In a very tight contest, we have given MLB The Show 23 our 2023 sports game of the year award. It was a two-game race all the way for GOTY between MLB The Show 23 and NBA 2K24.
The deciding factors ended up being that we felt the gameplay in MLB The Show 23 was stronger than NBA 2K24‘s gameplay, and the amount of microtransactions in NBA 2K24 were just hard to overlook. In other words, I’m not sure if MLB The Show’s highest highs surpass NBA 2K’s, but the lowest of the lows do not reach the depths that NBA 2K sinks to.
MLB The Show 23‘s gameplay was just very strong this year both offline and online. For as much as Diamond Dynasty felt like a misfire for the first time in many years, the gameplay itself in a head-to-head environment felt perhaps the best ever. And when it comes to offline play, it was even easier this year to enjoy full games against the CPU when factoring in the improved presentation on top of the strong gameplay. That said, commentary in MLB The Show 23 is below average, but the visuals really pop, the crowd sounds great this year, and the pitcher-batter duel is friggin’ fun.
The irony of hyping MLB The Show 23‘s gameplay is that they did not really change much with patches this year. Fielding still doesn’t feel amazing, and SDS promised to make more changes than they ended up actually making with patches, but out of the box the gameplay was strong. Sometimes developers (see: NBA 2K) make too many changes in-season and actually hurt the gameplay, so I’ll take being cautious on this front rather than trying to tweak too much.
When going beyond the gameplay and presentation, things are not quite as easy to praise, but the other high point here was the Storylines mode and the incorporation of the Negro Leagues. It’s a great look back at the history of baseball, and it’s proof that MLB The Show is capable of pulling off some really engaging presentation beyond the gameplay in a way that they haven’t quite been able to harness with Road to the Show. I do think a large part of that credit goes to Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick as his charisma and love for the sport really pops off the screen, and I hope he comes back next year to tell more stories.
All in all, I think it would be easy to say NBA 2K has the stronger overall modes and presentation when factoring in commentary, but MLB The Show 23 has the best gameplay this year, and that’s usually a good formula if you want to win the game of the year award.
The community felt even more strongly than we did that MLB The Show 23 deserved to be game of the year. It received 35 percent of the vote, and then NBA 2K24 came in with 22 percent of the vote. EA Sports PGA Tour came in third place, and then Super Mega Baseball 4 came in fourth place. In comparison to the community, we had Super Mega Baseball 4 in third place.
Ultimately, I think the community just had a really hard time getting over the microtransactions and the fact that it felt like another one of those years where NBA 2K’s gameplay got worse as time passed. Last year, NBA 2K23 did win the award on the back of strong gameplay and the addition of MyEras. But without a groundbreaking mode to point to this year, 2K could not outrun the microtransaction criticisms and that means MLB The Show 23 is the undisputed 2023 game of the year.
