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Mario heads back to the diamond
If you've played Mario's last attempt at baseball on the GameCube, then you might be thinking the same thing as that we are: Super Mario Stadium Baseball will be nothing more than a remake of the first game with Wiimote controls. We're optimist folk here, but the first title had some issues and we're afraid this newest game could make the same mistakes.No news on who will be developing the game, whether it be an internal Nintendo studio or outsourced to someone else. Also, no screens were shown and no release date is known as of right now. Still, we're happy to hear that something a bit more fleshed out than Wii Sports: Baseball will be hitting the Wii.
WRUP: You have to love October edition
For most, when they think of October, they think of Halloween and the leaves changing color. For all of us sports fans, though, October marks baseball playoffs. And, Konami, in their infinite wisdom, released a baseball game we're very interested in this week called MLB Power Pros. So, will you be taking part in the festivities with us, or are you planning on playing through something else?
Royals' HD scoreboard to one-up 'Godzillatron'
We're a bit perplexed as to why the Kansas City Royals are becoming the next baseball team to get a substantial stadium makeover -- considering the team's record over the past few years and all -- but hey, we can't complain about "the world's largest HD LED scoreboard," now can we? Along with the giant board in center field, the stadium will also receive a myriad Daktronics displays along "the fascia of the upper deck along right and left field," and two ribbon boards (each 380-feet in length) will be "positioned in the outfield above the new restaurant / bar and Hall of Fame." All told, $250 million will be spent sprucing up the ballpark, and while fans will be seeing that 100- x 85-foot HD scoreboard next season, the entire project should be completed by 2009.Read - Kauffman Stadium getting $250 million renovationRead - World's largest HD LED display
MLB Power Pros demonstrated in detail
MLB Power Pros Exhibition Match Uploaded by thetanooki The Tanooki's review of MLB Power Pros includes some lengthy video of the game in action, along with informative text about how gameplay works. We're fascinated by the series' continued Japanese success and impressed by the audacity of releasing an SD sports game in the realism-obsessed U.S. sports market. The cutesy appearance belies some fairly deep gameplay. The review speaks of things like a batting "sweet spot" that shrinks and grows according to your performance, and pitching that gives the player control over not speed, but precise positioning.The review makes some negative points about the difficulty of fielding and the nerfed motion controls, but is positive overall, and it sounds like the game can still be fun with waggle turned off. You can make your own observations from this video and the others found at the site!
Major Dream's not-so-major screenshots
Famitsu has put up the first screenshots we've seen for Major Dream, Takara Tomy's recently announced Wii game for the baseball anime, and ... They look exactly like how you'd expect a low-budget anime sports title to look like. What's up with the crotch pinstripes in the above image? His outfit resembles a wacky line graph more than it does a baseball uniform. Even with the game's Eyeshield 21 similarities, all the motion blur in the world couldn't distract us from that mess of stripes.
Kansas City Royals to get 'world's largest' HD LED scoreboard
Quite frankly, it seems that each professional sports team that installs a fancy new HD scoreboard immediately assumes that it's the world's largest, and this go 'round, it's the Kansas City Royals keeping the trend alive. During the 2008 MLB season, Royals fans can feast their eyes on a 100- by 85-foot Daktronics display that utilizes HD-X LED technology, which the ball club says is "the largest HD LED board in the world." Additionally, Kauffman Stadium will be receiving a number of other Daktronics-sourced upgrades in 2009 / 2010, including an outfield fence display that measures around 8- by 128-feet, a pair of "ribbon boards" measuring in at 4- x 380-feet, and two displays above the stadium's new Hall of Fame that each span 5- by 108-feet. Now, if the Royals themselves prove to be worth watching, taking in a game next season may not be such a bad idea.
TGS07: Power Pro Baseball swings for the fences
This latest clip from Power Pro Baseball (MLB Power Pros for us here in the states) has us all kinds of excited for some super-deformed baseball on our Wii. In showing us how a game is set up and played, we're dying to get in on the action. We just wish the game was Wi-Fi compatible ...
