GENRE
	Baseball
	DEVELOPER
	Konami
	PUBLISHER
	2K Sports
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-2
	WI-FI ENHANCED
	No
	DS COMPATIBLE
	No
	BUY NOW AT

Before league licenses and player's association agreements, baseball video games were a simple matter of pitch and hit. Those NES titles of old, like Jaleco's classic Bases Loaded, have amazingly long appeal, because baseball's core is as simple as those 8-bit cartridges. Baseball games since have wavered between arcade simplicity and sim-heavy complexity, but not much in between. MLB Power Pros, a longtime Japanese series that finally made it stateside, fills that void wonderfully.

visuals

Stylistically, MLB Power Pros doesn't care about realistic player models and sweat beads (although there are a few). The most obvious visual element is the players, a cross between Miis and Legos with an appealing cuteness everyone should appreciate. Much like Miis make a great caricature of real people, MLB Power Pros players do a nice job of mimicking their real life counterparts through facial expressions and body motion. For example, Yankee fans will quickly recognize the game's duplication of Derek Jeter's batter's box ritual. It's not to the Mii level, but fun in it's own way.

It shouldn't be a shock, but the number of animations players will discover overtime is impressive. Shortstops will jump over hard slides, catchers will brace for the impact of an incoming runner on a sacrifice fly, and pitchers will show their fatigue by heavy breathing and sweat wipes. Outfielders can climb the fences, first basemen can crash into the bullpen walls. The style doesn't mean unrealistic and sometimes leads to even more realistic and energetic expressions.

It continues with the game's outstanding recreation of MLB stadiums that sometimes rivals that of more realistic sims. For a baseball fan, the stadiums come alive in the details that make baseball parks unique, and MLB Power Pros developers spent obvious effort in this area. Scoreboard placements, dimensions, stadium restaurants, skylines -- everything is as it should be. The only error is all the fans in the stands at Tropicana Field.

audio

The crack of the bat, the calls of the umpire -- sounds like baseball, and that's good enough. The music is loud and fun in the colorful and lively menus and maintains the "happy" style of the entire package. The announcer is energetic and fits that same style, but he does occasionally mispronounce a few names or stress the wrong syllable. He's passable, however, considering the mixed bag announcing tends to be in sports video games.

gameplay

MLB Power Pros is almost a sandbox baseball game, as players can set their level of involvement and make the experience as deep or shallow as they want. Nearly every option is customizable to great effect.

The game is compatible with either the Remote and Nunchuck or the Classic Controller, but both work in similar ways. Players use the analog stick to move the bat in the strike zone, then press A to swing. Difficulty settings allow for computer help or complete player control, plus five settings in between. Base running takes some button memorization, but works well and is, again, customizable as players can choose to control all runners, just the lead runner, or none at all.

Pitching works in familiar ways. Again, customizable settings lets players decide if an aiming curser is onscreen to help with location or completely gone to leave it to your own judgment. Fielding, however, is done nearly perfectly in MLB Power Pros. When set to manual, players will quickly learn just how much solid fielding is needed in a strong baseball game. It's all beneath the surface, but gone are the days where the fielding target is needed. Maybe it's the camera angle, maybe it's the game speed. Whatever it is, for once you can actually figure out where a ball will land and take total control of the fielder. The few hiccups in which player the computer decides you should control doesn't detract from the overall experience, as fielding is possibly the most entertaining part of the game. A rapid fire defensive practice mode makes for an outstanding, and helpful, quick-play diversion.

Success Mode, a forgettable, RPG-styled, superstar mode, with its slow pace and uncharacteristic lack of player control, is one of the game's few missteps. In Season Mode, players are welcomed back to seemingly unlimited options. Players can be placed in different practice regimens to learn a slew of new abilities, ranging from a pitcher gaining a new breaking ball to catchers becoming better bunters. These qualities and at least 60 others -- all adjustable -- are applied to players to give each unique skill to better your lineup. These combine with the most detailed stat tracking a baseball game has every seen. Players can view power and contact hitting success, or pitch-by-pitch sequences by a strike zone chart that shows pitch type and location -- a great way to learn your strengths, weaknesses and tendencies.

multiplayer

These stat capabilities would be great in online play by learning your opponents tendencies to better your game. Unfortunately, this is limited to local play, but can still be used in the same way. Wii Remote mini-games, like a home run derby, can also be played in multiplayer fashion, and baseball is always fun with a friend.

overall

It's hard not to talk about the gazillion options and layers of customizable content, but it works well as a simple arcade game, too. Any baseball fan looking for a wintertime hold-me-over will be happy with this sleeper gem, however it's played. As a hardcore baseball sim, it's every bit as good as the more familiar baseball games of the world, it just doesn't have the same look. If the cute style turns you off, look past it for what MLB Power Pros really is -- an outstanding game of ball.

9.0/10