MLB Power Pros

[jacobe]

After finding little to no coverage of this game, I came up with checking out good ol' DSP. A looooong time ago I believe I'd login under the name lessthanme. Anyways, after you guys gave it some positive feedback I figured it was enough for me. I'm a sucker for any kind of baseball game and even got a reasonable amount of enjoyment out of The Bigs on Wii, despite the 20 foot leaps at the wall.

I'm 2 games into a season in Power Pros now and I'm fairly pleased. I'm not floored by it, but it is fun. It does feel like a GameCube game that was ported over to Wii, so the majority of the game has no motion controls except for two wii-specific modes.

I'm not one that finds the motion controls gimmicky so I was slightly disappointed by this, but the button controls are good. Excellent cursor hitting. Only a few gripes -

- On normal, I'm getting a ridiculous number of singles (15-19) per game, but not as many runs as you'd expect from that many hits (4-5).
-The baserunning has been a bit frustrating. You really have to anticipate advancing to the next base. If you don't hit the button to advance early enough, the player will pull up and lose all momentum, making it near impossible to make up for that lost time.
-Fielding is touchy and a weak arm in the outfield is greatly exaggerated as a throw from left field to second can sometimes end up barely rolling to the SS's feet.

I look forward into digging deeper into the game, but honestly am a bit more excited for next years version. I'm still interested in someone implementing the Wii Sports Baseball hitting mechanics into a full fledged baseball game. I would be in heaven.... but this will do for now.

[btmmayor]

but MLB Power Pro's is like Baseball Stars, RBI Baseball, Bases Loaded, and Ken Griffey Baseball all wound up together. This is the kind of game that got us started with video game baseball to begin with.

That is a great way to describe this game and I also think its the way this game should be approached. Yeah, there are quirks that would drive a baseball purist nuts (the lack of walks being at the top) but if you approach this as a throwback to the old school baseball games of the past its head and shoulders above any that have come before it. This is what an arcade baseball game should be like instead of that garbage they tried to feed us with The Bigs. This certainly won't take me away from The Show on the PS3, but this game is a blast, especially playing multiplayer with my sons.

I've been waiting for a baseball game like this for years and I've wondered why no company has tried to give the next gen treatment to the old school baseball games. Mario Baseball was a great effort, but it strayed too far from being a true baseball game with all of the star powers and wacky fields.

I hope the word about this game gets around so we can get a follow up with internet play and roster updates. I'm worried though that the box, release timing and "Backyard Baseball" look of the game will turn alot of folks off.

I played RBI Baseball with my dorm buddies non-stop during my college days. If I would have had Power Pros I probably would not have graduated.

[pigpen81]

3 cool thins I noticed playing tonight:

1) Thome does his signature "point the bat at the pitcher" right before the pitch.

2) Moving buses on Waveland Ave.

3) The ball actually lands on the netting that covers the seats right behind home plate at Fenway....incredible collision detection!

I started an expansion season and the amount of settings given is immense. I can set the CPU pitching, batting and fielding all the way to "Powerful"...2 levels above expert so maybe that will awake the CPU offense.

Maybe more walks will occur with pitcher fatigue as the seaon wears on....I look forward to finding out.

I haven't had this much fun in years!

[matthewk]

I wouldn't dismiss the game as arcade. Every baseball title, no matter how 'sim' has always had an issue with walks. Could there be more here? yes. But I could say the same ting sbout MVP, 2k7, and the Show (With the Show being slightly better in this aspect).

Power Pros gets a lot of little "baseball things" right. Last night I saw the CPU drag bunt for a hit with the bases empty. I see a great variety of hits and outcomes. Players will be subbed in late in the game for defensive purposes. Taking out the graphics aspect, I'd put this right up there with any of the 'serious' baseball games.

[Jeff]

IMO, about the only game that ever got walks right was High Heat. Never quite figured that out. Not sure if programmers/developers find "walks" as
a slow down that could cause a lost of interest. I can't imagine that it is that hard to program.

I can remember with High Heat it was not uncommon for the CPU pitcher to lose command for an inning and walk 2-3 batters in an inning.

Jeff

[webdanzer]

IMO, about the only game that ever got walks right was High Heat. Never quite figured that out. Not sure if programmers/developers find "walks" as a slow down that could cause a lost of interest.

Yep, that's it exactly. Ever play a baseball game against randoms online? Half or more of those guys will scream at you if you dare pitch out of the strike zone.

I used to be annoyed at developers for the lack of walks, but it's more correct of me to be annoyed at the gamer market.

Back to PP, I may be putting it up for trade. Getting too many hits/runs now, with hitting as hard as I can make it. Averaging in the teens my last three games. I'll give it a little more time, though.

