MLB Power Pros 2008 Hands-On - Success Stories and Spicy

Tag : Stand By Power

Last year's MLB Power Pros was a surprisingly deep and charmingpackage, brimming with all sorts of weird and wonderful ways toexperience America's favorite pastime. We spent a healthy chunk oftime on the E3 2008 show floor with its upcoming sequel, MLB PowerPros 2008. John Dickerson with 2K Sports led us through some of itsfeatures, and we're here to report on the game--particularly onSuccess mode, a role-playing-game mode in which you rise throughthe minor leagues, playing for a team called the GreenApples.
In Success Mode, you choose various menu options to decide how youwant to spend your time, which could mean making a trip to thepark, training in various areas, or going to work in the localsteak restaurant. Your character doesn't freely roam about; rather,you choose your activities from a menu, and then he automaticallyperforms those actions. Activities, like visits to the hot dogstand, not only have positive effects on you, but also further thestory and introduce you to a series of wacky characters, completewith bizzarro dialogue. In no other baseball game will a characternamed Isabela invite you to eat her habanero pepper steak and theninvite you to work for her. And, as you would want in any JapaneseRPG, the main character suffers from amnesia!
Training activities are also automated, but when you choose totrain in a certain area--speed or fielding, for example--five cardsare randomly drawn that determine the success of your trainingsession. There are three types of cards that boil down to bad,good, and bonus. Being dealt five bonus cards will result in aterrific boost to your abilities. As you level up, you can thenfurther develop your character by spending skill points.
You'll most likely end up benched for your first baseball game, butyou will eventually play, though in this mode, it doesn't appear asthough you'll be doing any fielding. Our at-bats went rather wellbecause the controls are relatively simple. Before the pitch, youcan see the strike zone, and as the pitcher winds up, you see wherein the strike zone the pitch will land. To hit the ball, you usethe Nunchuk to position your bat and press A on the Wii Remote toswing. There aren't any motion controls featured in Success modeor, indeed, in most of the modes. There is, however, a Wii Remotemode that functions essentially like the baseball game in WiiSports and utilizes motion controls.
There are tons of other ways to play, however. We took on anotherteam in Exhibition mode as the Cleveland Indians (gluttons forpunishment that we are), where we had a chance to pitch and field,as well as hit. It was a breeze to select a pitch and throw usingthe Nunchuk's analog stick and the D pad. We could also attempt topick off base runners if they tried to steal, though we were sadlynever very successful at it. Maybe it was just a Cleveland thing,but no worries: You can play as any existing MLB team--and eventailor players' stats to your liking.
But wait: There's more! Another RPG mode, MLB Life, will let youhop into the shoes of a popular major leaguer (Dickerson mentionedDavid Ortiz as one option) and date women, buy bling, and generallylive the high life. You can play an entire season, enter a home runderby, play a custom tournament, create a dream team, and purchasebaseball cards. As you can see, there's a ton of options squeezedinto this sequel. Not bad for a cartoony game that lets you importyour own Miis!
If all of this sounds appealing, you won't need to wait long. MLBPower Pros 2008 is due on store shelves later this month, both onthe Wii and on the PlayStation 2--and a DS version is coming inSeptember.