MLB Power Pros is not a new baseball series. It has thrived for many years in Japan under the Pro Yakyu name. Developed by Konami, it had little chance to make it to our shores. Baseball games can only get an MLB license if they are published by 2K Games, or by any publisher that also produces a console (i.e. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo). So unless Konami produced their own console, or allowed their development team to be published by 2K Games, they would suffer the same fate as Midway's Blitz The League or 2K Sports' own All Pro Football 2K8 in the football market. As luck would have it, 2K teamed up with Konami to bring us MLB Power Pros.


Modes

Success mode is probably the most popular and unique aspect of MLB Power Pros. Success mode allows you to control the destiny of a single ball player as he develops and tries to make the Major Leagues. In many respects this is the same as MLB: The Show's "Road To The Show" mode, however the process in MLB Power Pros is closer to that of an RPG. The story of your created player can take many different twists and turns depending on which actions you take. For example, being very studious and withdrawn can yield different results than if your character is the campus pimp. Differences include what abilities you develop as well as how your stats progress. It was surprisingly pretty challenging to get a professional contract while still developing your skills. Overall I had a boat-load of fun playing in this mode and it was hard to put down the Wii Remote after starting.

Season mode is the MLB Power Pros equivalent of Franchise mode. You have about 10 years to develop an existing or expansion team to victory without being fired. In addition to playing the role of the GM, you have the option of putting on your manager's hat and players' hat while controlling many aspects of the team. Like many different franchise modes, you can set your lineups and rotation, trade and draft players. However in this mode in MLB Power Pros you can continue to develop your player as you see fit. For instance, you can train them to all become great fielders or runners. You can teach them new abilities and even teach them new pitches. Part of the challenge of this mode is balancing training and playing time with an ever-increasing fatigue bar. Simply sitting a player for a game or two isn't enough to recover fatigue. Instead, you have to ease off training sessions as well, which is sometimes the harder burden to bear. Staying employed in Season mode is as simple as managing expectations. Expectations are directly related to your budget. That is, the higher the budget, the more you have to win. Your players’ salaries take away points from an overall pool of owner points, but wins and awards add points back to that pool. If that pool is in the red after the season is over, you're fired. If you have a few good years you can save up enough points to bail you out if you have a bad year. Overall this mode, while not lasting as long as most other franchise modes, is much deeper than anything I've ever seen and should set the standard for franchise modes in all other sports games.

There's also a Wii Remote mode which allows you to play a simple game with the Wii remote using either Major League players, your own team of Mii's or a combination of both. What's unique about this mode is that you can use the Wii remote to motion for specific pitches and swing the bat similar to that of the baseball game in Wii Sports. For more seasoned gamers of this genre this mode isn't as compelling as Season mode or Success mode, but for novice gamers it expands the Wii Sports baseball game into something more interesting for baseball fans, but video game novices.

One of the best modes, especially for beginners looking to cut their teeth on this series, is Practice Mode. In it you learn how to bat, pitch, field and run the bases. In addition there are defensive and offensive modes that combine two parts like pitching and fielding, and batting and baserunning. So if you just like batting, you can choose the offensive practice mode and just keep on batting until you're finished. It even keeps track of the pitcher's ERA and your batting average.


Gameplay

The gameplay of MLB Power Pros is a mix of simulation and arcade style baseball. The pace of the game is very quick like that of an arcade game. With the exception of the graphics, sound, presentation, and pacing, MLB Power Pros is almost entirely a simulation. Players will steal, hit and run, bunt, and sacrifice just to squeeze out that extra run. Bringing in relief pitchers and managing pitch counts all work prominently into the strategy of winning a ballgame. Winning is very rewarding even for the most seasoned veteran of video game baseball.

One of the key gameplay elements of a baseball game is the batter/pitcher interface. The one featured in MLB Power Pros is one of the best there is around. The batting is a cursor interface. This is where you position the sweet spot of the bat to where the ball is headed. There are a few differences though. The cursor is shaped like the bat such that if you hit it off the head or off the handle you'll get an infield dribbler or weak line out. Hitting the ball on the sweet spot yields better hits. Part of the issue I've always had with cursor hitting is that it you have to judge the speed and trajectory of the ball in a split second all while positioning the cursor to a place where you think the ball is headed then swing if it's a strike. All that leads to a lot of strikeouts and a ton of frustration. MLB Power Pros makes this formula easier by giving you the location of where the ball is headed up front. All you have to do is account for the speed of the pitch and make minor adjustments for the trajectory. For instance sinkerballs will have the pitch cursor move down a little bit, while sliders will move across the plate. You also have the option of switching to a power swing mode. This shrinks the cursor to the size of just the bat's sweet spot. So you're sacrificing bat coverage for increased power. There are quite a few options for tweaking the batting interface to make it easier or more difficult for you or an opponent. There are different degrees in which the batters can "lock-on" to a pitch.

Pitching is as simple as pressing a pitch button and selecting a location for the pitch. As with most other baseball simulations, sometimes a pitch won't always arrive at its intended location. Your pitcher's ability to locate pitches determines a pitch's accuracy, while other abilities determine a pitch's speed or movement. Pitching is also very rewarding because you can set up batters as you would in real life. Strikes down the heart of the plate will be crushed for hits or homeruns as if you were pitching batting practice. Painting the corners and causing pitches to break off the corner of the plate on favorable counts are often rewarded with strikeouts or weak hits. As with the batting interface, you can also tailor the pitching to be easier or more difficult. The more difficult style as you holding the pitch button during the windup and releasing the button as the pitcher is releasing the ball on the screen. The more precise you are, the more accurate your pitches are within the ability of your pitcher. In practice is definitely does make pitching more challenging.

