MLB 08: The Show is back again, keeping most of the features that had made it a favorite for baseball gamers alike. With a revamped system and some new features, it looks like your PSP is just a flick of the power switch away from being your personal baseball simulator.

The game itself is based around how 2007 was “The Year of the Milestone”, giving you a few videos of the players who managed to hit their respective milestones. For instance, a video of Trevor Hoffman getting his 500th career save. Of course, this is just the lead-in for the game itself.

The game itself plays fairly well in the regular game modes. The pitcher-batter interface is fairly smooth and you get a bird’s-eye view from behind the plate in all situations unless you decide to change it yourself. I found that I enjoyed using the behind the pitcher view when I was pitching because it gives a more realistic view. There are a couple of issues with this in the actual Road to the Show Mode, but more on that later.

Getting back to the pitching, MLB 08 has given those players who are absolute junkies when it comes to being perfectionists on the mound all that they need to improve their ERA. You can analyze a batter’s strengths and weaknesses as well as where they hit the ball to the most in just about every situation you can think of. Want to know how to pitch a left-handed hitter with a right-handed pitcher with a runner in scoring position? It’ll show you percentages, the types of pitch the hitter tees off on, and other useful information. It’s downright scary how much you can study.



Hitting itself is quite enjoyable as well, although it does take a little bit of getting used to on the smaller screen. You have the option to attempt to not only guess what pitch is being thrown, but also selecting the quadrant that the pitcher is going to throw it to.

If you guess the pitch right, the outside of the strike zone will flash red. If you got the location correct, that quadrant will flash red. If you get them both right they both flash and be ready to tee off on that pitch. Chances are high you’re going to crush it if you get the timing down.

Fielding is a mixed bag. When you’re playing in the normal exhibition and season mode, it’s fairly straight-forward. MLB 08 has also added in a new fielding icon that gives you an indication if you can rob a home run or a ball that is in near foul territory. The downside to fielding is that throwing is far too simple. All you have to do is a press a button, with no control of strength whatsoever. On top of that, if you press it too early, the player won’t throw the ball, such as a player who hasn’t finished a fielding animation. My biggest issue with fielding, however, comes from inside the Road to the Show mode. I went through a season as a pitcher in the minors, and found out the “fun” part of doing so. Throwing is reversed on your buttons, so instead of throwing to second base when I hit the Triangle button, I would throw home. While it seems that it would make sense to keep the directions the way you’re facing, you get some major problems if you’re in an animation and the camera pans around on you. You can end up throwing to the wrong bag far too easily.

Another point that must be brought up is the in-game announcing. Matt Vasgersian does an excellent job of providing play-by-play while your color commentator, Dave Campbell, drops in from time to time with some fairly obvious commentary. They seem to balance each other out well, although they rarely seem like they’re ever talking to each other, which somewhat takes away from the experience.

When it comes to nit-picking the game ...