MLB Power Pros 2008 is the follow up to last years MLB Power Pros from 2K Sports and we had a chance to put a lot of time into the game. Do not let the fact that these super cute versions of ball players do not have noses or mouths fool you into thinking that this is a dumb down baseball game, in fact quite the opposite in some respects it can be too complicated.

Power Pros is a huge franchise in Japan and over the last few years it has slowly made it’s way to the North American market. The bobble head style characters in conjunction with the cartoon style graphics make it very easy for any age gamer to become interested in this game, but the intricate nature of the game makes it a huge challenge to master.

Power Pros at the surface is an arcade style baseball game that can be played locally by up to two players using all of the licensed baseball teams. Unfortunately there is no multiplayer in this version of the game so that limits both playing with friends and updating rosters easily.

The pick up and play atmosphere in exhibition mode is great and the depth of season mode is quite impressive. In season mode you can even make two expansion teams and give them custom uniforms, colors, players, etc. For the most part controls are simple enough to get a hang of and they are almost identical to the original Power Pros from last year, which is good and bad. The same frustrations return in this game while fielding ground balls that have a tendency to roll right by your players. Another big frustration for me was the base running of players during routine fly balls, for some reason all payers go on any fly ball no matter how many outs, which usually turns a pop up into a double play.

There are two new modes – 2 RPG style modes, which will let you create a character of your own. Success mode has been redone with a new story and characters. You now have to get your player from AA (minors) to the major leagues by impressing coaches and scouts while building and making your character successful. MLB Life mode is the other brand new mode, which takes your newly created character or from success mode or existing player i.e. Derek Jeter and build them from scratch even buying houses and cars.

Success mode can be both very addictive and very frustrating because of all the different options and things you can do. In success mode you can go on dates, work out, go eat, chase dogs, get hurt and even get promoted to the next level of baseball. The problem lies in the complexity and the fact that the only way to create a character for any other mode is through success mode. You have to get your character through success mode in order to be able to use him in any of the other modes, which is very aggravating.

Using Miis in the game is a f*cking myth to me as of right now, no matter how many times I try to port over some Mii characters I get errors or cant find them?! This sounds like great fun but I have spent hours trying to bring them over with no success what so ever.

Overall a fun game that you can either play casually or really go nuts and tweak every aspect of a season and player. At times the menus and things you can do can become overwhelming and actually detract for the fun of the game.

Overall: 7 out of 10

Click here to see what our scores mean

We will also be trying to get our hands on the DS version of Power Pros and exploring the depths of that as well.

Retail prices will be the following: PS2 $19.99, DS $29.99 and the Wii $39.99