Friday Starter is a weekly column of news and tidbits from the world of baseball video games—past and present, domestic and foreign.
Power Pros: Batter Up!! coin pusher arcade machine
Power Pros is officially back, though maybe not in the form fans are most looking forward to. eBaseball Power Pros: Batter Up!! is a coin pusher arcade game available (fully in English) in Round1 arcades around the U.S. now.
The Japanese version of the same machine got mentioned on this blog back in February of last year. I hadn’t heard about it until now, but the English version of the same machine has been around since at least July 2024 based on this video. Official promo for the game has picked up over the past two months, seen here on TikTok and here on Facebook.
You can see the game in action here:
Every single mention of these machines I can find comes at a Round1 arcade in the U.S. Round1 is a Japanese amusement center company that has 27 locations in the United States.
I haven’t been able to play one in person yet to try and verify but… The chatter from Power Pros fans is Jack Merluzzi, the English-language commentator from MLB Power Pros and MLB Power Pros 2008 seems to be back for this arcade release, and with brand-new commentary lines. Merluzzi has remained active as a voice actor all these years, most noticeably as the commentator of Mario Kart Arcade.
All Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2024-2025 Pawafes dialogue translated
This absolutely gigantic piece of translation and video editing work by Power Pros eSports star KangGang translates all the PawaFes mode dialogue in one YouTube video. The translations are overlaid on real footage to look like a seamless in-game translation. You can click around the chapter markings if you’ve just run into a particular school or character in-gaem and want to see the text translation. Unbelievable work!
A super-posable Pawapuro action figure
This Pawapuro-kun figure was recently added to the Konami Prize Collection. These are items you can win from your performance in Japanese arcade games. Previous Power Pros items included in this collection are the BIG Pawapuro-kun plush, and normal and winter versions of the Pawapuro dog Gander.
These new figures have a ton of points of articulation, making impressive stop-motion animation like this possible:
YouTube Viewing Guide
- “This is What Cheating Looks Like in MLB The Show” by TrodeeBoy13 – An interesting though disappointingly non-technical video showcasing cheating software for MLB The Show. It looks like the software keys in on release points and the first bits of pitch movement to guess the final location and timing, but it’s a bit light on details.
- “The Hidden Lore of Mario Baseball’s Chemistry System” by Piantapedia – A dive into Mario Superstar Baseball‘s chemistry system that determines which players do well with others. The video tries to extract some lore out of the behind-the-scenes decisions that led to the chemistry numbers.
Song of the Week
This week, highlighting my favorite track from the Neo Geo CD version of Baseball Stars 2: