Road to the Show. It is an RPG.

MLB The Show is PlayStation to me. The first game I bought for my PS3 was MLB The Show, and recently MLB The Show is the first game I bought for my PS4.

Baseball is a sport that doesn't sit well with everyone. Either it is too slow, it lasts too long, the season is too long, or that beer sales end after the 7th inning. But I love baseball and I love MLB The Show, especially Road to the Show.

For those that haven't played MLB The Show, Road to the Show is basically just an RPG with a baseball skin. You create a character either something random or even creating yourself. Pick a position. Give yourself some stats. Select a team you want to play for or go into the draft and end up with whoever picks you. From there you start your baseball career beginning in the minor leagues with dreams of the majors.

As someone who grew up with Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, and countless other RPGs during the NES and SNES days, Road to the Show is basically that. Random encounters are your at-bats or fielding attempts. Do well and you are rewarded with experience points to make yourself better. It brings back memories of zoning out playing RPGs of my youth.

I'm on the verge of completing my first season where I started in AA and was called up to AAA and then was a September callup to the major league club. I guess you have to be a baseball fan to enjoy everything that MLB The Show has to offer and Road to the Show, but really it is a very clever use of a tried and true mechanic.

As much as love MLB The Show there are two things I would love to see them tweak. First would be to do an animation swap for home run replays. The batter is looking straight down versus when a player hits a home run their neck and eyes follow the swing. Perhaps I was spoiled by the sweet swing of Ken Griffey Jr. Second stadium specific events. More and more stadiums are having to do things to bring people to the ballpark and it would be great to see these in the presentation of MLB The Show. Being from Seattle, it would be awesome to see King's Court somehow work its way into the game.

These are minor issues in what has become the best sports game the last couple years. Congrats to San Diego Studios and keep them coming!