This absolutely rules.
Sports games deservedly suffer the same criticism year-to-year. Often changes are only minor, it can feel like a $60 roster update, and development teams rarely have the time needed to actually overhaul the game. Some of these charges can be leveled at MLB The Show 23, but not when it comes to the addition of its Negro League mode.
Never has a game so lovingly added a historical mode. This isn’t just an old-timey scorebug filter with some former players, but a series of playable documentaries featuring eight legendary players who dominated baseball in an era before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. It’s so good that it’s worth buying the game for, and that’s high praise for a game mode.
The game-mode begins, naturally, with Satchel Paige. It’s the perfect launching point for an introduction into the Negro Leagues. Lovingly narrated by Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro League Baseball Museum, a mixture of archival footage and drawn art not only allows for players to better understand who Satchel is, but feel why he was unlike anything baseball had ever seen before.
The Negro League mode never overstays its welcome, as we often see in historical modes. Instead you’re dropped into one or two innings, and given a very specific task. With Satchel it might be not allowing a single hit in two innings, and striking out three — only using Paige’s 105 mph fastball. Then everything gets flipped, with all the pitch types being replaced with Paige’s own unique nicknames for them: Like the “Bee Ball,” the “Dipsy Doo” and the “Bat Dodger.”
It adds a whole level of uniqueness to the game and feels so different as Paige uses his iconic whirlwind wind up and his high leg kick to deliver unparalleled heat. Then, before long, Kendrick is back on the screen to tell a story of when Satchel’s Kansas City Monarchs were playing a semi-pro all-white team, who recorded a hit of Paige during their first at-bat. Upon hearing racial jeers from their dugout, and claims that Paige wasn’t good — he called in his entire team, all of them, to sit in the infield and watch him pitch, daring his opponents to get a hit off him again. They didn’t, and MLB The Show 23 lets you play this out.
Paige on his own would be worthy of praise as a mode, but then there are seven more players, many of whom all but the most die-hard baseball fans might not know. Sure, everyone knows who Jackie Robinson is — but Hilton Smith, the second ace behind Paige on the Monarchs, was largely lost to history.
After drilling 105 mph fastballs with Paige, players then take on the role of Smith — who was predominantly an off-speed pitcher with one of the most devastating curve balls in baseball history. Painting the corners of the plate with his ludicrous array of curve balls is so much fun, and then once again, Kendrick is back with amazing commentary, pointing out that Smith was the Shoehei Ohtani of the Negro Leagues, batting .298 during his career and being a two-way legend. So naturally we get a chance to bat, changing up the entire feeling of the mode.
It continues with this much love and attention for every player featured in the Negro Leagues mode. This is far from just Paige, Robinson, and phoning in the rest. Every single player is a 1-2 hour documentary (including play time) that feels fully realized and complete.
We’ve never, ever seen this before in a game — and it’s the gold standard of how sports video games should handle historical modes. A lot is made of the Michael Jordan mode that debuted in NBA 2K11, but it pales in comparison to the care and attention the MLB The Show team did with this game.
There’s obvious importance and gravitas when it comes to the Negro Leagues. A lot of players never got the recognition they deserved because of segregation in baseball, so this mode is about finding a small way to right that wrong with a new generation of fans. Still, it’s created a blueprint for what every sports video game should do moving forward.
Imagine if Madden had the time or attention to take us back to someone like Sid Luckman in 1943, when the leather-helmeted quarterback of the Chicago Bears threw for over 400 yards and SEVEN touchdowns in an era when most quarterbacks were throwing for 600-800 yards IN A SEASON. How about getting getting to play as Jim Brown in 1963, when he ran for 232 yards against the Cowboys at an astonishing 11.6 yards-per-carry?
In a lot of ways we’re in a major lull when it comes to sports games. Outside of making sure things are bug-free (which, when it comes to Madden seems to be impossible), there’s only so much that can be done with graphics and physics until we hit the next generation. So why not add value through history the way MLB The Show 23 has? I’m not asking for a mode as ludicrously in-depth as the Negro Leagues, but just give us the time and attention it deserves.
Anyone who loves sports, and sports history needs to play the Negro Leagues in MLB The Show 23. Even if you’re not a baseball fan. This is a true game changer, and one of the best things that has ever been put in a video game. Seriously, it’s that incredible.
