MLB Power Pros

tpir · #1 10-15-2007, 11:34 AM

Anyone else pick this one up? I grabbed the Wii version and was instantly in love. Good old school solid gameplay and a ton of modes. I am going crazy trying to figure out "Success" mode and my expansion team in the Season mode is *terrible*, lol. Thankfully you get 10 seasons to make them contenders.

No online play, and the graphics are very basic, but definitely worth a look if you are a fan of classic sports games. Lots of fun and time wasting potnetial here. 8/10 imo.

gfire3245 · #2 10-15-2007, 12:04 PM

Yea i was just really looking into this game today. I just went to
Walmart and they did not have it. I still have one more class and probably stop at Best Buy on the way home. I hear very good reviews about this and it sounds awesome. Just no online play!! That is a must.

astroglide · #3 10-15-2007, 02:01 PM

i picked up the ps2 version. it's $10 cheaper and since the wii version is a port, it doesn't matter much.

i prefer "mlb 06: the show" for actual baseball gameplay. mlb power pros has decent hitting, but i don't like the fielding or especially the pitching. the fielding can bone you with which character is auto-targetted and the general change from the hitting view to the fielding view. you can get boned and easily start walking in the wrong direction, for example, if somebody hits a liner to the infield. i think the pitching could really, really use a meter mechanic.

i've played the living hell out of success mode, though. it reminds me of princess maker 2, one of my favorite games of all time.

tpir · #4 10-15-2007, 02:01 PM

I think online would be difficult to pull off with this game given the extreme timing-sensitivity of the batting/pitching. So much single player content that I am not really complaining either.

I am hoping this game catches on and someone tells me how to beat Success mode. (Success mode is an RPG-ish side game where you develop a college player into a Pro. Really weird stuff goes on though including becoming possessed by a dead hall of fame player named Willy and going on dates to boost your confidence stats.) I was unable to find any FAQs and I refuse to spend all the time on it just to fail again.

astroglide · #5 10-15-2007, 02:05 PM

tpir, some story elements could be viewed as important so i think one should sludge through all of the text the first time through success mode. if you enable 'shortcut mode' it drastically reduces conversational text, and limits interactions to actual events. makes it much easier to jam through it.

i've beaten it with both a pitcher and a position player (catcher). in both cases i wasn't that amped on stats, i simply performed well in the tournaments. with the position player i made the apparent mistake of beating it on the second year, which won the game but also prevented further character development.

i think willy only appears if you personally buy the wooden bat from the shop owner when you first meet him.

tpir · #6 10-15-2007, 02:13 PM

[ QUOTE ]
tpir, some story elements could be viewed as important so i think one should sludge through all of the text the first time through success mode. if you enable 'shortcut mode' it drastically reduces conversational text, and limits interactions to actual events. makes it much easier to jam through it.

i've beaten it with both a pitcher and a position player (catcher). in both cases i wasn't that amped on stats, i simply performed well in the tournaments. with the position player i made the apparent mistake of beating it on the second year, which won the game but also prevented further character development.

i think willy only appears if you personally buy the wooden bat from the shop owner when you first meet him.

[/ QUOTE ]
I have played through it 3 times now with no success. I noticed all of the story changes on subsequent plays so I am definitely reading the text [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I managed to make the roster as a first-year player and get my stats pretty high after I mastered the rest hyper-recovery stuff, but I went 1-for-4 in all of the big games and didn't get scouted by the pros (even though Max told me I would be before the game!). The first time through I let Willy possess me for the championship game. He gets perfect "big swing" hits every time, but my character was so weak that these huge shots ended up being lineouts to center every time. lol.

Also, I agree that the fielding is hayachaychaych-inducing. I thought the pitching was kind of "meh" at first too until I played against some human competition. I think it has some cool subtle things going for it.

astroglide · #7 10-15-2007, 02:36 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I have played through it 3 times now with no success. I noticed all of the story changes on subsequent plays so I am definitely reading the text [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

strongly suggest turning on shortcut mode. it plays MUCH faster that way, and as long as you know the basics like who marvin is, how the coach talks, etc it all makes sense. instead of giving a big marvin intro, for example, it just says "you met marvin". when you run into the fortune teller it just says "fate card system activated". etc.

you don't need to be captain to win, btw. it can be a hindrance if you aren't excellent at game offense, or if you have the wrong cards and end up declaring that if you don't win the tournament on that year that you will disband the team (lose the game).

tpir · #8 10-15-2007, 03:23 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I have played through it 3 times now with no success. I noticed all of the story changes on subsequent plays so I am definitely reading the text [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

strongly suggest turning on shortcut mode. it plays MUCH faster that way, and as long as you know the basics like who marvin is, how the coach talks, etc it all makes sense. instead of giving a big marvin intro, for example, it just says "you met marvin". when you run into the fortune teller it just says "fate card system activated". etc.

you don't need to be captain to win, btw. it can be a hindrance if you aren't excellent at game offense, or if you have the wrong cards and end up declaring that if you don't win the tournament on that year that you will disband the team (lose the game).

[/ QUOTE ]
Nice. I was using C+A to skip through entire pages of text but this sounds like a much better idea. My expansion team is so bad and there is an option to add Success mode players so I really need to master getting some good players exported out of this.