Konami and 2K announce MLB Power Pros for Wii, PS2

28 Comments by Justin McElroy Aug 3rd 2007 9:00AM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii, Sports

If you love baseball but hate legs and players that are more than two feet tall, get ready for Konami and 2K Sports' new MLB Power Pros, an adaptation of the long-running Japanese series, Power Pro Baseball. The new franchise, coming to Wii and PS2 this year, was announced this morning.

In addition to using its gameplay and super-deformed character style, Power Pros will also ape its Japanese counterpart's "Success Mode," which presents baseball blended with RPG elements, the way it was meant to be. We've added a video of Power Pro above (featuring what appears to be an exceptionally good pitcher) so you'll know what to expect when the game drops this fall.

Tags: 2ksports, baseball, konami, powerpros, ps2, wii

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

hvnlysoldr: Aug 3rd 2007; 9:05AM

Anyone notice the Panasonic ad on centerfield?

Radicoon: Aug 3rd 2007; 9:16AM

Interesting how developers seem to be skipping the more expensive consoles in favor of a cheaper development cycle.

Matt B: Aug 3rd 2007; 10:23AM

And it shows.

GRANTED: Aug 3rd 2007; 9:22AM

the way it was meant to be. hahaha. i could always use a little more rpg...

Ian Von Porter: Aug 3rd 2007; 9:32AM

The funny thing is that, since the (1) Wii will be popular for and (2) PS2 has a huge (and STILL growing) install base... devs will be developing PS2/Wii games well into the future. Nintendo is essentially helping Sony by extending the life of PS2.

The dev environment will look like this:

Wii/PS2
Wii/PSP
PS3/360

AlexP: Aug 3rd 2007; 9:44AM

God, who the hell would buy this thing?

There's also a Toshiba ad, by the way.

john: Aug 3rd 2007; 11:55AM

the power pro series rocks. the best baseball games hands down since baseball stars for the nes.

Splorky Fish: Aug 3rd 2007; 9:47AM

I've always hoped one of those Japanese big-head baseball franchises would make it over here. Using a clunky interface to make my favorite MLB players plod around the feild like Little Leaguers in HD isn't that fun for that long.

drew: Aug 3rd 2007; 10:11AM

Looks like Extra Innings for the SNES... which isn't a bad thing. Maybe Nintendo will have a baseball week sometime in October (similar to the Father's Day lineup)...

Agent 43: Aug 3rd 2007; 10:19AM

One of my favorite games growing up was Baseball Stars for the NES. If this game can come close to duplicating the fun and RPG elements of Baseball Stars, I'm all in.

I never got into baseball as a sport, so real teams and real players are irrelevant to me. I just want a fun, deep, and accessible game.

Matt B: Aug 3rd 2007; 10:25AM

I loved Baseball Stars. It was the closest thing to running a franchise back then.

dan stabbingworth: Aug 3rd 2007; 1:20PM

RBI Baseball > Baseball Stars

TravistyOJ: Aug 3rd 2007; 10:20AM

This... looks....

FUN!

ME WANT.

Grammar freak: Aug 3rd 2007; 10:20AM

I think an RPG mode would be great on a real baseball game, since baseball really is the closest thing to RPG combat in real life - a bunch of people standing still 60 feet apart throwing shit at each other. Also, it'd be much less frustrating to strike out, and walks would be more realistic.

accidental: Aug 3rd 2007; 4:34PM

Come on Grammar Freak, live up to your name! You should have used an em dash not a hyphen. Oh, and an RPG mode would be great IN a real baseball game.

:P
Sorry, it's your name. I had to.

TravistyOJ: Aug 3rd 2007; 10:22AM

But won't this hit about the time baseball is ending?

jynxycat: Aug 3rd 2007; 10:47AM

Or when Smash Bros and Mario Galaxy hit the shelves ?

Way to shoot yourselves in the foot.

3cubed minus 3squared plus1: Aug 3rd 2007; 10:52AM

Galaxy and Brawl are coming Winter.
Assassin's Creed, Halo 3, Metroid Prime Corruption are coming out in Fall.

jynxycat: Aug 3rd 2007; 11:12AM

Clearly that gives them a huge window of sales.

Honestly, considering this game is supposed to come out in a few months (to hit the supposed "fall" window), and this is the first we have heard of it, it's going to be a quality game.

Not that it matters, a majority of the people who own Wii systems are people who have never played a video game before, or do so casually. They buy the most garbage games anyhow, over solid Nintendo hits like Zelda, or Paper Mario.

Evan: Aug 3rd 2007; 10:51AM

Komani's last baseball game controlled first place in the Japanese sales charts when it was released. Make no mistake, this game will sell! The PS2 version of this game could easily outsell any PS3 game this Christmas in Japan.

jynxycat: Aug 3rd 2007; 11:27AM

Ya, because the casual Wii owners care about Japanese sales charts.

Evan: Aug 3rd 2007; 11:42AM

jynxycat, I didn't even mention the Wii in my post. Troll elsewhere.

Tim Harding: Aug 3rd 2007; 12:12PM

That video isn't a very good example of the game unless it's impossible to get a hit.

duerra: Aug 3rd 2007; 2:43PM

No freaking kidding. I was about to respond with the same thing. Most of the batters simply got struck out, and *none* of them got a hit. Doesn't sound like fun to me based on the video, though it looks like it could have some potential if they'd get that sorted out a bit.

Mabui: Aug 4th 2007; 7:31AM

Thats the thing I noticed too, they never once even showed a base hit, either they popped out, or were thrown out, or struck out. Which leaves me to hope tha the pitching be the most amazing thing ever otherwise it would be the most boring and frustrating game created.

Also strange that the black team was always up to bat.

gekko: Aug 3rd 2007; 12:21PM

This game came out for Wii and PS2 in Japan, it's no wonder those are the systems of choice for the games stateside. Not sure if they expect it to appeal to the American market, but it's by far my favorite baseball game.

10.Deep: Aug 3rd 2007; 2:49PM

I'd give it a try

Knoxximus: Aug 4th 2007; 12:48PM

I can't wait! I loved Baseball Stars! Hell, my and my crew used to have weekend slumber partys back in High School just to try to get through a season. Nothing like 1001 ways to wake up your buddy at 3:07 am because it's his turn to play lol!

If they can let you make and power up your own team, and finally let you take your team ONLINE, this will be the only baseball game I'll ever need.

Attn to SNK: MAKE A NEW BASEBALL STARS ALREADY!!...Or, when Professional or pt. 2 make it to Wii VC, make it 'online enabled', k?thnxbai!

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