| 1 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250px_pro_yakyu_13.jpg]] |
| 2 | ->'''Let's play baseball!''': ''MLB Power Pros'' |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball'' is a series of Japanese baseball arcade-simulation games published by {{Creator/Konami}} and developed by ''Powerpro Production'' (previously known as Diamond Head) ever since 1994. It is one of the most [[LongRunners long running]] sport series with a lot of spinoffs in Japan, though English-speaking countries tend to know the series by its Americanized spinoff series ''MLB Power Pros''. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | The series is known for its unique character designs. They're [[SuperDeformed short, small, have a big head]], no nose, no mouth and no legs. Another feature the series is famous for is the unique [[DatingSim "Success Mode"]], which is a game mode where you create your own character, advance through a story mode, develop his baseball stats and finally get to use the character freely after you've completed the Success Mode. Two of four ''MLB Power Pros'' series are the only of series that have been translated into English from the results that Japanese baseball players were able to MLB league, thus the proper licensing and uses of the UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball elements. The rest of the series is associated with the Nippon Professional Baseball league (NPB), resulting in no localization outside Japan. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | Since 1999 a sister series called ''Powerful Pro-kun Pocket'' was developed for Nintendo's portable systems. It lasted until 2014 after 14 main installments and a spinoff. Its stories were darker and more fantasy-oriented, especially in the case of its alternate "Inner Success" story modes, which frequently had little to do with Baseball and featured turn-based RPG mechanics. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | It has appeared in two Konami crossovers, ''VideoGame/KonamiKrazyRacers'' and ''VideoGame/DreamMixTVWorldFighters''. Since 2020, with Konami entering e-Sports scene, ''[=eBaseball=]'' has been one of Konami's flagship E-Sports titles alongside ''[=eFootball Winning Eleven /=] VideoGame/ProEvolutionSoccer'' (though ''[=eBaseball=]'' does not have a PC version unlike Konami's other e-Sports titles). |
| 11 | |
| 12 | In 2023, after so long since the ''MLB Power Pros'' entries, Konami suddenly released ''WBSC [=eBASEBALL=]: Power Pros'' to Western audiences in partnership with the World Baseball Softball Confederation. It is a heavily stripped down version of the typical ''Power Pros'' game containing only the baseball simulator and focused on online matches, but is sold for only a dollar. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | [[folder:List of main ''Powerful Pro'' games]] |
| 17 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball '94'' (Super Famicom, 11 March 1994) |
| 18 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2'' (Super Famicom, 24 February 1995) |
| 19 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 3'' (Super Famicom, 29 February 1996) |
| 20 | ** ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball '97 Spring'' (Super Famicom, 20 March 1997) |
| 21 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 4'' (Nintendo 64, 14 March 1997) |
| 22 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 5'' (Nintendo 64, 26 March 1998) |
| 23 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 6'' (Nintendo 64, 25 March 1999) |
| 24 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 7'' (Platform/PlayStation2, 6 July 2000) |
| 25 | ** ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2000 Ketteiban'' (Platform/PlayStation2, 21 December 2000) |
| 26 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 8'' (Platform/PlayStation2, 30 August 2001) |
| 27 | ** ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 8 Ketteiban'' (Platform/PlayStation2, 20 December 2001) |
| 28 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 9'' (Platform/PlayStation2, Platform/NintendoGameCube, 18 July 2002) |
| 29 | ** ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 9 Ketteiban'' (Platform/PlayStation2, Platform/NintendoGameCube, 19 December 2002) |
| 30 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 10'' (Platform/PlayStation2, Platform/NintendoGameCube, 17 July 2003) |
| 31 | ** ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 10 Ultra Ketteiban: 2003 Memorial'' (Platform/PlayStation2, Platform/NintendoGameCube, 18 December 2003) |
| 32 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 11'' (Platform/PlayStation2, Platform/NintendoGameCube, 15 July 2004) |
| 33 | ** ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 11 Ultra Ketteiban'' (Platform/PlayStation2, Platform/NintendoGameCube, 16 December 2004) |
| 34 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 12'' (Platform/PlayStation2, Platform/NintendoGameCube, 14 July 2005) |
| 35 | ** ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 12 Ketteiban'' (Platform/PlayStation2, Platform/NintendoGameCube, 15 December 2005) |
| 36 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 13'' (Platform/PlayStation2, 13 July 2006) |
| 37 | ** ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 13 Ketteiban'' (Platform/PlayStation2, 14 December 2006) |
| 38 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 14'' (Platform/PlayStation2, 19 July 2007) |
| 39 | ** ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 14 Ketteiban'' (Platform/PlayStation2, 20 December 2007) |
| 40 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 15'' (Platform/PlayStation2, Platform/{{Wii}}, 24 July 2008) |
| 41 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2009'' (Platform/PlayStation2, 19 March 2009) |
| 42 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2010'' (Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/PlayStationPortable, 15 July 2010) |
| 43 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2011'' (Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/PlayStationPortable, 14 July 2011) |
| 44 | ** ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2011 Ketteiban'' (Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/PlayStationPortable, 22 December 2011) |
| 45 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2012'' (Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/PlayStationPortable, Platform/PlayStationVita, 19 July 2012) |
| 46 | ** ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2012 Ketteiban'' (Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/PlayStationPortable, Platform/PlayStationVita, 13 December 2012) |
| 47 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2013'' (Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/PlayStationPortable, Platform/PlayStationVita, 24 October 2013) |
| 48 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2014'' (Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/PlayStationVita, 23 October 2014) |
