Play for Free: MLB Bobblehead Pros

While there are only a handful of licensed baseball games on the shelves today, back in the mid-nineties, many companies tried their hand at America’s pastime.

One company, Konami, known more for its titles such as “Castlevania” and “Metal Gear,” produced a trio of games in their “Bottom of the Ninth” series that still maintain a cult-like status today. In spite of blocky, Virtua Fighter-esque graphics, the games featured one of the best pitching and hitting control schemes in video game history.

However, after the series’ demise, in spite of several attempts to copy it by other games, was gone forever.

Until now.

But don’t get so happy just yet.

Even though Konami’s MLB Bobblehead Pros manages to carbon copy the incredibly satisfying hitting and pitching system in the “Bottom of the Ninth” series, the fielding system is a complete disaster and ruins the title. Far too often are routine groundballs and bunts turned into singles and errors. At times, it feels as if the balls hit are on a yo-yo, unable to be caught, and don’t follow the basic laws of physics.

On top of that, it’s annoying that none of the players are announced by name when they are at bat or enter the game. Little touches like that could have at least got the game to be better than the some of its parts.

As it stands right now, there’s a lot of things done right here, but far too many things are haphazard.

As a result, “MLB Bobblehead Pros,” in spite of its charming graphically presentation and MLB license, is completely lackluster and not worth your time. Brimming with potential, many of these problems can and should be fixed in a sequel, but don’t let that get your hopes up.

For 10 bucks, you’re much better off with an old copy of MLB 2K7.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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