Baseball is in full swing at the moment. The World Baseball Classic has us holding our breath, not so much for the superfluous tournament, but so our starters don’t get hurt in a meaningless game. As we pray that an overzealous South African pitcher does not put a fastball off of the wrist of our starting shortstop, we can sit back and bask in what is my favorite sports video game, baseball. On the Xbox 360, we only have one choice and it is MLB 2K9. Last year was somewhat of a letdown and 2K Sports has vowed that 2K9 will be the game to play this spring. Is this year a home run or a pop out to second base with two men on and 1 out? I would say it is a clean double to the gap. Not the best case scenario, but adequate and satisfying.

 Gamers and press alike have been very harsh on recent 2K Sports baseball games and I can’t say I blame them. The last few were not that great compounded with the Sony counterpart, MLB: The Show, has been turning head after head year in and year out. Well, on the 360 we have one choice and to be honest, this game is pretty good. If you played 2K8, you will notice some immediate changes and they are all for the better. First, the pitching mechanic still requires a 2 distinct movements, but is far more forgiving and the “release point mechanic” is turned off by default. This makes life much, much easier. You will also notice that you have some time to decide to swing or not as in games’ past, you really had to swing at everything. You will also notice that you can throw a fastball and it will not always end up in the bleachers as has been troublesome before. A well spotted, well thrown fastball is just as effective as an off-speed pitch.

Hitting is also much easier. The use of the RS is a great idea and 2K kept this in the game. You can use the LS to direct your swing but using analogs sticks to hit is a must have and the biggest blemish on Sony’s counterpart is using face buttons for swinging. Running the bases uses an easy interface and you can select runners on the fly by cycling through with the A button or you can send them in either direction with the shoulder buttons. You will also know where they intend to stop indicated by the number next to them on the display. So, the game is very easy to pick up and play, so what is the problem?

Throwing takes a step backwards. You can use the face buttons or the RS to throw and that is fine. Yet the margin of error is very thin. A groundball to shortstop is an out 97% of the time if you field it cleanly in reality. Too many times will a throw that is just outside the safe “green” portion of the meter pull your 1B off the base and you are left dumbfounded when the runner is safe when your throw beat him there by multiple strides. The same problem plagues the outfield. Throwing a baseball is not easy, but it is not that hard for MLB players. This portion was scaled far too high for difficulty. Expanding on the throwing issue is the fact you cannot preload throws. Major, major issue. Turning double plays is much harder than it seems when your SS gets the ball, pauses, then turns, then flips to 2B, who then himself turns, pauses, throws to first. Not fluid by any stretch or means. It should be bang-bang. This is more poof-poof.

There are some bugs in the outfield as well. OF tend to take the optimal path to a ball even when they have no chance of cutting of a line drive to the gap when standing still. A little more realism would have been nice here. Is this nitpicky? Yes, it is. Nevertheless, when it is very noticeable and impedes game play, it goes from nitpicking to issue. Sometimes players go through each other or the wall itself. No real way of knowing when either will occur, so it is kind of funny but a let down at the same time.

Beyond MLB 2K9′s issues, and there are more than a few, the game looks very good. The player models are very detailed and the stadiums look good as well. Since I have not been in the new Yankees Stadium or Citi Field (The Mets play here. Apparently there are 2 teams in NYC now? Zing.) , so it is hard for me to say how correct they are, but I have heard that they are not perfect. A small caveat I can live with.

For a baseball game, there is plenty to do. The franchise is deep, although people have grumbled about bugs wiping out hours of work, but 2K is usually good with patches and a patch has already been issued for some bugs in the multiplayer. The “playoff only” mini-season is great for gamers like me who want to cut to the end and not mull about in the dog days of summer.

MLB 2K9 is a good game. Is it much better than last year? Absolutely. Is there a lot of potential here for a great 2K10? Yes, there is. Alas, there are some issues that prevent this from sharing the pedestal that The Show ’09 is already on. Xbox 360 fans have no choice and this is the only baseball sim we are getting. I like the game and I play it often. None of the issues are so major where the game is broken, but are apparent enough where you get a little steamed. With a couple well placed patches, this could be awesome, but is still good enough right now to give it a look for your baseball gaming this season on the Xbox 360.

Overall: 7.25 out of 10

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