| 49 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2016'' (Platform/PlayStation4, Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/PlayStationVita, 28 April 2016) |
| 50 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2018'' (Platform/PlayStation4, Platform/PlayStationVita, 26 April 2018) |
| 51 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2019'' (Platform/NintendoSwitch, 27 June 2019), officially named ''[[RecycledTitle Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball]]''. Also see ''Toys/{{amiibo}}'', as the game is packaged and compatible with a handful of amiibo cards. |
| 52 | * ''[=eBaseball=] Powerful Pro Baseball 2020'' (Platform/PlayStation4, Platform/NintendoSwitch, 9 July 2020) |
| 53 | * ''[=eBaseball=] Powerful Pro Baseball 2022'' (Platform/PlayStation4, Platform/NintendoSwitch, 21 April 2022) |
| 54 | * ''WBSC [=eBASEBALL=]: Power Pros'' (Platform/PlayStation4, Platform/NintendoSwitch, 9 February 2023) |
| 55 | [[/folder]] |
| 56 | |
| 57 | [[folder:List of ''Power Pro Pocket'' games]] |
| 58 | [[index]] |
| 59 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket1'' (Game Boy Color, 1999) |
| 60 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket2'' (Game Boy Color, 2000) |
| 61 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket3'' (Game Boy Advance, 2001, Direct sequel to ''1'') |
| 62 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket4'' (Game Boy Advance, 2002) |
| 63 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket5'' (Game Boy Advance, 2003) |
| 64 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket6'' (Game Boy Advance, 2003) |
| 65 | * ''Power Pro-kun Pocket 1&2'' (Game Boy Advance, 2004, a remake compilation developed over the sixth game) |
| 66 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket7'' (Game Boy Advance, 2004) |
| 67 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket8'' (Nintendo DS, 2005) |
| 68 | * ''VideoGame/PawapokeDash'' (Game Boy Advance, 2006, an interquel between ''7'' and ''8'') |
| 69 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket9'' (Nintendo DS, 2006) |
| 70 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket10'' (Nintendo DS, 2007) |
| 71 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket11'' (Nintendo DS, 2008) |
| 72 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket12'' (Nintendo DS, 2009) |
| 73 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket13'' (Nintendo DS, 2010) |
| 74 | * ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket14'' (Nintendo DS, 2011) |
| 75 | [[/index]] |
| 76 | [[/folder]] |
| 77 | |
| 78 | [[folder:Major League Baseball games]] |
| 79 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Major League'' (Platform/PlayStation2, Nintendo Game Cube, 2006) |
| 80 | * ''MLB Power Pros'' (Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Game Cube, 2007) |
| 81 | * ''MLB Power Pros 2008'' (Nintendo Wii, Platform/PlayStation2, Nintendo DS (a butchered version of ''Pawapoke 10'', NOT a port), 2008) |
| 82 | * ''Jikkyou Powerful Major League 2009'' (Nintendo Wii, Platform/PlayStation2, 2009) |
| 83 | [[/folder]] |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[folder:Spinoff games]] |
| 86 | [[index]] |
| 87 | * ''Pawapoke Koshien'' (Nintendo DS, 2005, not considered an actual ''Pawapoke'' installment by Konami) |
| 88 | * ''Atsumare! Power Pro-kun no DS Koushien'' (Nintendo DS, 2006) |
| 89 | * ''VideoGame/SundayXMagazineNettouDreamNine'' (Nintendo DS, 2009) |
| 90 | * ''Nettou! Powerful Koushien'' (Nintendo DS, 2010) |
| 91 | * ''VideoGame/LivePowerfulProBaseballMobile'' (Mobile, 2014) |
| 92 | * ''VideoGame/LivePowerfulProSoccer'' (Mobile, 2016) |
| 93 | [[/index]] |
| 94 | [[/folder]] |
| 95 | ---- |
| 96 | !!The trope used in this series are: |
| 97 | * AbhorrentAdmirer: Norika Arai in ''Pawapoke 1'' and ''2''. An odd middle-aged woman who falls in love with the original Power Pro and canonically drags him into marriage with some help from her brothers. After his death, she can end up marrying the second Pro as well but this thankfully isn't canon. |
| 98 | * TheAce: No doubt, you have to become one. |
| 99 | * AIBreaker: When you're checking out your hand as the batter in ''Pawapoke Dash'' and your best card only matches all but one of the opponent's, going for a card that matches that missing spot works most of the time. |
| 100 | * AllThereInTheManual: ''Pawapoke Dash'' includes summaries and character profiles for every previous ''Pocket'' game, though a lot of the story is still left unclear. |
| 101 | * AmnesiacHero: The hero from ''Pawapoke 1'' is revived as a cyborg with no memories in ''3''. Filling his Memory gauge to over 80% by encountering people from his past and visiting his old school is required to get past the third year of the story. |
| 102 | * AndIMustScream: |
| 103 | ** If you lose a tournament in ''Pawapoke 3'' Kameda leaves Power Pro locked inside a small container until he dies. If the story ends in a duel between the two and you lose, Kameda puts Pro on a leash and enslaves him. |
| 104 | ** If you rebel against the Pocket Heroes in ''Pawapoke 7'' and lose, they beat up your entire team and imprison everyone inside a grotesque crayon scribble forever. |
| 105 | * AndThenJohnWasAZombie: The second worst ending in Toshien Hero Edition from ''Pawapoke 7'' has the protagonist get brainwashed and [[FaceHeelTurn join the Pocket Heroes' ranks]] as Red's [[TheDragon right-hand man]]. |
| 106 | * AngryEyebrows: For the first six years, Power Pro always had a cutesy neutral expression in boxarts. Then in ''Power Pro 7'' he suddenly got all intense and that has rarely ever stopped since. |
| 107 | * AnimeThemeSong: Since ''Power Pro 8'', nearly main installment has an animated opening with a theme song. Conversely, even the last ''Power Pocket'' games for the DS only have simple silent title screens. |
| 108 | * AnnouncerChatter: This was among Konami's "Jikkyou" (Live) sports series where voiced commentary was a selling point. The ''Pocket'' sister series missed out until the Nintendo DS installments. |
| 109 | * ArtStyleDissonance: The games have cutesy chibi artwork, but several of them have serious stories. |
| 110 | * ArtifactTitle: This was the only Konami sports series that kept the ''Jikkyou'' on the title long after technology allowed AnnouncerChatter to become the norm in the genre. It finally changed to ''[=eBaseball=] Powerful Pro Yakyuu'' in the [=2020s=] as Konami started getting into online sports. |
| 111 | * AwesomeButImpractical: Every so often in a success run, you will run into Dr. Daijōbu who offers to perform a experimental surgery on you. The reward for a successful surgery might seem tempting, but the penalty for a failed surgery is devastating and can ruin a success run. |
| 112 | * BackFromTheDead: |
| 113 | ** Kameda from ''Pawapoke 1'' dies in an explosion and is ReforgedIntoAMinion. He turns back into a plain human later. |
