The cat is out of the bag as Konami revealed some details about the next iteration in the Power Pro Baseball series during the February 21, 2024 Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase in Japan. While the details are still scarce, there still are some take aways we can get from the short look at the game. Let’s go ahead and get into it.
Platform Availability
This should come as a surprise to almost no-one, but Konami has opted, once again, to bring Power Pros to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. It makes sense considering they already had the engine running on both platforms at a pretty high level for years now. They seem to be going with the approach, “if it’s not broke, why fix it?”
Two Year Release Cycle
Although their games have been on this two year release cycle for several years, this is the first time that it is being indicated in the official title for the game. Previously, packaging and listings had a mention of it, but it was something that could easily be overlooked by consumers. It is a great idea for them to fully embrace this. I’ve mentioned this on the channel before and I’ll say it again. This two year cycle gives Konami time to come up with new modes and/or ways to play with every iteration rather than feeling pressured to pump out a game every year. It’s obviously great for the fans, because we get consistent updates to ONE game for two years. The new naming convention will absolutely help the game stay fresh even a year or more after its initial release.
The Baseball Game Ambassador & Power Pros 30th
Earlier in the year, Konami announced that Shohei Ohtani would be their “baseball game ambassador.” What does this actually mean? Well, he’s basically the cover star for anything that the company does for baseball for at least this year. Given Ohtani’s love for the game of baseball and his dream of showing people how fun the sport can be, I think this is a good pairing. It’s also fitting giving that the game is celebrating its 30th year anniversary in 2024, just as Ohtani is also celebrating his 30th birthday in July. Not only that, but their sister series, the more realistic looking Pro Baseball Spirits is celebrating 20 years on the market. It’ll be interesting to see where both series go from here.
Modes
If you’ve been following this channel for the past few years or are a huge fan of Power Pros, you pretty much know what to expect from the series at this point. Still, it’s at least worth noting the modes and some additional details about them for the 2024-2025 iteration of the game. Additionally, the game will support 1-4 players. Online isn’t confirmed, but is very likely to be included.
Success
Your player gets sucked through some kind of time warp to 50 years in the future. Here, you train your players, face off against other past Power Pro characters and more in this story driven mode RPG-like mode.
Power Fes
Revamped for the 2024-25 iteration of the game, Power Fes is back. In this mode, you gain other players on your team by taking out opponents in games of baseball. Of course, characters from the Power Pro stable are back, but this time around (and in line with the mobile offering), classic characters from Konami will be making appearances, but this time in Power Pro chibi form. Alucard (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night), Goemon (Legend of the Mystical Ninja series) and Pastel from TwinBee have been confirmed as of right now.
Eikan Nine
Originally introduced in Power Pros 2020, this mode has places gamers in the role of a high school coach. It’s your job to build up your players, win the Koshien tournament and hopefully send some of your players to the pros. Other options here include the ability to fully customize uniforms, team location and name and more. This mode proved so popular that it got its own spinoff on mobile in Japan in the summer of 2023.
Taiketsu! Legend Battle
Based on a similar mode from 2003’s Jikkyō Powerful Pro Baseball 10 on the GameCube and PS2, Taiketsu, which means “showdown,” Legend Battle is a training mode of sorts that puts you up agains legendary players. Of course, Ohtani was heavily featured in the teaser, but you can probably expect other Konami characters and perhaps some real-life (retired) Japanese players here, too.
Official Nippon Pro Baseball License
This wasn’t highlighted AT ALL in the teaser, but the game’s webpage has all of the logos for all of the teams and league included here. Expect to see more of that this time around.
Release Outside of Japan?
Konami made waves across the baseball gaming world by bringing Power Pros back to English speaking territories with WBSC Power Pros in 2023. Does this mean the series will be making a proper comeback in 2024 and beyond? Well, they definitely have the right brand ambassador for it with Ohtani. I also think there is room for another baseball game on the market outside of Japan, especially one that offers something drastically different than MLB The Show. Don’t get me wrong, I love both series, but I think fans would like more in the form of choice. What are the possibilities of that happening? I hope I’m wrong on this, but if it were to happen on consoles, I think Konami would have made moves to include some kind of announcement in the English speaking Nintendo Direct. As much as it pains me to say it, it may be more likely to see Power Pros come to mobile in the West before it comes back to consoles properly. Time will tell.
Conclusion
It’s always exciting (well, for me at any rate) to see new information about this series. The games are always a blast to play and offer quite a bit more than the cute visuals would lead you to believe. Of course, these are just the early details of the game and surely more and more details will come or have been coming over the weeks since this game was formally announced. But let’s turn things over to you guys. What do you think about this iteration of Power Pros? Will you be picking it up even if there isn’t an English release? Be sure to sound off in the comments down below. We’d love to hear from you!
Sources: Konami Press Release, NCL, Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase (Japan) Feb. 21, 2024
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