MLB Power Pros
Anime characters stand in for MLB baseball players, will it play in the USA?
Tags: MLB Power Pros Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Dec 27th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| MLB Power Pros (title page) | 2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
Sports games have a very specific audience, and are given heaps of derision by critics for offering little more than graphical upgrades and new rosters. That is kind of a simplistic criticism due to the fact that the controls have nearly perfected the control scheme for most sports. 2K Sports has attempted to widen the audience for its baseball license with two newer expansions into baseball games. The Bigs came out earlier this year, which focused on arcade simplicity and huge plays. MLB Power Pros is another foray into tweaking the baseball formula. MLB Power Pros has the same game play as the mainstream baseball games, but what sets this apart from normal baseball games is the character design.
Power Pros is based on a huge Japanese franchise, Pawapuro. The series is famous for its unique chibi style anime characters. These cute bigheaded characters make comical stand-ins for the steroid ridden MLB players. It makes for a unique take on the baseball action, and the animations for when players miss a huge swing are especially adorable. Although only cosmetic, that change alone would be enough to make the game standout.
This game is still heavily weighted in its Japanese roots, and there are quite a few aspects that try to show that factor off as much as possible. The status of batters is shows off by a bouncing face that tells you what form the player is in. This is actually one of the few areas where the game’s form lives up to its simplified presentation. However, unless you stick to exhibition mode, that doesn’t last very long. The season mode involves a pretty complex management system, with a bit of an RPG element. No matter which team you choose, you take on the role of a fresh faced young college kid brought in to turn around a struggling team. The management system is going to be familiar to sports game players, but newer players aren’t given too much of a tutorial.
There is a mode that American players will be either instantly drawn to, or turned off completely. This is an RPG that allows you to take on the role of an aspiring ball player, at a less than promising college. While balancing work, studies, girls, and practice, there is little time for actual baseball. It takes about at least an hour before you even see any actual baseball action. That isn’t the worst of it, as you only play the at bats for your character. The game’s outcomes seem to be predetermined, and it ends up being far too much work for too little payoff.
Power Pros doesn’t deliver like The Bigs, and ends up falling into the same trap as normal sports games. Relying on graphical changes to entice players, Power Pros doesn’t have action that will appeal to more casual players, and the odd characters may turn of purists. The RPG is the most interesting aspect of this game, but it is far too in depth for all but the most die-hard RPG fans. This is at most, worth a rental. Take a look at the weird characters, and then move on.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + The characters and simplified stat measure make this an easy game to pick up and play. | 6.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Beyond exhibition mode the game becomes far too complicated for those causal fans it sought to attract, and the RPG game may be too strange for sports game purists. |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| This game is a new twist on baseball. Neat in theory, but I'm not sure that cosmetic or game play changes will do much for a genre that is so well established. The RPG game does add a whole new element, as does the RPG element to the Season mode. These may bring a new dimension to the genre, and may refresh a stale format when ported to the mainstream 2k Sports games. | |
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Tags: MLB Power Pros
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Dec 27th, 2007 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
