or other games on the market now. I would recommend  this game to anyone  who has played the  previous games or to any MLB fans that want to try it out. My overall rating for this game is a 49/60 for each game mode combined but an overall rating for the whole game of 8/10 because of the fact that some game modes could have some better content and I feel previous years games have done some things better.