The 2017 Sports Game of the Year: MLB The Show 17

There is something to be said about incremental change, excellence in consistency and never messing up the formula for players along the way.

While it is true that MLB The Show as a franchise does catch some flak at times for perhaps not innovating and instead incrementing, the results have led it to a second straight Sports Game of the Year win here on Operation Sports.

This year’s game introduced new options that allowed you to accelerate how fast your franchise could progress, which totally fits Sony’s style. If anything, how Sony has continually introduced new features but left the control to the players on whether they partake in those new ways to play has been nothing short of ingenious.

Most other sports franchises seemingly lack the courage (or ability) to introduce a major gameplay element into the mix while also saying, “And hey if you hate it, we also have the old way(s) in the game too!”

That has always been the thing that, to me at least, has always been great about The Show. You are the one with the control, and the end user is always the one in charge of their experience at the end of the day.

Another overlooked aspect of the franchise that could be leading to some continued good will is the continuation of features like year-to-year saves, which keep those Road to the Show careers or Arizona Diamondbacks’ dynasties going well into the future.

The Modes Continue To Impress

Road to the Show introduced new options to make decisions on and off the field to shape your player’s career. I personally wasn’t the biggest fan of the documentary style at the end of the day, but it still introduced a relatively unobtrusive way to introduce some life into the mode.

Retro Mode is a take it or leave it thing for me, but it was cool to have it included and play it a couple of times.

The big winner to me continues to be the Diamond Dynasty mode, which has perhaps become the best card-collecting mode in all of sports games.

From being able to play as legends (this is essential for baseball) to the refined marketplace to how Stubs are earned, it all mostly made sense and worked well. The Events were all well done and Ranked Seasons were well done as well.

And then there’s the Conquest and Battle Royale modes, which have become some players’ favorite modes in the game.

So That’s the Best of 2017

MLB The Show 17 had another fantastic year. Considering the distance from release to awards discussion, it’s amazing this game has been able to stick out in gamers’ minds long enough to win this award for a second straight season.