MLB Power Pros 2K8 Conference Call

By Joe Haygood | July 26, 2008

On Thursday, 2K Sports was nice enough to invite Aeropause to their conference call for the upcoming title, MLB Power Pros 2K8.  The conference call was about 45 minutes in length, and allowed the writers invited to ask questions with the producer of the title, Rob Nelson.  The game is a unique partnership, with Konami designing the game in Japan, but with distribution coming through 2K Sports.

Last year, Power Pros was a surprise hit for 2K Sports, with the title offering a unique looking baseball experience, while adding a lot of story and RPG elements to make a deep and robust game.  This year, Power Pros has come back for another round, and it has the Major League Baseball license attached to it, due to 2K Sports exclusive agreement with Major League Baseball.  This allowed 2K Sports to implement all the ballparks, teams, logos and players into Power Pros, adding to a new gameplay mode.

Power Pros offers two main story modes for gamers to play though in MLB Power Pros 2K8.  The first mode is called Success Mode, where you create a player from scratch, and work him through the minor leagues, starting at A Ball.  As you go through the Success mode story, you will have to impress coaches, owners and others, so you can earn a shot at the big leagues.  You will also have other distractions that will come at you in the form of girlfriends, slumps and other miscellaneious ills.  It really gives the player a sense of the tribulations of working you way from baseball obscurity to star player.  And just so it does not lose anybody that might feel the RPG nature of the game is overwhelming them, they can ignore all the outside stuff and just focus on the game of baseball.  Either way, the story will allow you to progress while allowing for a more enriching experience based on player choice.  Success mode will allow you to play for 10 years before it ends, so you should have plenty of time to make it to the big leagues.

Once you complete Success mode, you can take your character into what is known as MLB Life mode, or you can go straight to MLB Life mode and use a pre-determined character.  In MLB Life mode, you live the life of a professional baseball player, playing for one of the 32 Major League Baseball teams.  While playing through the day to day baseball schedule, you will also have to focus on your lifestyle, similar to what you did in the Success mode, like buying cars, houses, girlfriends and more.  Again, you can do as little or as much as you would like, as the game will let you progress if you just want to focus on baseball.  MLB Life mode will allow you to play for up to 20 years, so you can create a dynasty based around your players strengths.

Exhibition mode will be available for those that just want to sit down and play a game of baseball without having to go through a season.  Mii support will be available in exhibition mode, so if you want to put your character in the game, the option is there.  Mii support will not be available in Season mode or MLB Life mode.

Some of the changes in this years version are mostly targeted at the Wii.  In last years’ version of MLB Power Pros, you never really got to make use of the Wiimote’s versatility.  This year, the Wiimote will be put to good use, for pitching and swinging the bat.  Also, defensive shifts have been added, so you should see less up the middle hits due to the defense being stuck in the mud until the pitch has been hit.  Also, you can load your Success or MLB Life players onto your Wiimote so you can use them at another person’s house.  Beyond the motion control additions, the PS2 and Wii versions are identical.  The DS version of MLB Power Pros 2K8, which will be ready for a Fall 08 release, should be almost feature similar with the Wii and PS2 counterparts, with some control differences being the only obvious difference.

One question was about the roster detail, specifically about how accurate it will be in comparison to the rosters that are playing for their respective teams right now.  Rob told us that they are shooting to make rosters as current as possible, with them only being a few weeks behind the current rosters for all the teams.  The game will ship with an Arrange mode, so you can change team rosters as well as individual player stats, so keeping teams current should not be a problem.  While I liked the inclusion of this feature, it did beg for a way to transfer this data to other consoles, but as of now, there is no way to do that, so each person will be on their own if they want to update rosters. 

Multiplayer support will be on all systems, but their seemed to be some confusion as to whether there will be online mutiplayer.  Currently as I undestood it, you can play online with the PS2 version, but the Wii version only supports local multiplayer.  Multiplayer is one vs. one, so no chance for four people taking the field at this time.

Some last minutes notes were given to all of us on the conference call for MLB Power Pros 2K8.  The new WiiMotion Plus will not be in the game this year, but it is something that could be in next year’s version of the game.  Also, the AI has been much improved, so non character players should not get tripped up by strange behaviors.  Walks will not be as difficult to get, because the pitching AI has been refined, so it is not as laser accurate as in last years version.  Also, you can play for teams based in the US, Canada and Japan, so if you have ever wanted to play as a Chunichi Dragon, now is your chance.

Currently, the release dates for MLB Power Pros 2K8 will be July 29th, 2008 for the PS2 and Wii versions, with the DS version of the game coming in Fall of 2008.  Pricing will be $39.99 for the Wii, $29.99 for the DS and $19.99 for the PS2.  That was the end of the call, and I would like to thank Chase and 2K Sports for invite Aeropause to the press call.