Game Overview: WiiWare, MLB Power Pros 2008

Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen.

WiiWare

In a move that is still very confounding to me, Nintendo launched the WiiWare service this week with not even as much as a message in our collective Wii inboxes to tell us about the new game service. Of course, most game enthusiasts knew about it right away, but you’ve got to wonder if maybe publicizing the event a bit might have increased sales, right? Anyway, the WiiWare launch brought a bunch of games in the Xbox Live! Arcade and PSN fashion to the system including Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King.

That being the only WiiWare game I’ve downloaded so far (where’s Dr. Mario Online Rx?), it’s gonna be the only one I talk about. I’m about 75% of the way through the game, having played about 115 days of the kingdom simulator and I’d probably give it a thumbs-up to anyone who enjoys sims and enjoys the Final Fantasy universe. From the get go, understand that My Life as a King is not your typical FF game at all. You don’t actually fight monsters or control your adventurers. Instead, you build up your kingdom’s infrastructure and commission adventurers to go out and conquer the realm’s dungeons and monsters. At the end of each day you’ll receive a budget report and a report of everything that your adventurers did so that you can live the good, adventuring life vicariously. It definitely works as a game, but is a bit shallow as a sim. Then again, it’s a $15 game (with a whopping $25 in add-on DLC available) and looks quite nice on the system, albeit with a few framerate hitches. Unfortunately, you can’t preview WiiWare games, so be sure to read up on the game before you make a purchase.

MLB Power Pros 2008

So I’ve gone on and on about the new edition of MLB PP, but that’s not gonna stop me from talking about it a bit more today. IGN Wii posted about a hundred screenshots of the game in action, so we’re gonna take a look at a few.

New to this year’s edition of the MLB PP series is MyLife mode. Last year we had only the success mode, where you brought a college player through three seasons hoping to be drafted at some point. MyLife mode instead makes you a professional player as you go through his 20 year major league career. You’re not just limited to baseball, as you can see below:

MLB Power Pros 2008 ScreenshotSee More MLB Power Pros 2008 Screenshot at IGN.com

I suppose you also have to manage your player’s moods to stay in high spirits as well as train your player to keep him fit and improving in stats and abilities.

MLB Power Pros 2008 ScreenshotSee More MLB Power Pros 2008 Screenshot at IGN.com

You can even conduct interviews with sports reporters:

MLB Power Pros 2008 ScreenshotSee More MLB Power Pros 2008 Screenshot at IGN.com

Season mode appears to be back with a VERY similar interface to last year’s game:

MLB Power Pros 2008 ScreenshotSee More MLB Power Pros 2008 Screenshot at IGN.com

But it also seems to include a very neat “Expansion Team” mode that allows you to create two new teams to insert into the MLB lineup which seems really cool:

MLB Power Pros 2008 ScreenshotSee More MLB Power Pros 2008 Screenshot at IGN.com

Success mode is back with a AA team instead of a college team. I assume the goal is still to reach the Majors while wooing the ladies among other goals.

MLB Power Pros 2008 ScreenshotSee More MLB Power Pros 2008 Screenshot at IGN.com

MLB Power Pros 2008 ScreenshotSee More MLB Power Pros 2008 Screenshot at IGN.com

Hopefully we’ll be able to transfer old created players from last year’s game, but if not I’ll at least get a chance to make my created Dan not suck quite so much this time.

July can’t come soon enough, I honestly cannot wait

MLB Power Pros 2008 ScreenshotSee More MLB Power Pros 2008 Screenshot at IGN.com

MLB Power Pros 2008 ScreenshotSee More MLB Power Pros 2008 Screenshot at IGN.com

Comments

3 responses to “Game Overview: WiiWare, MLB Power Pros 2008”

  1. Eric Avatar

    So can you just play regular baseball in that baseball game? Or is it all getting girls and making the majors?

  2. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    Haha, there’s normal Season mode and Exhibition modes. There’s plenty of normal gameplay in there. Don’t worry, we’ll get tons of gaming in come July.

  3. Eric Mesa Avatar

    My favorite part of the Giant Bombcast podcast is when they talk about Wiiware and DSiware games. 90% of the time the games are ridiculous crap that harkens back to the days when video game systems were new and Nintendo Entertainment System was a good marketing name.

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