RBI Baseball 21 may no longer be the only option licensed by Major League Baseball for Xbox One and Xbox Series X, but it is still being released – and will be released on March 16, five weeks before the Sony San Diego Studio MLB The Show 21.
And you know what? Seems pretty good! RBI Baseball, developed by MLB Advanced Media, adopted modern-style throwing and hitting cameras (and controls) with last year’s game, taking the series out of routine, arcade-style vision and basic controls. It’s not necessarily a full-fledged “simulation-style” baseball title yet, but such things communicate that there is more depth to the franchise than simply portraying the gameplay of the 1987 NES original to the present day.
RBI Baseball 21 will add step-by-step comments by Fran Charles of the MLB Network. (This is actually Charles’s second video game show; he hosted a virtual highlights show in Madden NFL 10.) Users can also create their own players and insert them in any lineup. And the lighting will now change throughout the game to show the transitions from early afternoon to the end of the shift under the lights.
Tim Anderson, the Chicago White Sox shortstop who won his first Silver Slugger award after the 2020 season, is the cover star. RBI Baseball 21 will be sold through online stores for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One, with packaged products available for pre-order at GameStop, Walmart and Target.