Sony’s MLB The Show is the standard of baseball games on home consoles today, but their legacy on the baseball field is far from perfect. Sony Computer Entertainment America’s debut baseball game, MLB Pennant Race, was particularly lacking, but its sequel MLB 98, with its sexier polygonal graphics, began to look the part of a top-notch baseball series. At the same time, while Sony continued to make strides, series the likes of All-Star Baseball, MLB Slugfest, High Heat Baseball and particularly Electronic Arts Triple Play and later MVP Baseball and 2K’s World Series Baseball, later renamed Major League Baseball 2K, always seemed to either steal attention or clog up the field. Simply put, there were so many competitors in the genre that to crown a real champion was next to impossible.
By 2005 however, the dust had cleared. Of all of the previous competition, just EA’s MVP Baseball 2005 and Sony’s MLB 2006 were released on consoles. On handhelds, Sony’s MLB, their last release before they rebranded it The Show, was released. Although not as deep as its PS2 big brother, it’s arguably one of the best portable baseball games of its time. While later editions of The Show on the PlayStation Vita, in particular, would trump it in nearly every category, MLB was the start of something truly special. Featuring top-shelf commentary from San Diego Padres play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian and longtime ESPN analyst Dave Campbell, as well as beautiful renderings of every stadium and solid load times, it’s an experience that has aged well, too.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
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