| 114 | ** Power Pro #1 dies by accidentally falling off a cliff but Kameda revives him as a cheap cyborg. He also goes back to human form by the end of ''Pawapoke 3''. |
| 115 | ** The "Ball Father" from ''Pawapoke Dash'' is only brought back as a ghost with a halo over his head after the Hell Dungeon story but later shows up fully alive and well in ''14'' via UnexplainedRecovery. |
| 116 | * BeefGate: You need to be strong enough to get drafted into a professional team. Team owners will also sack you if you don't perform well. And don't even bother entering an overly weak character in Pennant mode -- the CPU won't let you do anything. |
| 117 | * BigBrotherInstinct: [[spoiler: After Suzumu was hosptlized due to a "traffic accident",]] Mamoru was determined to win the Koshien. In a match between his school(AKATSUKI UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL) and Extreme High School, his team wins by a staggering 10-0. Considering Mamoru's role as a pitcher, that means he nullified eveny assult from Extreme High School. |
| 118 | * BittersweetEnding: |
| 119 | ** ''Pawapoke 1'': Borders on a DownerEnding. The protagonist leads his team to victory but his friend Kameda dies and he ends up in an unhappy marriage with Norika. His own subsequent offscreen death and resurrection as a cyborg becomes the story of the third game. |
| 120 | ** ''Pawapoke 6'': The protagonist is sent from the future to prevent the bankruptcy of the Wakura factory, but he falls to the Great Empire Killers team without even encountering the time criminal responsible. After 100 days working under threat of death in a concentration camp to pay off his debts, the protagonist defeats the Great Empire Killers in a rematch and manages to stir a revolt in the Blood Butterfly army. Upon destroying Mecha Kameda, however, it turns out the entire incident was the villain's twisted attempt to have a purpose in life. His second-in-command Helga is sentenced to death by firing squad for her organization's actions, and has no regrets for all the human experiments they had performed. The protagonist is left in a mix of pity and contempt for them, but moves on and begins to rebuild the Wakura factory. |
| 121 | ** ''Pawapoke Dash'': The protagonist leads his team to victory, but finds his father's ghost passed away just before the final match. Still, he accepts that and makes peace with his uncle who accidentally killed his father back in the day. Girlfriend candidates Igumori and Sakura have no real happy ending to be achieved, either. However, the second Success mode for this game ends on a happier note by letting the protagonist bring his parents back from the underworld. |
| 122 | * BoldInflation: When your stats get changed in a given scene or you get new skills, blue text marks positive bonuses and red marks penalties. Those come with [[SoundCodedForYourConvenience unique sound effects]] as well (such as LosingHorns for negative "skills") so you can have an idea of what happened even if you can't read the japanese installments. |
| 123 | * BonusFeatureFailure: A common unlockable in the ''Pocket'' games allows you to swap the title screen to one featuring the local Yabe lookalike for one power point, but the illustrations featuring them often suck in comparison to the default ones featuring the Power Pros. |
| 124 | * {{Bookends}}: |
| 125 | ** Taisho Adventure in the last ''Pawapoke'' for the GBA (''7'') revisits the inventory mechanics from the first (''3''), among other things. The ''Dash'' spinoff released after ''8'' then reused the quick time event duel that was featured in the final battle of ''3''. |
| 126 | ** The theme that plays during the end of ''Pawapoke Dash'' is a short reprise of the first main theme the game uses. |
| 127 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCKFRASHM8Q The trailer for Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2014]] begins with a batter hitting a home run. The camera then zooms into a very young Pawapuro-kun, who then manages to catch the ball. At the end of the trailer, Pawapuro-kun manages to hit a home run, the camera then zooms into a kid with a baseball glove... |
| 128 | ** ''Pawapoke 14'' opens with the monochrome title screen from the first game in the series, which shows Pawapuro-kun running towards the screen. Pawapuro-kun then comes closer and becomes colored. The credits for this finale's Success mode also display the title screens of every previous installment. |
| 129 | * BrotherSisterIncest: One girlfriend candidate in ''Pawapoke Dash'' turns out to be the protagonist's lost sister. No outcome has them hooking up, but the protagonist realizing the truth is the worst: he hides it and puts on a {{Jerkass}} front to force a break-up. The epilogue then shows her heartbroken and swearing to become a different person. |
| 130 | * ButNowIMustGo: |
| 131 | ** The hero of ''Pawapoke 6'' can choose to return to the future at the end of the main story. The game treats this as a game over but shows any available epilogues and gives you points anyway. |
| 132 | ** The hero of ''Pawapoke 9'' can decide to keep wandering the world at the end, which angers the kid he's been helping through the story. Depending of the events followed in the story this can have other good or bad consequences. He can end up abandoning a love interest and the boy who idolizes him, for example. |
| 133 | * ButtMonkey: Marvin and Yabe by default. The main character also tend to have a fair share of bad lucks and cartoon injuries. |
| 134 | * CareerEndingInjury: ''Pawapoke 7'' has a Risk meter that fills when Power Pro gets injured in events or overexerts himself with heavy training. If it becomes full, Pro is forbidden from playing Baseball and the story [[GameOver draws to a close]]. |
| 135 | * CastFromMoney: In Taisho Adventure you can inexplicably buy items mid-fight to heal and deal guaranteed damage to enemies, but each item costs twice the normal price. |
| 136 | * CastOfSnowflakes: Almost every major character in a Success Mode has very unique heads. The new generation of the series is also almost on par with UsefulNotes/{{Mii}} when it comes to character customization. |
| 137 | * ChestMonster: Those appear in the RPG mode for ''Pawapoke Dash''. The only way to detect them is by hitting chests with arrows, but arrows and the swords needed to fire them are precious resources. |
| 138 | * ChewToy: Marvin. With a right card, you can drag him into your affairs for comedic results. |
| 139 | * ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The Pocket Rangers in ''Pawapoke 7'' are supernatural beings born out of the protagonist's desperation to become the ultimate baseball player. Ranger Black[=/=]Mao is the most human-like among them because she isn't instilled with an obssession for victory and power. She becomes a normal person by the end of the story. |
| 140 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: A lot of characters are comically insane. |
