MLB The Show 25 Review – Review
A game with the makings of a championship team that falls apart technically.
MLB The Show is entering its fourth year on Switch and while the mere existence of this ambitious and fully featured sports game on Nintendo’s old creaky hybrid system is impressive, it’s getting harder and harder to recommend unless this is truly your only option to play some virtual baseball. The pieces of the game are incredible and in the four years I’ve covered MLB The Show for Nintendo World Report, this is by far the sharpest every game mode has been simultaneously. It’s awesome seeing a developer continually innovate and reinvent modes in such a successful and consistent manner. I just wish everything wasn’t bogged down by being on a console saddled with decade-old technology.
One of the standout new features is the solid revamp of the online-only Diamond Dynasty. If you aren’t familiar with it, this is their persistent mode where you collect virtual cards and make your own team to compete in a variety of single-player and multiplayer modes. The last year or two of Diamond Dynasty got very convoluted as there were different sets and seasons that would reset throughout the year that would more or less invalidate your previous collections. That has been done away with in 2025, though it seems like with that change, it’s a much slower ramp up to putting together better teams. Overall though, it’s a positive shift.
The mode also benefits from a very novel roguelike board game mode called Diamond Quest. You roll a die and move around a grid uncovering spaces and landing on challenges. The concept of this is awesome, as it puts you in a mixture of quick challenges (like strike out two batters in an inning or get an extra base hit) and slightly longer challenges (like a 3-inning game or scoring a certain amount of runs in 12 outs). It’s a highlight of MLB The Show 25, but on Switch, that snappiness isn’t present. Everything is slow to load and I got to a point where even though I enjoyed this mode, it just became a slog. Some of that blame can be placed on the lack of variety in challenges but most of it is on the slow load times. That carries over to most of the Diamond Dynasty mode. It’s a cool mode that just chugs on Switch.
The Road to the Show mode where you create your own player and play through their career had a big revamp last year that for the most part I loved. This year it’s even better, as they seemed to fine-tune some of the cumbersome story elements and added in high school and college starting points. I said last year that this mode wasn’t fully ready for the big leagues on Switch, but this year it’s in a much better shape even if there are still technical shortcomings because of it being on the Switch.
A mode I never dabbled that much with previously but have historically always enjoyed in sports games is the Franchise mode. It’s something that has been relatively similar over the last few years in The Show, but the latest version has had some substantial reworking. It’s way more compelling as just a general manager simulation, with far more in-depth and nuanced free agency, drafts, arbitrations, and tenders. If you’re the sort of person that likes fiddling with budgets and numbers in your sports, this mode might be dangerously engaging. Some of the tutorials could be better, as I had a rough first offseason even as someone who is familiar with and follows the free agent circus in the baseball offseason. Still, once I got the basics down pat, it was incredibly fun building a team as a general manager with the numerous levers I could pull to try to improve it.
I’ve loved the Storylines museum modes that started showing up in MLB The Show in 2023, but this year seems like it’s starting to hit some diminishing returns. Still, seeing the history of Negro League legends like Cool Papa Bell and Turkey Stearnes rules. Additionally, Sony has announced they will be adding more Storylines in future free updates. As of now it doesn’t seem like there will be something like the novel Derek Jeter Storyline from last year, which is a disappointment. Regardless, the Negro Leagues content here is incredible, even if it’s dipping into reused content from past games.
If you want to play a licensed baseball game and you only have access to Nintendo Switch, MLB The Show 25 will do the trick. This version is an adequate representation of the pristine gameplay design and mode variety the series has been consistently delivering for years, but every aspect of it feels compromised on Switch. Here’s hoping Switch 2 is a better destination for MLB The Show 26.
