MLB Power Pros 2008

"What's better than a pinch-hit, walk-off, come-from-behind grand slam? This game."

MLB Power Pros 2008 is the North American follow-up to the similarly amazing MLB Power Pros. The game is based on the very popular Japanese series Jikkyo Powerful Pro Yakyu, which Konami has been producing since 1994. The series is renowned for its arcade-style gameplay, but most of the praise comes from a mode called Success Mode, which allows you to create a player who has to work his way up to the Majors. Another mode that was just introduced with this iteration of the series, called MLB Life, has become another reason as to why this game is arguably one of the best baseball games around today.

The general gameplay is basic. If you follow baseball even in the slightest amount, you'll automatically know the rules and the objective of the game. I'll assume you do follow baseball. The main mode of gameplay is exhibition mode, where you select two teams, and can either play as one of them or watch the computer play a simulated game. There is also multiplayer available, so if you have a friend over you can play against each other. In exhibition mode, you can set every option to your liking, whether it'd be the number of extra innings or even the weather and time of day. Worth noting is the fact that you can now choose the option of having to manage your bullpen and having pitchers warm-up before they come into the game, as opposed to just bringing them into the game. This is a new addition to the series which adds more realism to the game, in my opinion.

Season mode puts you in the role of a GM (and manager) for ten seasons, and has been fine-tuned from last year's version. Season mode has practically everything from a real-life MLB season, including the June draft (although it is only two rounds), Free Agent periods, and even the All-Star game. You can change the line-up, perform trades, set practice schedules... Pretty much all the basic stuff is there. It really is nothing too special. That's probably a good thing, though, because the formula has worked, so why mess with something that's practically perfect, right? The only knock I have against season mode is the fact that there are too many trades. And most of them aren't those small minor leaguer for a minor leaguer trades, either. They're of the blockbuster variety. I mean, it kind of annoys me to see a guy like Derek Jeter playing for the Baltimore Orioles, and I'm not even a Yankee fan. But other than that, season mode is great. A cool option they give you is to choose to watch the games in a "fast mode", which allows you to perform managerial moves during games while making the game a lot faster. This is great for people like me who can't bear to play all 162 games in the season.

Success Mode, as I previously mentioned, is one of two modes where you will accumulate most of your playing time. In MLB Power Pros 2008, you start off as a player who recently moved up to the Double-A league, with the obvious objective of getting to the Major Leagues. You can choose to be a pitcher or a fielder, both of which have their different perks that you can exploit during some of the numerous storylines. For example, if you're a pitcher and choose to follow a certain storyline involving mastering the arts of the ninja, you can create your own pitch. There are many different small storylines you can choose to follow apart from the main one, which include dating and working to gain more money. As for the main storyline, your player plays for the Green Apples of the Double-A league, and as you progress through the season, you gain higher evaluation from coaches and scouts, the latter being the most important. Once you pass a certain mark and have a high evaluation from scouts, you move on to the Triple-A league and eventually to the Majors. It's worth noting that you can make 110 (!!) fielders and 90 pitchers, which might seem like a lot, but once you start getting into Success Mode, you'll probably find yourself playing it over and over, trying to create a better player than you did the last time. The fact that there are different paths to take really makes this mode much more enjoyable.

The other "big" mode in the game is MLB Life Mode, which allows you to be a player, either a Major Leaguer or one of your own created players, and basically go through their career. You can buy a house, get married, buy a car, go out with friends to restaurants (the food at each restaurant looks exactly the same though, if you know what I mean...), and of course, do the typical baseball things. When you first start, if the player you're using isn't already a regular Major Leaguer, you'll probably go back and forth between AAA and the Majors for a bit, especially if you don't do well in Spring Training. The idea behind this mode is that you only control your player during the games. If you're a pitcher, you'll control only when you're pitching (somewhat obviously). If you're a fielder, you'll only control your at-bats. If you're in a slump, the manager will let you know, forcing you to pick up your game. Do bad enough, and you'll be sent down to Triple-A, where you'll have to work your way back up to the Majors again. Usually this never happens, but if the difficulty setting is high enough, be prepared to get into some slumps, especially if your player isn't a good contact hitter. Once you become a starter, though, it'd be pretty hard to do bad enough to lose your starting role AND be sent down to the minors. You'll get some slack if you come off the bench and go 0 for 1, which kind of ticked me off. It's as if they expect you to get a hit every single game, regardless if you came off the bench as a pinch-hitter. That's the only real negative to MLB Life, because other than that, it's great and chock-full of replay value.

There are a few other small modes available in the game, including a home run derby, where you choose a player and try to hit as many home runs from ten pitches. You get more points for longer home runs, so it's obviously a good choice to pick players with a ton of power. There's also a League mode, where you choose a number of teams and basically make a small league out of them. Each team plays each other, and the team who has the most wins... wins. Arrange mode allows you to create a team, which can be used in Season mode, allowing for some interesting variations on the structure of Major League Baseball. Exclusively for the Wii version of the game is Wii Remote mode, where you use only the Wii remote to play games. It features the typical waggle controls, which allows your player to run faster, field the ball quicker, etc. It's really the only "true" use of the Wii Remote in the entire game, which is slightly disappointing (I'd like to at least be able to use the pointer at the main menu to select the game mode). There's also the standard practice mode, and a mode that allows you to view and change your data and options. Finally, there's a shop where you can use points earned throughout the game though the numerous modes to buy things like batting stances, pitching styles, new uniforms, new stadiums, and baseball cards. These baseball cards can be viewed in a separate mode, and a lot of the player have nice little descriptions about them, which is really cool.

I can hear you already, "enough of the modes! Where's the graphics and audio?" Well, here they are. The graphics are very colourful and the players stand out a lot, mainly because they have large heads and no legs! Yeah, it's not supposed to be very realistic in terms of visuals. The character style is one of the reasons many people enjoy this game. It's very interesting to see mini-, almost chibi-like versions of baseball players. A lot of them look pretty similar to their real-life counterparts, too! The stadiums are very well designed as well, and I'm pretty sure the dimensions are close to their real-life dimensions. The crowd could use some variety, and it would make more sense to see people in the crowd wearing the home team's jerseys rather than some random, generic shirts. The music is good, although nothing special, really. It's cheerful, but doesn't really get you pumped up to play baseball. A lot of the tunes are kind of catchy, though, especially the "shady" tune that plays when you encounter a certain ninja in one of the Success Mode storylines. The sound is decent, a lot of the generic baseball sounds are there like the crack of the bat, the sound of the glove catching the ball, etc. The announcer, however, is just plain bad. He's not very exciting, and when he does get excited, it's during a typical play, like when my fielder is "COMING IN!!". Not only is he not very good, but a lot of the lines are used in the wrong places, such as when a "routine ground ball" ends up being a foul-out behind home plate. A lot of the errors from last year are fixed though, including the infamous "Tony Glaus".

Overall, this is a great game, and even though it's far from perfect, I believe it still deserves a 10/10 for two reasons: First of all, the flaws are extremely minor. Secondly, the sheer amount of replay value this game has makes its $40 price tag look extremely smaller. One large disappointment that I think I should mention here is that there are no online modes at all. This means if you want to update your roster, you'll have to do it manually, as there are no roster updates (although, the rosters are correct as of late April, so some of the roster is up to date). If you can get over that, and you like baseball, then get this game. If you're not too familiar with the wonderful sport of baseball, but are interested in it and this game, then rent it. It will definitely keep you busy for a long, long time.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/13/08

Game Release: MLB Power Pros 2008 (US, 07/29/08)