| 141 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: When a roulette is spun in ''Pawapoke Dash'', landing on a Blue slot gives positive outcomes for the pitcher. Green and Orange generally have positive outcomes for the batter, but depending on the trajectory of the ball some will still result in a lot of blue slots in the final spin. Take notice that in the DS installments they mixed up the colors for some reason and you instead have to get orange slots when playing as the pitcher. |
| 142 | * ComingOfAgeStory: The protagonist of ''Pawapoke Dash'' is one of the youngest in the series. The game's plot is not without lighthearted moments but is largely about him maturing and coming to terms with the death of his parents. And possibly the death of a girl he had a crush on. |
| 143 | * CompanionCube: |
| 144 | ** In ''Pawapoke Dash'', the protagonist carries around a baseball that contains the soul of his father. He's not really InvisibleToNormals, but the boy avoid drawing attention to him until everyone demands he explain what's going on. |
| 145 | ** Also in ''Dash'', Momoko is the personification of a tree who can't leave her surroundings and that only the protagonist and his poltergeist dad can see and talk to. |
| 146 | * CompanyCrossReferences: |
| 147 | ** The Goryukaku High School scenario in ''2018'' involves [[VisualNovel/TokimekiMemorial a legendary tree]] where couples confess to each other. |
| 148 | ** The ''Power Pro-kun Pocket'' games had multiple minigames that referenced other Konami series, such as ''Gradius'', ''Ganbare Goemon'' and ''Contra''. |
| 149 | * ContinuingIsPainful: Until ''Pawapoke 7'', a Game Over was just ''that''. It then became the same as a Reset, setting your save file back up to 4 times. Each attempt comes with an increasingly large penalty to your stats and, at worst, your playthrough might be in an {{Unwinnable}} state anyway. Once you run out of continues, the game displays a TheEnd message ([[ItsAWonderfulFailure in blood-red over a silent black background]]) and deletes your save file. |
| 150 | ** In ''Pawapoke Dash'''s RPG mode, the stairs to floors 26+ can only be opened once. If you use a continue at those depths, you'll have to just end your run on the normal ending at floor 25. |
| 151 | * ContinuityNod: Several connections are established between ''Pawapoke'' games, such as the ''Pawapoke Dash'' spinoff being linked to all previous ''Pocket'' games. The series actually started out as a side story to ''Power Pro 5'', but this is largely ignored since then. |
| 152 | * CriticalAnnoyance: During the RPG mode in ''Pawapoke Dash'', a tense theme plays whenever Power Pro's health gets low. |
| 153 | * {{Crossover}}: |
| 154 | ** Besides the two Konami games above, some of the series' characters [[note]]Specifically, Saki Nijama, Subaru Hoshi, Miyabi Oyama, Aoi Hayakawa, Mizuki Tachibana, Hijiri Rokudo, Karin Nekozuka, Sairi Nijitani, Ren Katagirl, Misaki Konno and Akio Yabe[[/note]] characters made an collaboration appearance in VideoGame/TheBattleCats as obtainable units, of all things. |
| 155 | ** To return the favour, a usable character is added into VideoGame/LivePowerfulProBaseballMobile called "Power nyan〜", which is a genderless character with a body of a power pro and a head of a cat. |
| 156 | ** You can summon Pawapuro-kun in the Japanese versions of ''VideoGame/{{Scribblenauts}}'' and ''Super Scribblenauts''. |
| 157 | ** Power Pro can cosplay as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] in ''Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball Heroes''. The costume comes with its own animations, sounds and fire-themed skills. |
| 158 | * CuteSportsClubManager: Usually a love interest. |
| 159 | * CuttingOffTheBranches: Each game has some kind of canon outcome, but a lot of happenings are left just implied or never really resolved from game to game. |
| 160 | ** The canon ending of ''Pawapoke 1'' is getting married to Norika after winning at Toshien. Kameda dies during the attack on Team Propeller's base. |
| 161 | ** Fighting Kameda at the end of ''Pawapoke 3'' is canon, but later installments in the series seem to imply that things turned out in ways that can't happen in the game proper. |
| 162 | ** Pretty much the ''entire plot'' of ''Pawapoke 6'' doesn't matter because the game over outcome from losing tournaments is canon and the protagonist is sent off to a heavy labor camp. The Happiness Island mode in the same game then continues the story and defeating Mecha Kameda is its canon outcome. |
| 163 | * DamnYouMuscleMemory: |
| 164 | ** When the ''Pawapoke'' series migrated to the Nintendo DS, they remapped some of the actions. The cursor for the batter also changes to the one from the ''Power Pro'' series from ''9'' on. |
| 165 | ** The card battle mode from ''Dash'' appears from ''Pawapoke 9'' and onwards, but there are changes to the rules and ''the significance of colors in the roulette is mixed up from what it used to be''. |
| 166 | * DarkerAndEdgier: |
| 167 | ** Success modes labeled as hard mode tends to have darker plots than others. ''MLB Power Pros 2009'''s plots and characters are more dramatic than the previous translated title. |
| 168 | ** ''Powerful Pro-kun Pocket'' games have more serious story lines than the main series despite the already cartoonish art style being more crude. |
| 169 | *** The original one involves a criminal Baseball organization and sets a standard. Make the wrong choices and you'll see the protagonist mourning before certain graves at the end of the story. Then the sequels went and made Kameda's death and the protagonist's forced marriage to Norika canon. |
| 170 | *** The Cyborg story from ''Powerful Pro-kun Pocket 3''. The protagonist from the original game died in an accident and has been revived as a robot slave for his now evil "friend" Kameda. If you screw up, you can get drowned by the mafia, have your corpse tossed in a junkyard, get imprisoned to death inside a box and get beaten into submission by Kameda. Several dateable girls and the LittlestCancerPatient will die if you fail their questlines. |
| 171 | *** The Mysterious Happiness Island story from ''Powerful Pro-kun Pocket 6''. After the Wakura factory becomes bankrupt, you're sent off to a concentration camp to work for a Nazi-esque army that deals with arms trafficking, performs PsychoSerum experimentation on humans and terrorizes the natives of the island. You can get executed if you slack off or addicted to drugs if you depend on them to refill your health meter. The bad endings involve you turning into their lackey or otherwise allowing them to continue their operations until the island is riddled with graves. If you defeat the BB army, then the most symphatetic of their enforcers ends up sentenced to death by firing squad, though she doesn't regret it. If you had befriended her through the story, you get to see her die. |
| 172 | * DatingSim: Since ''Pawapuro 4,'' you can date one or more of the girls who appear in the story. |
