Sony dropped the release details for its world-class MLB The Show 21 baseball simulator last month, and we now know R.B.I. Baseball 21 will release one month before that. The once arcade-focused baseball game is coming with a slew of new enhancements that, while retaining that fast-paced simplicity of yesteryear, offer up an even more realistic and engaging experience than ever before. While it won’t give MLB The Show 21 a run for its money among the hardcore crowd, R.B.I. Baseball 21 is arriving for the rest of us in under two weeks’ time. More details below.
R.B.I. Baseball 21 – gameplay, details, and release date
Tim Anderson, who won his first Silver Slugger award last season with the Chicago White Sox, will don the front cover of this year’s R.B.I. Baseball 21 alongside what the development team calls its “most requested feature,” play-by-play commentary from MLB Network’s Fran Charles.
While it’s still not a full-on baseball simulation like MLB The Show 21, and intentionally so, there are loads of enhancements that are building upon last year’s all-new batting and pitching views/modes. Those include the Create-A-Player mode with an “enormous” amount of customization options and progressive time of day that will see afternoon games transition to night and the “sun set over the third-base line.”
From there, R.B.I. Baseball 21 will carry four play modes (Exhibition, Franchise, Online Play, and the Home Run Derby), 12 batting control style combinations, contextual difficulty sliders, 19 pitching camera angles, and 20 licensed tracks (watch out streamers), among many other returning features.
R.B.I. Baseball is coming this March to Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS & Android. Rated E for everyone.
R.B.I. Baseball 21 is now set for release one month ahead of MLB The Show 21 – the first version of the game also available on Xbox consoles – on March 16, 2021. Pre-orders are now live on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch versions for $30 at both Target and Walmart with a bonus Topps Foil Card.
Electronicsforward’ Take
While it certainly isn’t going to compete among hardcore video game enthusiasts and die-hard MLB The Show 21, R.B.I. Baseball has always presented a wonderful and more casual alternative. This time around, the game is offering players even more options at the plate and on the mound as well as upping the ante when it comes to the extras like play-by-play commentary and day/night cycles, all of which are welcome additions that shouldn’t break the beloved arcade nature of the experience as a whole.
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