The fifth difficulty level is my other favorite change to The Show. Appropriately titled Legend, it adds a difficulty not seen in the game before, making it much, much harder, and in a way more realistic. Players, skill wise, behave more like themselves in Legend. I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like the better AI was transferred across the board, as even on lower difficulty levels I noticed CPU pitchers playing a little smarter than last year.

Sadly, The Show 09 isn't without faults. One inexplicable change was the complete removal of the King of the Diamond game mode, a series favorite, especially among travel gamers. Other problems include the still-frequently-frustrating camera, as well as a few new glitches while fielding, such as the ball ghosting through an outstretched glove in certain animations -- something that caused me more than a few headaches while playing both RttS and the season mode. It's bad enough when I can't find the ball due to the camera, but to find it and then not be able to catch it? That's probably the biggest problem in the game.

Still, despite those faults, MLB 09: The Show on the PSP is the second best baseball title of the year, losing only to The Show on the PS3. I don't know if that's more of a sign of how sub-par 2K's offering this year was or a real testament to the handheld developers of The Show, but there's no arguing with the end result, no matter the cause.

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