| 173 | * DenialOfAnimality: Igumori in ''Pawapoke Dash'' insists she's human but has dog ears and her dates all involve playing with her like she's one. Turns out she's really a dog who was run over by a car and then granted another chance at life as a hybrid by the Baseball God. However, it is only temporary unless she's on the winning team of a national-level competition and... [[ShootTheShaggyDog there's not enough time]]. She either dies alone and miserable or at peace depending on whether Power Pro befriends her or not. |
| 174 | * {{Eagleland}}: The final boss for ''Pawapoke 6'' is an American team whose coach wastes no time in singing his country's praises with a display of censored landmarks in the background. They're a huge jump in difficulty and ''canonically [[TheBadGuyWins defeat the protagonists]]''. |
| 175 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: |
| 176 | ** Regarding ''Power Pro'' games: |
| 177 | *** The first ''Power Pro'' with a Success mode was ''3''. It didn't have many features and had a small cast of characters which didn't include a eyeglass friend. Even the "終" game over screen hadn't been thought up yet. |
| 178 | ** Regarding ''Power Pocket'' games: |
| 179 | *** The first ''Pawapoke'' to have an Inner Success story was ''2''. ''3'' was rushed for the Game Boy Advance's launch and didn't have one. Inner Successes were at first locked until the Inners were cleared, but then they made that in-game store that pretty much forces you to sacrifice a successful run to earn enough points to unlock them quickly. The last few games in the series, however, actually let you play both Successes from the get-go. |
| 180 | *** ''Pawapoke 2'' has a PlayableEpilogue that lasts until December of the third year. Every other game plays the ending once you clear the tournament or final boss. |
| 181 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: |
| 182 | ** The Pro-kun from the original ''Pawapoke'' canonically dies in an accident after a forced marriage, is brought back as a cyborg in the third game and has to work his ass off to pay rent and mantain his new body. Ultimately, he does manage to find success and is restored to human form. He even gets a girlfriend he actually likes depending of your choices. |
| 183 | ** The time-travelling Pro-kun from ''Pawapoke 6'' fails to save his boss' factory from bankruptcy without even managing to find the time criminal that was thought to be responsible. Sent to a concentration camp administrated by an evil army, he manages to dismantle them from within and then rebuilds his factory from scratch as the new boss. |
| 184 | ** The Pro-kun from ''Pawapoke Dash'' manages to bring both his parents back to life (though they have halos on) at the end of the second Success mode. |
| 185 | * EasternRPG: Success Mode scenarios with traditional JRPG fares has been implanted in the ''Powerful Pocket'' games, in which you mainly fight monsters and robots instead of playing baseball. The ballplayer you're rewarded with after a successful run, instead, comes from in-universe HandWave. |
| 186 | * EnemyWithout: Red and most of the other Pocket Rangers in ''Pawapoke 7'' are delusions of the protagonist brought into reality by his desire to become a baseball champion. The protagonist realizes this upon finding a crayon doodle of Red he had drawn as a kid. |
| 187 | * EvilUncle: Suguru from ''Pawapoke 2'' acts as one to the protagonist of ''Dash''. Guilt-ridden over accidentally killing the boy's father with a home run and the death of his wife in an airplane crash, he antagonizes the boy and challenges him to a batting match towards the end of the game. Thankfully, they do reconcile at the end and Suguru even adopts the boy. |
| 188 | * ExtendedGameplay: With so many games in this series, the dev team has to make each one robust in its own right. Clearing the main Success Mode in a given game lets you use the character you built in Pennant, a Career Mode. Clear that and you'll be allowed to use them in a custom team. Most games in the series also feature a secret love interest for Success Mode and an unlockable story that is fantasy-themed and has RPG mechanics. And then there are minigames on the side, too. |
| 189 | ** The alternate Success mode for ''Pawapoke Dash'' is one of the few that continue the main mode's story. |
| 190 | * FaceHeelTurn: |
| 191 | ** While Power Pro #1 from the first ''Pocket'' game suffers from a SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome his former ally Kameda suffers from a SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome. After his own appearance as a ressurected cyborg villain in the second game, Kameda revives Pro, but views him as a tool to get rich and make it big on the criminal underworld of Baseball. He's all too willing to sell Pro off or even kill him for failure. Depending on certain outcomes he even uses all the rent money he's been getting from Pro to build a giant robot and then tries to beat the poor guy into slavery. |
| 192 | ** Pro #1 himself can turn evil in the third ''Pawapoke'' and [[https://web.archive.org/web/20181107030144/http://www.geocities.jp/pawapuro_pawapoke_characters/poke3/12.html choose to help]] Kameda establish the Neo Propeller Team. |
| 193 | ** One bad ending from ''Pawapoke 6'''s Happiness Island story shows the protagonist becoming a madly loyal soldier for the Blood Butterfly army. |
| 194 | * FanService: Despite being SD, Konami dished out costumes for the three recurring females which includes SexySantaDress, {{Main/Miko}}, KimonoFanservice, [[WalkingSwimsuitScene swimsuits]], and even [[NakedApron apron]] which can be downloaded and worn in the middle of a ballgame. |
| 195 | ** The Aoi-centric success mode in ''2012'' dresses the three up as [[SecretIdentity baseball superheroines.]] |
| 196 | * FakeLongevity: In some of the latter ''Pawapoke'' games you need coins to unlock things such as the Inner Success mode and minigames, but normally you only get 1 coin times the amount of successful Success runs you have. To earn more coins at once at the end of a run you need to forfeit both your character ''and'' the right to view what epilogues you earned and the chance to unlock any new ones at the gallery. |
| 197 | * FeaturelessProtagonist: The default Power Pro-kun mascot looks like a nondescript baseball dude so that players can project themselves into his shoes. Subverted in games like ''Pawapoke 6'', ''8'' and ''9'', where the heroes wear distinct outfits when not playing Baseball. |
| 198 | * FormulaBreakingEpisode: Inner Success stories in the ''Pocket'' series more often than not have nothing to do with Baseball, are set on fantasy worlds, have turn-based RPG or roguelike gameplay and use a cast of characters from previous installments. |