[btmmayor]

Getting too many hits/runs now, with hitting as hard as I can make it. Averaging in the teens my last three games.

This makes me laugh because I remember giving you a hard time back in the Home Run King days because you were having the same problem and I couldn't hit on the higher levels to save my life. Now about 5 years later, playing another game with a batting cursor, if I crank up the difficulty and shut off the pitch marker I can barely make contact in Power Pros.

I remember being truly amazed at your Home Run King skill. At least your skills are not eroding in our advancing age.

[JRod]

Getting too many hits/runs now, with hitting as hard as I can make it. Averaging in the teens my last three games.

This makes me laugh because I remember giving you a hard time back in the Home Run King days because you were having the same problem and I couldn't hit on the higher levels to save my life. Now about 6 years later, playing another game with a batting cursor, if I crank up the difficulty and shut off the pitch marker I can barely make contact in Power Pros.

I remember being truly amazed at your Home Run King skill. At least your skills are not eroding in our advancing age.

Web must be freaking amazing. Turn it up to Powerful and with or without the cursor on, I can't hit. With it on, it jumps all around that I never can put enough of the bat on the ball to be any good. With it off, I'll get 10 or more K's.

Web might be an outlier.

[AJColossal]

This is a fun game. I agree that it is not the be-all end-all of baseball sims by any stretch of the imagination, but the games are quick, fun and competitive, at least in my experiences.

The biggest strength of this game by far is the controls. It really puts a game like MLB 2K7 to shame in terms of the resonsiveness of the controls. Why, in 2007, with state of the art technology, does MLB 2K7 feel like I am fighting with the controls while this game (on a PS2) feel so right?

I wish developers are taking note of the beauty of the way this game controls.

[Naples39]

Seeing that I only seem to use my Wii when several people are over, can anyone with the game confirm if you can do wii sports-style home run derby with the wii remote in this game? Could be kind of fun to goof around with some friends in a home run derby in all the real parks with some nice collision detection.

[JRod]

This is a fun game. I agree that it is not the be-all end-all of baseball sims by any stretch of the imagination, but the games are quick, fun and competitive, at least in my experiences.

The biggest strength of this game by far is the controls. It really puts a game like MLB 2K7 to shame in terms of the resonsiveness of the controls. Why, in 2007, with state of the art technology, does MLB 2K7 feel like I am fighting with the controls while this game (on a PS2) feel so right?

I wish developers are taking note of the beauty of the way this game controls.

Here's the thing, if Power Pros had more walks, and did a little better at the pitcher subsitution, it would be better than MLB 2k, the Show and MVP.

[matthewk]

Here's the thing, if Power Pros had more walks, and did a little better at the pitcher subsitution, it would be better than MLB 2k, the Show and MVP.

I already think it's better than MVP (on the Xbox) and MLB 2k7.

Walks are hard to come by. But when I'm hitting I hardly ever get walks with any game, due to swinging at too many bad pitches. Walking the CPU is like MVP for me. If I crank up the CPU hitting enough that I'm afradi to pitch to guys, I'll end up walking a couple. I also still need to try expert level pitching, which may help.

I'm ok with the contact/big swing system now that I've changed my mentality. I almost always start off an at-bat with Big Swing. I only move to contact once I've got 2 strikes on me, or if I'm in a hit'n'run situation. Big Swing should really be the default, with contact being the one used in certain situations.

[JRod]

I'm ok with the contact/big swing system now that I've changed my mentality. I almost always start off an at-bat with Big Swing. I only move to contact once I've got 2 strikes on me, or if I'm in a hit'n'run situation. Big Swing should really be the default, with contact being the one used in certain situations.

Why do you say that? Because its harder to hit with big swing and you see too many hits with contact?

[btmmayor]

Here's the thing, if Power Pros had more walks, and did a little better at the pitcher subsitution, it would be better than MLB 2k, the Show and MVP.

I'm loving Power Pros especially as a multiplayer game. That said, its ridiculous to say its a better baseball game than PS3 The Show. They are two very, very different games. It isn't even a contest when comparing the presentation, atmosphere, play by play and major league feel of the games.

In Power Pros the strikezone is huge and just feels like a fast playing, arcade title (which is great by the way for what I'm looking for in the game). The Show feels like baseball and is the best representation of its sport among any team sports videogames in my opinion.

Power Pros is an awesome game and the type of game I've been waiting for years for, but no way would I take it over The Show if I could only have one baseball game. Now, MVP or MBL 2k7......thats a whole different story.

[matthewk]

Why do you say that? Because its harder to hit with big swing and you see too many hits with contact?

