This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Brian Mohr.

Spring is quickly coming upon us and that means the baseball season is about to start. Along with that is a new batch of video games based on America’s pastime including Sony’s PlayStation 2 rendition, MLB 06: The Show. The developers at Sony didn’t seem to make a huge improvement on the series, adding a couple new modes and improved the graphics some amongst other things, but that’s not totally a bad thing as the MLB series is overall pretty good.

MLB 06 features plenty of game modes to keep gamers busy including exhibition, career, season, home run derby, King of the Diamond, franchise and Rivalry mode. King of the Diamond is a new mini-game and plays like an oversized pinball game in which you play batter vs. pitcher. Your goal is to score as much as possible in the restricted amount of time. The game also features plenty of other items for bonuses and more. Beyond that, King of the Diamond is also an online available game which is a lot of fun to compete against other more skilled opponents.

Meanwhile the Rivalry mode is one of the smartest ideas to come to a sports game in a while as it allows you to play against a friend or rival for up to 83 games. The only problem is you’re stuck with the same teams the whole time, but there are plenty of options included in the series and MLB tracks all your statistics and more to give the winner bragging rights.

Besides game modes, The Show has plenty more to offer including some new options. For one thing this year you can actually decide whether you’d like your base runner to slide head or feet first. Pushing the square button while at bat allows you to go for the deep ball while using the left analog with the X button lets you utilize zone control batting.

If batting and offense aren’t improved enough for you, the developers did some nice tweaks on fielding too. This year the players can actually reach their arms over the wall particularly on foul balls to grab it for an out. Players will also do some crazy moves like somersaults when they are trying to grab a low ball and more. Beyond that, the controls are pretty much the same as previous years and are easy for anybody to pick up and play with the three button pitching system and X button to hit.

This year’s version of MLB has very solid commentary too as presented by Rex Hudler, Dave Campbell and Matt Vasgersian. It really feels like you are listening to a game at home and the commentary isn’t repetitive like other games with 35,000 lines of dialog. The crowd reactions are right on as well and the stadium P.A. announcer is great, giving you history notes on teams and even mentions upcoming events at the stadium. Meanwhile, the soundtrack is solid with a nice variety of songs from rock to rap and everything in between. The only slight drawback with the sound is that the commentary can be a little slow as your next batter may be hitting and they’ll still be talking about the previous play.

Finally, the A.I. in The Show is much more improved with a wider variety of pitches and I haven’t noticed my opponents throwing anything right down the middle. The game is smart enough to make important game decisions like walking a player to potentially get a force out. The computer also is very smart on the mound as you will learn not to lead off of a base too much or they’ll pick you off.

MLB 06 only features a couple real blatant problems that keep it from being just about a perfect baseball title. The biggest one has to be the graphics which don’t quite look like that of a baseball title today. The game graphically looks a lot like last year’s version with the exception of an improvement on the detailing, animations and menus. Despite that, The Show’s graphics are a distance behind that of 2K Sports.

The other issue with MLB 06 is the online play. The game features a lot of options that are very nice including friends list, stat tracking, regular updated rosters including actual real season effects on players. Sony is also utilizing News2Go to allow online gamers to receive regular Major League Baseball news and scores while they are online. These improvements to the online arena are nice, but once you’re actually in a game there is a problem with lag that can affect your game.

Sony has showed that they are continuing to produce a good sports title every year especially this season with the MLB franchise and MLB 06: The Show. The game is a very solid title with great sound, gameplay, new options and more. The only thing that brings it down is the graphics and online play which are slightly less than ideal. Even still, MLB is a lot of fun to play and will give gamers plenty to do throughout the baseball season. The Show is definitely recommended for the casual or hardcore fan alike.

The controls make the game easy to pick up and play and the whole game is very well done.

Animations and menus are improved and sharper, but the game still is behind 2K graphics-wise.

Commentary and sound effects are pretty solid and don’t get too repetitive. Soundtrack is good.

Although not perfect, MLB 06 is still a lot of fun to play.

King of the Diamond, Rivalry mode plus online and career/show mode will give you plenty to do.