Of course that data can be put to good use as well, showing which teams you play better against or your own general hot/cold read-out as a player, but it's just as fun watching the insane amount of stat-tracking occur as it is to actually use it. Will you ever care to know that you only hit 33.2% of circle change-ups thrown on the bottom left corner of the strike zone while using a lefty batter? Probably not, but if you do the info is there for your consideration. From the moment you create a file the game records the data for every pitch thrown, every swing taken, or every contact with the ball, laying it all out in massive grids of info. Break that down even farther into your overall player data and things get ridiculous. Add in pitching abilities and you've got an estimated 75+ skills to work with. Have a preferred player on a team that you want to improve with superstar abilities? Assign over 50 powers to any player, including things like improved speed from home plate, larger hit zones when swinging, or the ability to affect the entire team's morale based on his performance. Want Bonds to hit at a higher angle consistently? Switch his angle bar and he'll crack higher long-balls. When it comes to player data any and every aspect of a given player or position can be tweaked, changing the numbers in any attribute (strength, agility, general batting, morale, and the like) on the fly. With the press of a button the screen snaps back and you begin again. When running fielding practice you'll have slider-bar control over hit power, height angle, and positioning, allowing you to run play after play of literally any possible hit that would come up in an actual game. Practice mode alone is large enough for someone to get lost in for hours, as you can tweak every little option possible. And when it comes to depth, Power Pro significantly raises the bar not only for Wii sports games, but most MLB games out there overall. It's annoying that no motion made it into the core modes of the game, but Power Pros should more than win gamers back with the sheer amount of depth and options included. You can switch between using analog stick or d-pad, or flip buttons around as you see fit, but there's no way to use any Wii motion for about 85% of the game, and there's no Wii-mote only NES-style control method either. Since the game is entirely classic in its design, you'll need to use the Wii-mote/nunchuk, classic controller, or GCN controller, but the options within those modes are pretty deep. The game is available on both PS2 and Wii, so while you aren't getting a ton of Wii-specific actions in the game - there's no IR at all, and what little motion control there is stays confined to the "Wii Remote" mode of the game - you are getting a first-year effort that feels like it's already worked out the kinks of a new series. For our first Power Pro experience here in America 2K managed to tie in the MLB license into the already well-established Power Pro design, so it was literally a matter of taking the characters, gameplay, and depth of Power Pro and adapting it for a USA release. Imagine RBI Baseball for NES if it never died out, and never evolved beyond its core design, and you've got the Power Pro feel in a nutshell. As for the general gameplay, it's almost entirely two-button, literally taking the swing, throw, and running control of classic NES games here in America and putting the basic - but polished - control into an overwhelmingly deep design. One part All Star Baseball 2000, one part RBI Baseball NES. Comparable to modern-day Miis, Power Pro is all about nailing a caricature-like style of the intended player, focusing only on the eyes and simplistic - but still intricate - animations of the pro they represent. Rather than striving for realism the Power Pro players instead are made up of anime-inspired chibi characters lacking a mouth, nose, ears, and any connecting extensions of the body including neck, arms, and legs. While other franchises have evolved from year to year, now almost realistic in nature, Power Pro has - and continues to - embrace an extreme style with a very specific core design. Power Pro isn't a normal game of baseball. Now nearly 15 years since the series debut America is finally getting the Power Pro series, thanks to a collaboration between 2K Sports and Konami, and it's well worth the wait. Despite its raging success in Japan, most English-speaking gamers have never had a chance to play a single inning of Power Pro baseball, as the series never made the jump to the USA. Having the same impact and gameplay style as the US's RBI Baseball series, Power Pro got its start on the Super Famicom, and has since spawned nearly 70 titles spanning over ten portable and home consoles. In Japan the Power Pro series is synonymous with videogame baseball.
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