Realistic versus Arcade Baseball

This is the first year of GamesReviews.com great partnership with Sony in Canada, which has given us the opportunity to look at some truly amazing games ahead of launch for all our readers. One game I’ve always been interested in playing and reviewing was the MLB The Show franchise, which is exclusive to the Playstation family. My baseball experiences have been limited to MLB’s official title, R.B.I. Baseball. After giving significant time to MLB The Show 17 and R.B.I. Baseball 17, I’ve decided to let you all know which one is better.

The reality is neither is better, because they are both wildly different. I’ll never understand the people who try to argue that MLB The Show is a better baseball game than anything the R.B.I series has ever released. While on a straight comparison – gameplay complexities, graphics, etc. – sure, The Show gets the edge. However, I would rather argue that these two games are very, VERY different, and serve different audiences.

R.B.I Baseball is not a hardcore baseball franchise, even if the developers want to believe and market that it is. It’s arcade baseball at it’s finest, something you can pick up and play with friends or family in a matter of a few minutes. One button to swing, one button to bunt, and one button + a direction to pitch. Fielding can be as hard or easy as you want, with many people (at least via Twitter) indicating they enjoy the automatic fielding option that R.B.I Baseball offers.

R.B.I Baseball is not time consuming, and you can easily finish a game in a 10 to 20 minute window. Playing through an entire MLB season is pretty easy in R.B.I Baseball as everything about the game is faster. It’s not as realistic, it doesn’t look as good, but it’s not meant too. Aside from all that, R.B.I Baseball is only a fraction of the price of The Show.

With all the praise for R.B.I Baseball, it’s important to note that it lacks a variety of game modes, so hard core baseball fans – who are more likely to play the game alone, or online – are looking for a better alternative. Enter MLB The Show 17. It has a variety of modes, and hitting, pitching, and fielding controls that are never as easy as the R.B.I franchise, and can even be set to be very realistic. Ball movement and player tendencies in The Show are much more important, and the player you have at bat, running the bases, or out in the field actually matter. It’s a good, almost 1:1 simulation of actual baseball.

But that won’t be for everyone, and that is OK. As fans of Baseball video games, we need to stop this constant and unnecessary bickering about which is better and why. They are two fairly different games that share the same premise: baseball. Aside from that, one is arcade like and one is simulation. One can be played in 10 minutes, while the other might take a half hour. One is more about fun with friends, while the other focuses on independent fun.

R.B.I Baseball and MLB The Show are different games. Let’s celebrate that!