MLB Power Pros for the Nintendo Wii
April 5th, 2008
My latest Nintendo Wii Purchase has been MLB Power Pros, a baseball game that has incredible depth but you wouldn’t know if at first glance. I was a bit skeptical when I read reviews of this game, as the graphics are obviously quite simple. It looks like one of those games like “backyard football” where it’s totally geared towards children - sometimes featuring childhood versions of professional athletes.
MLB Power Pros is different, however. This game may look simple, but it is anything but. There is a wealth of information about each player already contained within the game, and the season mode immerses you in a sea of ridiculously thorough numerical data about every possible stat known to man. On top of that, the gameplay is quite easy to pick up, but leaves you a lot of room for improvement as you go on, and tons of control over pitching, batting, running and fielding. I really can’t state this enough - MLB Power Pros is one of those rare games that almost anyone could pick up and start playing instantly, but to fully ‘get’ the game they would have to play for hours or days.
The gameplay really is amazing. There are a variety of ways to play the game - you can use the Wii remote turned sideways, much like when you are playing virtual console games. You can also use the classic controller (this is what I do). Either way, you use the directional pad/joystick to aim where you want to place the ball after you have selected your pitch. A small baseball cursor appears where you are trying to pitch to, but the actual accuracy of the pitch depends on how talented your pitcher is, and how fatigued he is. Batting works similarly. You have an overlay of your batter’s ’sweet spot’, which varies from player to player. When you see the ball coming, you move your bat to the area you want to swing, and press B. If you managed to place the sweet spot in the correct location, you probably will make contact and get a hit. Based on your timing, you can hit the ball to any field you want, and based on the angle you swing, you can hit a fly ball or a grounder, etc.
It’s really very easy to get in there and start playing. There are more advanced controls you can get into (power swings, baserunning controls, etc) but the basic premise is really easy to learn and that makes the game a winner. As I mentioned before, the stats are incredibly deep. Pitch counts, pitch type counts, ball locations, batting stats and so much more are tallied by the game. You can bore yourself to death with this stuff, but I actually did use it to my advantage on a number of occasions when I realized a) I swung at every pitch the computer threw and never took a pitch and b) my pitching was quite predictable. I corrected both of these things and now I’m doing much better in my season as the Braves.
While the season mode is played with traditional controls, there are modes that you can utilize the Wii remote as well. There is a home run derby and an exhibition game that you can play in either one or two player mode, which allows you to swing the remote to pitch, run, hit, and field. You can also select Mii characters to play on your team and to play against you. Pitching and batting work just like Wii Sports Baseball. To run the bases or to run to the ball faster, you simply shake your remote. Kind of basic, but it doesn’t get too annoying.
Despite my gushing about the game, there are some things that are less than perfect. The announcer is usually dead on, sometimes gets too excited about ‘it’s a hit’ when it’s a hit … but it’s also an out. He also struggles with basic grammatical rules. This game is a port of a highly successful Japanese game by the same name, so that can explain some of the oddities in this area, but they are easily overlooked. Also, the rosters and schedule a year old. So if you’re the type who is super anal about these types of things, prepare to either play with last year’s team, or do a lot of editing of rosters.
Overall, this is probably the most entertaining sports game I’ve played in some time. This is definitely the best sports game I have played on the Wii, and I think that will probably hold true until I play NCAA Football this year, or whenever they come out with Mario Tennis.
Anyway, it’s only 30 bucks on Amazon so if you’re a baseball fan, a Wii owner, or a statistics nut, you will most likely love this game.
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April 5th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
[...] Another fellow blogger created an interesting post today on mlb power pros [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Is the song “Mississippi Queen” anywhere in the game’s soundtrack?
April 8th, 2008 at 7:57 am
The litmus test for any game is whether or not Mississippi Queen is on the song’s soundtrack.
In this case, I must say that it does not include that song.