| 199 | * FreakyFridayFlip: The premise of ''Pawapoke 5''. Power Pro crashes face first into a popular player and ends up swapping minds with him. The player takes the role of this new character as he attempts to take his body back from Power Pro. In the end it never happens, but the protagonist ends up embracing his new identity. |
| 200 | * FunSize: Inverted trope. The ''Professional Baseball Spirits'' series is the realistic counterpart to this one. |
| 201 | * GameOverMan: |
| 202 | ** The game over screens for the Success modes can be rather harsh, but then you'll see the Baseball God encouraging you to try again, even after you run out of continues. |
| 203 | ** Once or twice per game there's a game over that's a wall of text lamenting your fate with the Arai brothers standing in the background. There's so so many of those that when you open the Gallery menu in ''Pawapoke 13'' it shows a montage of ''15''. |
| 204 | * GhostLegLottery: The New Year minigame for Pawapoke Dash is basically this, but a few obstacles is added in the tracks which might change the hero's course. |
| 205 | * GratuitousEnglish: Two music tracks in ''Pawapoke 14'' are named "I am a student" and "I was a samurai". Which is weird because the protagonist in the Inner Success mode is a student who ''becomes'' a samurai when he falls into another world. |
| 206 | * GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Taisho Adventure Edition in ''Pawapoke 7'' has a TrueFinalBoss that steals the show and flattens the main villain's giant mech under its fist. Its identity? A titanic and disturbing-looking... ''crayon doodle with blank eyes''. |
| 207 | * GoldenEnding: If you've seen the credits roll, then you know you got the canon ending of a given game (although earlier games play it regardless). You can still end up with bad epilogues from making the wrong choices, though. |
| 208 | * TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: After the protagonist of ''Pawapoke 7'' destroys the Pocket Heroes, everyone except him and his team forgets about them. |
| 209 | * GuideDangIt: There is a lot in those games you might not know are in there even after several playthroughs. |
| 210 | ** In some games, there are dialogue trees where you're under a ''hidden time limit'' to choose something. Latter installments give a visible timer for those occasions... and then have the jackassery to sometimes put hidden time limits ''within'' those time limits. |
| 211 | ** The games usually have about 6 love interests, with one being locked away in NewGamePlus in certain games. But how do you even meet them and get their phone number? How do you successfully hook up with them when repeatedly dating is not enough? Sometimes their questlines are even filled with luck-based elements... |
| 212 | ** Take "Koshien Hero Edition" from ''Pawapoke 7'', for example. The game has no special goals to be achieved every year for you to see the ending and record your character, but to access the final boss and the game's real ending you must follow the Rebellion route and oppose the sentai heroes at every turn. Make one wrong choice and you drop into the standard Submission route. At one point, you must pick the correct dialogue option under a time limit... except you actually have less time (3 seconds) than the timer indicates on-screen. Clearing this route is mandatory to get Mao's good ending. |
| 213 | ** It's tough enough to clear the 5000$ debt in ''Pawapoke 7'''s Taisho Adventure mode, but to fight the TrueFinalBoss you need your bag full of good items to get over 90 points in the baseball puppet competition at the last day of the story. This also requires you to figure out pretty much everything about the game and not get unlucky with the random events. |
| 214 | * HappilyEverAfter: The first Power Pro from the ''Pocket'' series gets forced to marry Norika and is very displeased about it. Then he dies in an accident. In ''2'' Norika might get her hands on the second Power Pro as well, ending the game on a similarly painful note. The trope is played straight in several other endings across the series, though, and some even show the local Power Pro and his chosen love interest [[BabiesEverAfter having children]]. |
| 215 | * HappyEndingOverride: The worst possibilities for ''Pawapoke 1'''s ending are made canon by ''2'' and ''3''. Kameda dies during the raid on the Propeller Team and is brought back as their cyborg minion. The original Power Pro is forced to marry Norika and later dies in an accident. Kameda then revives him as his own cyborg lackey, starting the plot of ''3''. |
| 216 | * TheHero: Each game features a different incarnation of Pawapuro-kun[=/=]Power Pro-kun which is [[HelloInsertNameHere named by the player]]. One exception is ''Pawapoke 5'', where after setting Pro's name and attributes we see him getting his mind swapped with another guy, who is the actual protagonist. |
| 217 | * HeroicSacrifice: In Power Pro 5 , Gaidō Kyōji, the same guy who managed to poison your team's bentos last year, managed to make a truck lost control by using a banana peal in hopes to remove Mamoru out of the competetion.[[spoiler: What happened instead was Suzumu shoved his older brother out of the way and took the brunt of the accident all by himself. Suzumu was hospitalized, and Mamoru was understandably, pissed.]] |
| 218 | * HeterosexualLifePartners: There gotta be that guy with huge eyeglasses on his face who'll be your best friend and[=/=]or your roommate. |
| 219 | * IdenticalStranger: Yabe has a bunch of lookalikes in ''Power Pro-kun Pocket'' games. Marvin is his [[EagleLand U.S.A counterpart]]. |
| 220 | * IndyEscape: There's a minigame in ''Pawapoke 4'' in which Power Pro must outrun a boulder via SmashingSurvival. There are coins to collect on the way, but the actually valuable ones only appear in dead ends as some sort of sick consolation or bait. |
| 221 | * InfinityPlusOneSword: Each romanceable girl in a given game is associated with a special powerup. |
| 222 | * InsistentTerminology: The spine labels for the [=PS1=] installments romanizes the word ''Pawafuru'' as it is, despite the fact that ''Pawafuru'' is simply a Japanese transliteration of the word "Powerful". |
| 223 | * InventoryManagementPuzzle: In ''Pawapoke 3'', you increase Pro-kun's stats by acquiring and equipping items instead of training. That's because he's a cyborg in this story. This mechanic also shows up in Taisho Adventure from ''7'', in which Pro-kun crafts a baseball player puppet. |
| 224 | * ItsAWonderfulFailure: The series is filled with horrible game overs and bad endings where Pawapuro-kun is forced to give up his dream, gets fired and is forced to live on the streets or even [[SurprisinglyCreepyMoment gets outright killed]]. |
| 225 | ** ''Pawapoke 3'' can end with the protagonist being drowned by the mafia, dumped in the trash after dying from exhaustion or locked inside a small container until he dies. If he duels Kameda in the end and loses, it isn't a game over but he becomes his slave and the epilogue shows the villain reviving the Propeller organization. |
