MLB Power Pros 2010 is here!

I was pleased to see a second baseball franchise debut in the Android Market and immediately pulled it down. A full review is forthcoming, but I do have a few initial impressions.

First, note that there are two versions... check the handset list before buying and make sure you get the right one for your phone. Personally, I hate that... I wish they'd code the app to detect and gracefully degrade if specific capabilities aren't there. I don't like the two versions thing. Consequently my review is specific to the Motoroloa Droid version on a Droid. The game plays smoothly and is also an officially licensed game so I can take the role of my favorite team (Go Mets!). I'm happy to say that I haven't had any issues with performance so far. In the game you basically pitch and bat... the computer auto-fields, but given my limited time I'm not going to say there's not an option here somewhere. I basically jumped into an exhibition game to get playing as quickly as possible. Pitching is done by choosing a pitch and then, as the pitch is in progress, adjusting a target to place your pitch inside/outside/high/low. The batter can move back and forth as well and swinging is done by pressing a swing button, and that's my main issue right now... I'll be so focused on the ball that I'll miss the swing button. It's not like there are other controls around there? Konami Mobile needs more tolerance so that when I press near the button my batter swings.

Aside from that I'm enjoying the game... and a more detailed review is coming once I get a couple of hours in and get a chance to play around with the game's options. So far this looks great, though, despite being pricey at $6.

Update: After playing with this more I can say that there's a VK button (virtual keyboard?) on the lower left that changes the pitching/batting controls. With VK off the whole 'press here and exactly here' aspect of batting turns into 'press somewhere on the right' and it's a 500% better experience. I was starting to think that was going to be the downfall of this game having struck out too many times due to missing the virtual button. I find batting works better with VK on... just wish I didn't keep having to switch. Also you can enable it so that you control your fielders and base running. I have not tried it yet... I'll save that for the review.