TGS07: Turn your giant, featureless head toward some Power Pro screens
Are you a fan of baseball played by enormous-headed people with free-floating, stumpy limbs? Of course you are. The Power Pro Baseball series has been doing the Weeble/Rayman thing since before the first Mii was Mii'd, and it's bringing its adorable signature look to the Wii.These screens of MLB Power Pros from the pre-TGS Konami Media Conference show the Japanese version of the game, called Jikkyo Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2, which, just like our release, uses the American Major League Baseball teams. If Japanese gamers can handle American MLB games without mullets (the "Powerprokuns" have no hair at all), then maybe we can too.
VC Monday Madness: Yoshi's Story, Super Thunder Blade and World Class Baseball
We're always glad to see a N64 title release on the Virtual Console, as there are plenty of titles from that system that we feel deserve another play. Sadly, though, this week's releases don't include any of those N64 games. Instead, we're presented with a bunch of games that aren't all that notable.This week's Virtual Console releases are: Yoshi's Story (N64, 1 player, 1000 Wii Points) Super Thunder Blade (Sega Genesis, 1 player, 800 Wii Points) World Class Baseball (Turbografx16, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
Nintendo and Mariners hook up the fans
Nintendo, who you already know have quite the stake in the Mariners franchise, are celebrating with the fans on September 15th. As thanks to the fans, the first 1,500 attending patrons will be able to hook up to the Nintendo Fan Network for free. Not only that, but Nintendo will be hooking 16 lucky people up with limited-edition DS Lites, completely decked out with the Mariners' logo and autographed by select team members.Any of you west coast readers plan on attending the game on Saturday?
Bungie talks Halo 3 downloadable content, in-game baseball
Yesterday, select members of the gaming press were invited to play a little bit of Halo 3 before its impending release. None of them can talk about their experience until September 23, but in the meantime Chris Remo of Shacknews sat down with Bungie content manager Frank O'Connor to discuss the State of the Developer. Unsurprisingly, the team is already considering what downloadable content to add to the game. "For example," said O'Connor, "we already now see there will be a need for more smaller symmetrical maps ... I think [content packs] will be, if not more frequent, more predictible and smoother." Also discussed was the map tweaking of Forge, where 23 hours prior to the interview, O'Connor reveals that testers created a baseball gametype with rocket launchers and gravity hammers. "They even got bases in," he said. If only The Sandlot used rocket launchers, then they'd never have been afraid of that ill-tempered dog. How about a game of Krikkit, anyone? The super-secret Peter Jackson project was also briefly mentioned. All O'Connor would say is that it "continues on pace" and that Bungie producer Curtis Creamer and cinematics director CJ Cowan managed to crash a Warthog into a wall.
DirecTV offering up loads of MLB postseason action in HD
While we all sit and wait patiently for DirecTV to launch a few more HD channels, the sat provider is now claiming to be the "premier destination" for Fox Sports and TBS-HD's coverage of the MLB postseason in HD. DirecTV is claiming that to date, it's the "only national multichannel video provider committed to carrying both Fox and TBS's exclusive postseason HD broadcasts," and also notes that TBS-HD should launch "in September." Of course, this may not seem to do non-DirecTV users a whole lot of good, but here's to hoping the shameless gloating will convince other providers to hop on board and get TBS-HD to the rest of us before the regular season is too far gone.
Diamondbacks planning "largest display in pro sports," overlook Cowboys' plans
We're certainly not complaining about yet another professional sports team opting for a svelte HD Jumbotron, but the Diamondbacks' claim to soon have the "largest scoreboard in pro sports" is dodgy at best. Reportedly, the board will cost between $10 and $12 million to erect and will measure in at "144 feet wide and 55 feet high," which the team claims is 900-square feet larger "than the biggest existing board, at Atlanta's Turner Field." Nevertheless, the D-Backs have certainly been trumped already in terms of HD scoreboard planning, as the Dallas Cowboys are slated to treat their fans to a pair of 180 feet wide by 50 feet high displays as part of a four-screen setup in 2009. So if all goes as planned, Arizona's MLB club will indeed be sporting the largest high-definition screen in pro sports for a tick, but those mighty claims will soon be squashed by the sensational installation headed to Texas.