| 226 | ** When you hit a mine in the Minesweeper minigame in ''Pawapoke 3'' you get a [[JumpScare harsh screen shake]], a [[HaveANiceDeath child's voice saying "huh uh"]] in a mocking tone, a screen showing all the items you've lost and finally a scene of Power Pro lying severely injured on the ground. |
| 227 | ** If you return to the future at the end of ''Pawapoke 6'', [[YouBastard the game guilt-trips you]] for leaving all your friends behind. |
| 228 | ** Also from ''6'', in Happiness Island Edition, you can get executed by the soldiers of the neo-nazi[=/=]Unit 731 pastiche Blood Butterfly army or EatenAlive by a giant frog-scorpion hybrid. Both cases end with Oda looking distraught after making you a grave. In some other failure conditions, you die and nobody even finds your corpse. Another bad ending has you turning out such a good lackey that you get promoted to a soldier and start pushing Oda and the rest of your former friends around with mad eyes. |
| 229 | ** In ''Pawapoke 7'' it is possible to end up brainwashed and join the psycho Pocket Rangers or to be defeated and imprisioned along with everyone into a creepy-ass crayon drawing as Red and the other Rangers resume their conquest of the country. And in the alternate Taisho Adventure story, getting killed results in a cutscene showing the consequences in detail and ends with a shot of a vandalized statue that was made in your memory. |
| 230 | * IWorkAlone: If you clear ''Pawapoke 3'' without recruiting or dating anyone, the epilogue will show Power Pro wandering the world while confidently stating he doesn't need any friends. |
| 231 | * JumpScare: When Power Pro gets lovestruck there is a chance for him to get run over by a truck after a date. This displays a [[MoodWhiplash sudden full-screen cutscene]] with a very shaky camera. |
| 232 | * KarmaMeter: ''Pawapoke 3'' has one. If you'e a good guy you forgive Kameda and get your humanity restored at the end of the story. If you're a bad guy, you'll help Kameda in his evil ways and will keep living as a cyborg. The real challenge is to be a ''so-so'' guy, which makes the protagonist [[TrueFinalBoss want to kick Kameda's ass]] at the end. |
| 233 | * KidHero: The Power Pros from ''Pawapoke Dash'' and ''Pawapoke 14'' are elementary school students. |
| 234 | * KindHeartedCatLover: Mao Serizawa in ''Pawapoke 7'' gets in a traffic accident to save a cat. Her name happens to be chinese for "cat", as well. |
| 235 | * KnightTemplar: The Pocket Heroes in ''Pawapoke 7'' are ruthless justice enforcers. They bring success to the protagonist's baseball team, but only by kicking everyone else out of it. Plus, they end up starting their own secret criminal schemes to further make people depend on them. At first Red is the most level-headed of the Pockets and refuses to misuse his superpowers, but eventually goes mad as well. |
| 236 | * LaserGuidedAmnesia: In the good ending of ''Pawapoke 7'', everyone forgets about the Pocket Heroes once they're defeated. If Mao (who is Ranger Black) was the chosen LoveInterest, the protagonist may end up forgetting about her too. Whether this happens or not is [[LuckBasedMission decided at random]] when you confess to her midway through the story. |
| 237 | * LastSecondEndingChoice: |
| 238 | ** One example can be found in ''Pawapoke 6''. The time-travelling hero might be able to choose whether to return to the future or to start anew in the past. You chose to return? Congratulations: the game plays depressing music over the epilogue sequence, shows every friend you interacted with missing you and displays the blank TheEnd screen you'd get from a game over while your GBA gains a life of its own, invades your fridge and eats all your food. |
| 239 | ** In the same game's Happiness Island Edition, the hero can choose to keep serving under the Blood Butterfly army or to take them down. The standard and canon final boss is Mecha Kameda, but it is possible to instead awaken a giant frog monster who must be fought off with the Gander Robo. |
| 240 | * LightIsNotGood: ''Pawapoke 7'' revolves around a bizarre invasion of sentai superheroes who come to the protagonist's school and try to take over the local baseball team. They seek to bring peace to the city, but abuse their powers to brainwash the population and are secretly responsible for many of the incidents they solve. |
| 241 | * LighterAndSofter: The ''Pawapoke'' series never got quite as dark as the slavery camp from ''6'' again, and began to ease up somewhat on having very depressing and haunting game overs and bad endings. |
| 242 | * LimitBreak: A team's players in ''Pawapoke 14'' share a super gauge with 5 slots. Once a slot is used, you skip over having to aim your swing or throw but the opponent can counter with their own super move and then you'll both duke it out via [[SmashingSurvival button smashing]]. Depending of character, a super move will come out in a power level up to 3 depending of the current meter you have or regardless of it. A successful level 2-3 super will result in either a strike-out or a home run. |
| 243 | * LittlestCancerPatient: The hero of ''Pawapoke 3'' can meet a girl named Yukari who suffers from a grave disease and [[HealthcareMotivation needs three million yen for treatment]]. If you don't want to be visiting her grave at the end of the story, you'll need to manage Pro's health and work schedule very very well to earn that much money. Unfortunately, she's [[UncertainDoom never heard of again]] for the rest of the series. |
| 244 | * LookBothWays: Traffic accidents are a constant in the ''Pawapoke'' games. |
| 245 | ** If Power Pro-kun goes on too many dates in a row he'll get lovestruck and in certain games this can trigger a random event where he becomes so air-headed that he gets run over by a truck. This might not cause an immediate game over but it will do severe damage to Pro's health and even destroy random items in your inventory depending of the game. |
| 246 | ** That event actually is part of a girl's route in ''Pawapoke 3''. She gives her phone number after Pro-kun gets trucked in her place and then gives some items to compensate for his equipment loss. |
| 247 | ** In ''Pawapoke 13'' the protagonist gets hit by a car early in the story and all his stats are set to the F grade. Getting back to form is the main goal of his story. |
| 248 | * LuckBasedMission: Any Success mode, because of the random chances to get bonus, items, injury, extremely bad luck, and fatigue that ruins your entire career. |
| 249 | ** CPU autoplay can easily mess up a match, putting you in a position where no matter how good you play, you cannot win. This isn't the case if you're a pitcher, where you may control the defense. And even real time AI defense is more reliable than using the time skip function. |
| 250 | ** Drawing a match causes the rematch that you won't get to play, meaning it's 50% or less chances you'll win. |
