The MLB season just wrapped up last month with the historic World Series win by the Chicago Cubs for the first time in 108 years. Not long before that though, the cover athlete for the upcoming MLB The Show 17 was unveiled and now the game was revealed during the PlayStation Experience keynote to have a brand new game mode inspired by the games of old that featured the cover athlete’s name.
Ken Griffey Jr. is without a doubt one of the greatest players to ever play the game of baseball, though the latter part of his career saw him hampered by injuries. This is why the announcement that he was going to be the cover athlete for the game all the more exciting, as it made perfect sense to celebrate Griffey Jr., who was also elected to Cooperstown in the MLB Hall of Fame earlier this year.
We knew that MLB The Show 17 would have all the usual features that we come to expect besides the very cool cover art. The trailer also seemed to show some sort of perhaps story mode to RTTS mode, with your player getting to choose dialogue options with the coach and such.
However, the biggest surprise came at the end of the new trailer for the game when Retro Mode was revealed. Retro Mode is inspired by the MLB games of old for systems like SNES and N64 where you can move the pitcher across the pitching rubber and the batter all across the batter’s box. Not only this, but it was revealed on the official PlayStation blog that this will also “classic on-screen displays, an old school soundtrack, unique sound effects, a throwback pause menu and more.”
Retro Mode looks like it is going to be an absolute blast and it is perfectly fitting that it would come in a game with the king of ’90s baseball games, Ken Griffey Jr., on the front cover. You can also check out this new mode in action along with hints at other new features in the trailer below.