Retirement home hosts Home Run Derby
In between episodes of Matlock (we kid, we kid), some folks in Silver Spring, Maryland managed to conduct a Home Run Derby through the Wii. In celebration of Barry Bonds' record-shattering home run and using the game (we assume) Wii Sports, residences of the Riderwood retirement community took 15 fastballs and did their best, swinging for the fences. You know what else is cool? The competition even had a celebrity entrant, as 1940s' All-American Girls Baseball League participant Doris Terry took some pitches. Remember that movie A League of Their Own? Oh, and there is still no crying in baseball.
Konami and 2K Sports announce MLB Power Pros
Some of us here at Wii Fanboy are fans of America's oldest institution: Baseball. As such, we're incredibly excited that Konami and 2K Games are teaming up to bring the Japanese baseball franchise Power Pro Baseball to the Wii and PS2 here in the states. Dubbed MLB Power Pros for us English-speaking folk, the game sports a very deformed chibi style of presentation, along with a mode that mixes in RPG elements into the equation.Catch a trailer of the game past the post break.
Konami and 2K announce MLB Power Pros for Wii, PS2
If you love baseball but hate legs and players that are more than two feet tall, get ready for Konami and 2K Sports' new MLB Power Pros, an adaptation of the long-running Japanese series, Power Pro Baseball. The new franchise, coming to Wii and PS2 this year, was announced this morning.In addition to using its gameplay and super-deformed character style, Power Pros will also ape its Japanese counterpart's "Success Mode," which presents baseball blended with RPG elements, the way it was meant to be. We've added a video of Power Pro above (featuring what appears to be an exceptionally good pitcher) so you'll know what to expect when the game drops this fall.
DS Fanboy Review: Nintendo Fan Network
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/In_depth_look_at_Safeco_Field_s_DS_Fan_Network'; Nintendo's Fan Network allows Safeco Field attendees to enhance Mariners games with software downloaded onto the DS. For a $5 fee, baseball fans can order food, watch live video, play networked games, learn about the players, and even keep up with other baseball games, right from their seats.The Fan Network finally delivers on some of the promise of one of the least-used features of the DS: download play. It is possible with download play to create context-sensitive DS games and services that can be given away freely (or sold) to any DS owner within range, and to add Internet-based bonus content to events. I hope that, based on this example, more downloadable DS services become available and expand the functionality and enjoyment both of the DS and the events to which people bring their systems.
Sharp solar panel system installed at AT&T Park
While you were busy watching Vladimir Guerrero take home the Home Run Derby crown two nights ago (not to mention the All-Star game last night), you may not have been aware that AT&T Park was feeding uber-clean energy back into the grid serving PG&E's customers throughout northern and central California. Sure enough, the home of the San Francisco Giants is now also home to 590 Sharp solar panels located in three separate areas of the stadium, which combine to generate some 120-kilowatts of electricity. The size of the entire array is reportedly "equivalent to approximately 40 residential solar systems," and while this system won't conjure up as much power as the CIS Solar Tower, it will certainly make good use of the ballpark during the off-season.[Via EETimes image courtesy of MatrixCS]
How do Baseball players relax after the Home Run Derby? With another Home Run Derby!
Following an elimination from the first round of the Home Run Derby on Monday, Twin's player Justin Morneau went on to win another Home Run Derby at San Francisco's Ruby Skye club. Competing against other players in 2K Sports' The Bigs, Justin took down other league notables such as Mets shortstop Jose Reyes. Of course, the gesture-based control system just about floored the players who took part in the gaming session. "You feel like it's a real game, because you have to swing like it's in the game, you know?" Reyes said. "It's great, man. I want one of those in my house."%Gallery-3430%
Touching is good at Safeco Field
The Seattle Mariners baseball team is trying a new pilot program at Safeco Field that lets fans watch replays and live feeds of the game, answer trivia questions, and even order food from the relative comfort of their sticky bleachers. Sound interesting? Oh, we forgot one detail: all of this uses the DS.For a $5 fee ($30 for 10 games), access to the Nintendo Fan Network software is granted. Two download points in the stadium broadcast the software wirelessly. We're glad to see Nintendo getting some mileage out of that baseball team they bought. They've certainly got our interest with this context-sensitive non-game. We want to go to a baseball game now.[Thanks, Dave and Matt!]
