Swinging for the fences never felt so right!!
My psyche has finally taken a turn for the worst nothing could possibly prepare my feeble little American brain for the powers of MLB Power Pro. This game must be played to understand my rambling; the question I continuously ask myself is: How in the hell can a Japanese developer like Konami create a "childish" type baseball game that has more depth and substance than its American counter parts. A quick screenshot glance will probably send most hardcore baseball fans screaming. I'm not blind, though I do wear glasses, the graphics are very japanese-esque. The answer to that self impossed statement is who cares!! The value received from this astounishing package is breath taking. The only category that may cause some aches is in the audio department, specifically the commentator!!
~FEATURES~
There are tons of features within MLB PP and they aren't all made specifically for the hardcore baseball fanatics. Quick exhibition games with your friends are possible; or maybe perhaps a home run derby. The meat and potatoes of this product obviously lies in the Season mode and Single player mode. There is also a gallery were noobs to the Majors can learn about different players and teams. There is even a shop were baseball cards and different techniques can be bought to further customize your individual avatar. Finally there is an arrange mode which acts as both a fantasy league and a way to adjust certain teams to update their rosters. There is a mode for everyone in MLB PP; again the variety is similar to current baseball games but each has its own tweak that extends it beyond our American based baseball games.
~GAMEPLAY~
Convincing a hardcore baseball fanatic is going to be a tough sell with this game but trust me the gameplay doesn't disappoint. Let me start with the two biggest features in the game: the meat and potatoes of the game if you will. Success and Season which translates to franchise mode in english!! You start out as a College Manager that was recently hired by whatever MLB team fits your fancy; you're given 10 years to leave your mark on baseball. Each month you're graded as a manager both on the performance of your team on and off the field. Spent too much money on equipment and your expenses for the month will be in the negative which doesn't fly well with corporate fat cats. Everything can be managed and everything is recorded: want your closer to practice his top speed and watch as his top speed meter increase over time, check. Want to teach player new abilities like how to bunt properly or teach a pitcher how to throw a Sinking fastball, check. Want to group veteran players with your younglings so they can learn the game quicker, check. State tracking is also organized in a way that a toddler could navigate through the endless stats. Besides the other obvious features like trading player, organizing your roster, and dealing with finances the season actually has realistic progression. At anytime, you can see what your current record is with each team, or each division or the entire league. This is but a small example of the amazing stat keeping taking place in this game. Batting and pitching is simple yet laced with hidden depth. For example, when batting the player must literally put the bat on the ball to successfully make contact. It sounds obvious but not to many games now a days use this old school mentality; and why not it worked back then and it still works now. The depth comes in the handling of the reticle, there are 4 different levels of automatic lock-on, a manual mode for hardcore fans and a semi-auto. This brilliant system allows for a new comer to be able to play the same game against a veteran with the simple modification of settings. Pitching is similiar to MLB the show were you simply pick a pitch and throw simple and fun. The pitches depend on the pitchers stats, so how fast a fastball is thrown dependings on his top speed rating. The break on a curve ball is based ont he curveball meter. Fielding follows the same simple structure as pitching and fielding. The only negative aspect lies in fielding; occasionally the auto select feature wont work, sometimes selecting a fieldrt that doesn't have a chance to catch a given pop-up. Though this is rare, when it does occur it's still just as annoying. The bottom line is MLB power pro has more substance than the last two baseball games for the 360!!
~GRAPHICS~
Ok, the graphics in this game are a tough sell since so many different type of people will probably end up hating its design. First off, most hardcore baseball fans don't want to be playing their beloved past time with little caricatures that look like deformed infants. The other major group that will probably hate these graphics are the I hate everything Japanese set of gamers. On one hand we know that there is a lot of people in that love Japanese artwork and manga type artistry. Those gamers don't usually fall in the sports department. The problem is that when most people think of sports they think realism; which is fine until you get the crap that has been floating around the 360 and PS3 (minus MLB the show). Personally, I'd rather take solid gameplay an amazing franchise and single player mode over realistic graphics.
~SOUND~
The sound department is the only aspect of the game that totally fails. First off, the commentator is probably the worst commentator ever in a sports game. He sounds like a direct rip off a Japanese game show announcer.
The isn't even the worst part; the horrid part of his commentary lies when a play actually happens. This neanderthal says the same phrase over and over within the same play. For example, say you get a hit: "That was a hit over the 2nd basemen heads. got a hit; wow what a hit by the second basemen head." Long yes, needless definitely, the problem is his dialogue last until the next play so he will literally get a batter behind in some instants. It doesn't completely destroy the experience but it definitely detracts from the overall experience.
~CONCLUSIONS~
I would highly recommend MLB PP to anyone that is even the slightest interested in baseball. You don't have to be super hardcore to understand the basics of baseball and hell; they have tons of tutorials to explain the
game to complete noobs. The only flaw that isn't up to par with the rest of the game is the commentary but nothing is perfect. At the end of the day there is definitely some fun to be had with this game and anyone remotely interested in getting into Baseball should also pick this game up for 20 bucks on your ps2 or $29 for the wii!!