There's not enough "pop" using just contact. You can get a hard hit using the contact swing, but if I used only that, I'd only get 1 HR every 5 games. The Big Swing gets you HRs and hits to the wall, but it's not so powerful that I hit 6 HRs a game using it.

[matthewk]

I'm loving Power Pros especially as a multiplayer game. That said, its ridiculous to say its a better baseball game than PS3 The Show. They are two very, very different games. It isn't even a contest when comparing the presentation, atmosphere, play by play and major league feel of the games.

In terms of immitating MLB, the Show wins easily. They are very different games, but one thing they have in common is that they do the game of baseball justice. I'm still surprised at how well Power Pros captures the game of baseball, even if it does look like a cartoon.

In Power Pros the strikezone is huge..

This is my only hangup right now. Too many 0-2 counts on both sides. I'm still hoping there is something we're missing that will change this, even if just a bit.

[fanatic]

Just picked up a Wii and Power Pros yesterday and loved the 2 games I've had time to play so far. While it seems like it will be a pretty nice sim, I'm mainly enjoying it for the pure fun of it.

I particularly love the challenge of cursor hitting. Baseball games have gotten really stale for me lately (not blessed enough to be able to play the Show unforunately) because of the ease of timed hitting. With Power Pros, I feel like hitting will be something I have to learn.

Can't wait to try out all the modes too.

[Sudz]

Just picked up a Wii and Power Pros yesterday and loved the 2 games I've had time to play so far. While it seems like it will be a pretty nice sim, I'm mainly enjoying it for the pure fun of it.

I particularly love the challenge of cursor hitting. Baseball games have gotten really stale for me lately (not blessed enough to be able to play the Show unforunately) because of the ease of timed hitting. With Power Pros, I feel like hitting will be something I have to learn.

Can't wait to try out all the modes too.

where did you find a WII?

and is it decent on the ps2?

[webdanzer]

After a couple of more games, I'm not sure powerful pitching is the way to go. I think -maybe- that the CPU throws more balls on Expert.

On that level, I just had a couple of lower scoring games.

As far as my skills not declining...meh, you should see me at shooters lately!

Naples, yes, you can do a simple Wiimote home run derby using the swing motion. It is very, very simple, though.

[HipE]

Just picked up a Wii and Power Pros yesterday and loved the 2 games I've had time to play so far. While it seems like it will be a pretty nice sim, I'm mainly enjoying it for the pure fun of it.

I particularly love the challenge of cursor hitting. Baseball games have gotten really stale for me lately (not blessed enough to be able to play the Show unforunately) because of the ease of timed hitting. With Power Pros, I feel like hitting will be something I have to learn.

Can't wait to try out all the modes too.

where did you find a WII?

and is it decent on the ps2?

I have it for the PS2, the game is awesome! This game is a total throwback to the 8 bit baseball gaming days, yet with all the depth of the current gen releases. It has a fun factor that seems to be missing in the games today that try to mimic an actual television broadcast. Definitely worth the 30 bucks, if for not other reason than to just play something that feels so drastically different and old school. I would love to see a PSP release of this, I think that would be the perfect system for it.

[fanatic]

where did you find a WII?

I'm in Toronto and just walked into a Best Buy while shopping with the wife.

It was funny because I jokingly said to her "If they have a Wii, I can buy one right?", not expecting any to be there. Well, there were 3 sitting on the shelves so I couldn't resist.

[Sudz]

where did you find a WII?

I'm in Toronto and just walked into a Best Buy while shopping with the wife.

It was funny because I jokingly said to her "If they have a Wii, I can buy one right?", not expecting any to be there. Well, there were 3 sitting on the shelves so I couldn't resist.

HA! awesome.

[Slumberland]

I gave this a spin last night... very cute. Not my cup of tea, but fun. If they can make the pitcher/batter confrontation a bit more realistic with regards to balls and deep counts next year, I'd probably put some real time into it. I'm just not into the 3-pitches-per-at-bat thing.

[Dave]

Color me impressed, it is like playing a fairly deep 8- or 16-bit baseball game with a lot of attention to detail. I never would have guessed such a solid non-Mario baseball title would show up on the Wii. Since Wii Sports baseball stunk, IMO, the lack of motion controls is a blessing.

Is there any way to rack up a ton of experience points (or whatever they are called) to open up the create-a-player or expansion team modes?

[nyisles16]

nice little detail here... I was playing Col vs AZ.. I brought in a lefty pitcher to pitch the 7th inning.. AZ calls on a righty PH for their pitcher.. as soon as that happened, I called on Corpas.. sure enough, the computer brought in Clark to now PH.. I thought that was neat..