Another year, another entry into the MLB The Show series on the Nintendo Switch. This 2025 version of the game marks the seres’ fourth appearance on the system. While the gameplay remains just as solid as ever, are any of these new modes or additions worth taking a look at? We dive into all of this and more in this review. Let’s get into it.
Gameplay
Not many changes were made with the gameplay overall in The Show 25. You will still have a number of options when it comes to batting, pitching and fielding, just as before. I still find myself changing to timing/button for batting, turning off fielding accuracy for defense and using the meter style for pitching. Even with that said, San Diego Studios added a new wrinkle into batting with Ambush Hitting while the PCI (hit cursor) is turned on. The idea here is simple - you choose if you think the incoming pitch is going to be inside or outside. This can be chosen with the push of the right stick to either the left or right. If you choose correctly, you will get a bit of a boost with your hit. You can even see the cursor get a little bit bigger, making it easier to hit balls that come to the side you chose. I thought this was an interesting addition, but not a complete game changer. I would have liked to see this come to the timing based batting as well, but i don’t anticipate that happening this year.
Another addition to the gameplay comes to Player Lock in the form of a first person view. The trailers made this seem like you would be able to see your player’s arms and gloves more often than what is seen in game. Not a huge deal, but a bit disappointing. While I think this addition is neat, I still find it easier to play Player Lock sections of the game in third person.
Modes
All of the modes that you have come to expect from San Diego Studios are here in The Show 25 including, Road to the Show, Diamond Dynasty, March to October, Franchise and Storylines. On top of these, you can compete with others directly online, play a retro mode, weekly challenges and more. For this review, I’m going to focus mainly on RTTS and Storylines, which are some of my favorites that the series has to offer, and also touch on Diamond Quest.
Diamond Dynasty - Diamond Quest
One of the new additions for Diamond Dynasty, Diamond Quest puts players on a randomized game board full of ways to obtain cards and various improvements for your Diamond Dynasty team. Once on the board, you roll dice with X and then move around freely. The numerous spaces on the board can reveal items, show downs, challenge missions and more. The end goal is to reach the stadium to play a game against the CPU. If you’re able to get past the stadium game in one piece, you can take home all of the loot that you found during your run.
I’ll be honest with you, I’m not a huge fan of Diamond Dynasty, but I know there are a lot of fans out there that are. This riff on Dragon Quest meets baseball is a fresh way for fans of the mode to collect cards and other items to beef up their team.
Road to the Show
Road to the Show received a great upgrade this year - the ability to play high school and college level games. Just to be clear, this aspect of the game does not offer the entirety of either level, but rather snippets from each. High school will see you play a handful of games, including the option to try to get to the state championships in your senior year. Once that is finished, you will then be able to attend the MLB Combine and then try your luck in the draft or college. College is similar to high school, as it allows you to play through your senior year. Having ALL of the colleges, or even bigger colleges would be quite the ask, however San Diego Studios have included a total of eight schools in the game. Going to these schools each have their own benefits in terms of exposure, skill development and a perk, but ultimately the choice is up to you. Well, and up to what colleges are actively scouting you.
I really like the new additions of both high school and college. While the choices for colleges are a bit limited, having this additional aspect of the game is great and adds a little bit more realism to the mode. Simply put, it gives a bit more back story to your created character. Still, this is just a small part of RTTS as the rest of your career in the Bigs will last quite a bit longer.
The player progression system has been revamped in The Show 25. While I’m still working my way through my career, things seem to have been simplified a bit here and I’m not sure if I like the changes that were made. A token system is now in place for more general categories for Contact, Power, Fielding, Throwing and Baserunning. These are done in blocks of tokens. On the other hand, you can still go through individual statistical inside of each of these for upgrades. It’s a bit different, and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it just yet, but it might make upgrades a little bit quicker for some. Regardless, progression in general feels a bit slow.
Storylines
Storylines returns once again in The Show 25 for The Negro Leagues - Season 3. Once again narrated by Bob Kendrick, this season takes a look at three stars - James “Cool Papa” Bell, Wilber “Bullet Joe” Rogan and Norman “Turkey” Stearnes. There are seven episodes per player, making for a total of 21 to play through. The episodes this time around are pretty varied, offering pitching, batting and fielding. I didn’t know anything about any of the athletes that were featured this year, so it was cool learning about their lives and what they did on the field.
Unlike The Show 24, this year’s version only offers the Negro Leagues Storyline episodes. I was really hoping to see the continuation of the Derek Jeter Storylines in this year’s game, but that is nowhere to be found. I can understand wanting to draw out the release of features like this to an extent. It’s possible that the excuse for not including Jeter in the game this year is because of the updates to Road to the Show, Diamond Dynasty and other tweaks to the game. Considering that the Negro League entries have been going strong for three years in a row, it seems odd to not follow suit with Jeter. It’s disappointing.
Switch 2 Version
As of the time of this review, Nintendo has yet to hold their special Direct highlighting various aspects of their upcoming console, so there is no information about a Switch 2 version of The Show 25. If and when that comes up, we will be covering that right here on the channel.
Visuals, Audio & Performance
The Show 25 looks, sounds and performs almost identically to the past two titles in the series. Visuals are good enough, but lack the detail you will find in other versions of the game. Textures in the stadiums and outside environments lack sharpness and are flat overall. The detail in the crowd seems to have taken a step back even further from The Show 24. In previous entries, you would be able to see individuals members in the crowd pretty clearly, but here, there is sometimes a “line” of sorts that separates the clearly depicted crowd to an extremely pixelated section. I get that this is probably being done to keep the game running as smoothly as possible, but the implementation is a bit jarring, especially when playing on a larger screen. In addition to this, the included video clips from the opening to Storylines and clips in RTTS are a bit low resolution in this version of the game. Again, if you played any of the previous entries, you should know what to expect. Things here are good enough.
The framerate is all over the place, however things are usually fine when you have control of players on the field. I did run into an issue in one episode of Storylines for Turkey Stearnes (Great Outfield Arm) where everything was running very choppy in handheld mode. It was a short enough mission that I was still able to clear it, however, how this snuck into the final build of the game is a mystery to me. Upon trying it out in docked mode [using the footage you can see now], the game performed a bit better, but it was far from smooth. Hopefully things like this can be patched. With all of this said, The Show 25’s performance is pretty much the same as what was found in previous titles - rough, but still playable. If you’re looking for better performance or visuals, get this game on another platform.
The audio is still on point in The Show 25 with commentary once again being handled by Boog Sciambi and Chris Singleton. The play-by-play announcer that was added last years also here for commentary for high school, college and minor league games. All of the other aspects of the big leagues, from the crack of the bat, baseballs slapping into gloves and the roar of the crowd are great. The aluminum bats and chain link fence sounds are also welcome and capture that aspect of amateur baseball perfectly. Even though things are fine here in the sound department, San Diego Studios might want to think about making a change at commentary to freshen things up a bit.
Conclusion
Although MLB The Show 25 is lacking visually on the Switch, the modes and gameplay remain solid. I am a bit disappointed Derek Jeter’s Storyline is not included in this year’s game, but very happy with the addition of both high school and college to Road to the Show. If you’ve been on the sidelines and haven’t picked up The Show for a few years, this might be a good place to jump back in. If you have last year’s game and focus solely on single player experiences, it’s a bit tough to recommend picking up The Show this year. It’s fun, but it might not offer enough to warrant a purchase.
Final Score: 7.0
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