Fielding is just about the only aspect of MLB Power Pros that I do not like. This isn't a huge surprise since I don't really like fielding in most other baseball games either. In the field you control a predetermined player and move him towards where the ball is hit. You can dive, leap, or climb walls to get the ball. Player movement is very loose as you player can alter directions as if momentum didn't exist. Perhaps it's the notches in the Wii nunchuck controller, or maybe it's just the loose player movement, but I frequently end up overrunning balls or not getting good jumps towards where the ball is hit. What's worse is that the fielding AI doesn't pick the closest fielder to where the ball is being hit. While sometimes it'll give you a faster fielder that's far away, other times, it's a complete mystery. I just find that no matter how much I practice my fielding, it always seems like a liability as compared to the computer player. You can change the fielder preferences to do everything automatically, or just control player movement (you control the throws).

One prominent aspect of the gameplay is that it borrows heavily from the Japanese style of baseball. For instance, pitchers throw strikes and batters are measured not by their ability to get on base, but rather their ability to get hits and maximize their batting average. This can be very annoying as it's hard to create a successful team that takes a ton of pitches when the pitchers are constantly throwing strikes. Another oddity you see is that players will sacrifice more and you'll even see quite a few 6-man rotations. While having this does add a unique element to MLB-licensed baseball games, the fact is that it isn't authentic and even worse is that you cannot tweak the game to make it more that way.


Controls

You have a few different control options for MLB Power Pros. You can use the Wii Remote and Nunchuck combination, the Wii Classic Controller, or a GameCube controller like the Wavebird. For the most part, I was pretty comfortable with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck combination. The buttons responded pretty well and the configuration didn't tie your hands in knots, especially the one holding the Wii Remote. There were a few occasions where I had to reach to press the "1", "2", "+" or "-" buttons, but it wasn't a terrible situation to be in. The batting cursor sensitivity is just right, but the fielding sensitivity is a little too loose as I alluded to earlier.

Using the Classic Controller or Wavebird yielded similar performances. Button sensitivity is pretty good. You don't have to reach for a few buttons as you do with the Wii remote so I can imagine quite a few people preferring to use one of these controllers over the Wii Remote.


Graphics

The first thing you notice about the MLB Power Pros is the character models. That is, they look like Mii's with big feet. This gives the initial perception that you're not playing a big boy's baseball game, but rather one for kids and casual fans of the game. Still, these bobble-headed character models are remarkably realistic. Manny has his weird dreadlocks; Magglio Ordonez has his Jerry Curl. Batting stances and plate rituals are remarkably authentic from Nomar's batting glove adjustments to Gary Sheffield's bat waving. Even pitcher windups are pretty spot on despite the lack of legs or arms.

The stadiums are also reproduced with striking accuracy. The Green Monster of Fenway Park is tall and imposing, while the quirks of Houston's Minute Maid Park are recreated right down to the flag pole in center field. I even was able to create a splash in the left center fountain in K.C.'s Kauffman Stadium.

Despite the simulation qualities of the gameplay and authentic feel of the players and parks, the graphics clearly lean towards an arcade style presentation. Homerun popups are bright and bubbly as if their sole purpose is to grab your attention. The color tones of ballparks are not as drab as they are in real life, instead opting to use brighter colors to liven up the arcade look.

This all creates a rather surreal baseball experience. This is much different than in MLB Slugfest where a flaming A-Rod can punch a rival player on the diamond during a routine double play ball. It's more of the concept of playing authentic simulation style baseball in an arcade style setting with arcade style pacing. It's a very unique experience.


Sound

The sound is one of the only substandard aspects of MLB Power Pros. Even though the gameplay is very simulation oriented, the sound effects seem to fall more in the same basket as the graphics. That is they have more of an arcade feel to match the graphical styling of a game. The roar of the crowd is sudden and synthetic, the crack of the bat doesn't sound authentic either. It's not a terrible thing as it does match up with the look of the game. Though I can't help but feel as if this game could pass for a Dreamcast title.

Due to the pace and style of the game, the play by play has a tough job. Most traditional baseball commentary is paced and deliberate. Yet in order to keep up with the action and to provide even a shred of analysis, the play by play sounds as if it's done by a younger John Moschitta Jr. The only problem is that the commentary is not only over the top, but it's also blatantly wrong many times. For instance, often as soon as your player makes contact with the ball, the game will note that you ripped the ball for a hit. What's funny is more than half the time either the batter is out on the play or the ball was ripped foul. However, one nice aspect about the commentary though is that it keeps track of prior at bats. For instance, one game Victor Martinez ripped his third double in three at bats and the commentator made sure to note it.


Replay Value

The Season and Success modes really create an impressive amount of replay value. The solid gameplay as well as the stat tracking and incredible amount of flexibility to micro or macro manage your team makes MLB Power Pros even more appealing. Just when I'm getting bored playing through baseball games in Season Mode, I can speed up the progression through games and intervene as needed; instead focusing more on the management side. The solid gameplay really helps because at no point do you ever feel cheated by the AI. Instead you earn your rewards while learning the many nuances of baseball. And that's what really makes MLB Power Pros the most appealing. It's accessible to so many groups of people, but still presents a challenge to seasoned veterans. The Wii Remote mode allows my wife and daughter to pick up the game, while I can still be challenged by the computer in Success or Season mode.

There are a few things that cut down on the replay value. The lack of an online mode keeps you battling against the computer for a while. In addition there are no online roster updates either. This is a problem since this game was released in time for the MLB Playoffs. So unfortunately baseball will be a distant memory for most by now. Still, the game is very solid on its own. It'll certainly hold my attention for a long time to come and is by far the best game I have played on the Wii to date.

Recommended: Yes