MLB The Show 26 review for PS5, Xbox Series X

MLB The Show 26 is not a bad game. I think it’s important to state that right off the bat. Sony San Diego have been making The Show for long enough that they could probably put out a solid baseball game in their sleep.

The problem is, that’s kind of what this year’s version of The Show feels like: that it rolled off an assembly line without any attempt to make it new or interesting or different from last year’s version…which itself felt like a clone of the year before that. It’s really hard to say that, unless you’re coming to the franchise brand new, that there’s any reason to pick it up over any other version in the last few years.

I mean, you just need to look at the new features MLB The Show 26 is bragging about to get a sense that San Diego Study phoned this year’s edition in. The big selling point is supposed to be an improved Franchise mode – which sounds great, until you discover that all that means is that they added a new screen for making trades, called the Trade Hub.

Can you feel the excitement from reading that phrase?

In fact, this year’s Franchise mode is kind of a step back, since MLB ]The Show 26 does away with March to October, the addictive streamlined season mode that put you into key moments over the course of a season. While this year’s version admittedly gives you the option of choosing whether you want to play just 94 games or a full 162-game schedule, it doesn’t feel the same at all.

A kind of malaise permeates the entire thing. Road to the Show is the same as it’s been every year, even if the game claims to give you more “storylines” for your players – which, again, sounds fun until you discover that it’s just more bland cutscenes of managers and scouts talking at you while you occasionally respond with interchangeable banalities. I mean, maybe someone is super excited to have the opportunity to play at one of the new colleges this year’s version adds, but I can’t say that I care at all.

Even Negro Leagues Season 4 has started to feel incredibly stale. Obviously the characters featured have compelling life stories, and the way they’re presented – with Negro Leagues Museum President Bob Kendrick talking about their lives – is just as interesting, but when you get into playing as the players, it’s incredibly shallow, seeing as all you have to do sometimes is throw a baserunner out as Roy Campanella.

Again, I don’t think that anyone could argue that MLB The Show 26 is a genuinely bad game. Like every year, it delivers a very solid on-field experience, with plenty of options for how deep you want to get into managing a team. But I don’t think I’ve ever played a version of MLB The Show that felt this generic, and it’s clearly, undeniably time for someone to start thinking about making the overall package more compelling.

Sony Interactive Entertainment provided us with a MLB The Show 26 PS5 code for review purposes.