As I’ve written a few times before, any time I have a multiplayer Switch game to review, I always bring it over to a friend’s house to play it with my friend and his two sons. Seeing as they’re all baseball fans, they were particularly excited to hear I’d gotten MLB The Show 26, so, naturally, I brought it over so we could try out the latest version.
The experience can be summarized pretty easily: after playing a couple of innings, my friend turned to me and said, “So this is literally the same game as last year, right?”
In some ways, that’s a little unfair – after all, you can’t really judge a game as deep as MLB The Show 26 on just a few innings of one game. As with every year, there’s a lot to do here, so if you like baseball chances are good you’ll find at least something to occupy you here.
And yet, you kind of can judge the game that quickly, because it’s clearly more or less the same as MLB The Show 25. I noted this a few weeks ago when writing about MLB The Show 26 on PS5/Xbox: there may be a few tweaks here and there, but there’s absolutely nothing here that would justify picking this game up if you’ve played any of the other versions over the last few years.
In fact, I can’t help but wonder if part of the reason for the series’ stagnation is this Switch version of the game. After all, MLB The Show 26 is a Switch game, not a Switch 2 game. While the Switch 2 is far from a powerhouse, it’s still more powerful than the OG Switch, and you can’t help but wonder what kind of compromises had to be made to ensure that the same game could run on all three systems.
And, of course, it pretty much goes without saying that my review of last year’s Switch outing mostly applies this year too. The visuals are still lagging well behind how they look on other systems. It still runs surprising well, without any crazy load times or crashes. Home Run Derbies still feel like the pitcher is actively trying to strike you out. The ball still feels a little deader here.
All of which means that you still don’t need to pick up MLB The Show 26 if you have any other recent editions. Like the PS5/Xbox versions, the Switch version of the game is in desperate need for renewal, so here’s hoping that 2027 brings a jump to the Switch 2.
MLBAM provided us with a MLB The Show 26 Nintendo Switch code for review purposes.
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