| 251 | ** Ghost enemies in Taisho Adventure from ''Pawapoke 7'' can only be damaged from spiritual attacks, which means meeting the priestess character during a certain random event is critical to progress. In another random event she can teach you how to hurt ghosts by yourself after a long meditation session... which ''also'' has a random chance of failure. |
| 252 | ** Mao Serizawa's story in ''Pawapoke 7'' is ''completely'' luck-based. You get her phone number after some events randomly play several weeks into the story. Dating her and letting her choose where to hang out has a chance of resulting in special plot-important events. Confessing to her, if successful, triggers either a BittersweetEnding or a happy one (you can tell by a minor change in one line). When trying to save her from Ranger Pink, there's a chance for Mao to die in a HeroicSacrifice even if you pick the correct choice (C), unless you happen to have a special item that enables an alternate one (E). Said item is only received in an event that plays if you hook up with Mao as soon as possible. |
| 253 | ** New Year minigame events are often luck-based. |
| 254 | ** ''Pawapoke 13'' and ''14'' have a scratch card minigame that lets you quickly build characters. You must choose 3 panels from each card to get upgrades until you clear ten cards, but if you find the single X mark on any of them you have to start over from card 1. Internally, the positions of each item are mixed every time you choose one. |
| 255 | * MeaningfulName: Dr. Daijōbu's name means "Are you okay?", which is ironic because his surgery is anything but okay. |
| 256 | * MissingMom: Several protagonists in the series have no parents. In particular, the deceased parents of the protagonist from the final ''Pawapoke'' game are implied to be people from previous games (possibly even the original protagonist or the one from ''8'') but the truth is never revealed. |
| 257 | * MotiveDecay: In ''Pawapoke Dash'', the protagonist wants to win a national-level baseball tournament so his father can be revived. Performing actions unrelated to Baseball adds to the Heaven gauge, which once full means his father's spirit will fade away for good and cause a Game Over. |
| 258 | * MultipleEndings: The aforementioned failure screens aside, each Success Mode has a bunch of WhereAreTheyNow epilogue scenes that play if you build a relationship with one or more characters [[GuideDangIt just right]] or ''horribly wrong''. One odd mechanic is that the series lets you forfeit the chance to see the ending and erase your character in exchange for more coins to unlock stuff with. |
| 259 | * MusicalNod: |
| 260 | ** The secret final boss for ''Pawapoke 6'''s Happiness Island Edition is designed after the Impact battles from the SNES ''VideoGame/GanbareGoemon'' games, so the battle theme begins with the same notes from the original. |
| 261 | ** The epilogue theme for ''Pawapoke Dash'' is a variation of the one from ''5'', which was the previous game to feature Suguru, the protagonist's uncle (''8'' was released before ''Dash'' but takes place later in the timeline). |
| 262 | * NewGamePlus: |
| 263 | ** From ''Pawapoke 6'' on, you gain a certain amount of points every time you clear a Success mode (more if you forfeit your save). You can use those points to buy starting items for your next playthrough. |
| 264 | ** After clearing Cyborg Edition in ''Pawapoke 3'' three times you unlock a ''VideoGame/{{Minesweeper}}'' minigame whre you can use your custom characters to earn more stats and skills for them. Of course, tripping on a mine means getting all your hard work scrapped forever. |
| 265 | * NintendoHard: Made a bad decision? Are you bad at baseball? Failed a minigame? You are dead. Start the whole game over. |
| 266 | * NoDeathRun: |
| 267 | ** One event in ''Pawapoke 4'' requires you to achieve a large score on a ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}''-esque minigame where you only get one life. And by "minigame" we mean that it is a simple but fully-fledged shmup with several short levels and bosses. Good luck. |
| 268 | ** ''Pawapoke 5'' has another ''Gradius'' minigame which for better or for worse is significantly shorter. ''6'' followed suit with a vertical shmup where you fight giant cockroaches. It only has a single boss with two phases. |
| 269 | * NoFairCheating: Reseting a game in progress costs a continue and comes with penalties. Before ''Pawapoke 7'' and in any Pennant modes, however, reseting can salvage your save because there's no Continue feature in those. |
| 270 | * NoMouth: Most characters in the series have no visible mouth, and instead rely on their eyes and head shape to convey expressions. Incidentally, [[https://store.line.me/stickershop/author/54376/en a series of LINE stickers]] from former developers of the ''Pawapoke'' series does depict the characters with a nose and a mouth. |
| 271 | * NoNameGiven: All Power Pros have no CanonName except for the protagonist of ''Pawapuro 5'', Tetsuo Toi. |
| 272 | * NonstandardGameOver: In certain games can get bad endings even after winning the obligatory tournament at the end of a story. Sometimes you get to keep your custom character with penalties to his stats (like if Kameda enslaves Hero 1.3 in ''Pawapoke 3'''s bad ending), but in some installments you can end up fired or retired (''Pawapoke 6'' and ''8'') and then that's a Game Over screen on your face. |
| 273 | * TheNotLoveInterest: |
| 274 | ** Most of the female ball players including the mentioned three are not date-able, since they are considered team mates rather than love interests. |
| 275 | ** One of the "dateable" girls in ''Pawapoke 3'' is a child whom the protagonist must care for by paying her healthcare. |
| 276 | * OddballInTheSeries: |
| 277 | ** Another game developed by Diamond Head for the Super Famicom was ''Live Power Pro Wrestling '96 - Max Voltage''. It is completely unrelated to this series even in art style despite what the name would suggest. Power Pro-kun doesn't even make a cameo among the Konami wrestlers! |
| 278 | ** ''Pawapoke Dash'' presents Baseball matches as a card game with roulettes. In the ''standard'' Success mode, because the baseball simulator isn't included at all. Power Pro-kun even reacts in surprise when the battle screen first comes up. It was also odd in that it was released for the Game Boy Advance after the series had migrated to the Nintendo DS. The card game then actually gets added to latter ''Pawapoke'' entries until it is redesigned for the final one. |
| 279 | ** ''Pawapoke Koushien'' for the DS in 2005 still used the baseball engine from the GBA games. Its storyline was unrelated to the rest of the series, so Konami later stopped considering it a ''Pocket'' entry. The sequel ''Atsumare! Power Pro-kun no DS Koushien'' still used a modified GBA engine and let you play as a manager. It wasn't advertised as a ''Pocket'' game from the beginning. ''Nettou! Power Pro-kun no DS Koushien'' was then a board game with its own distinct card battle mechanics and artstyle. |
| 280 | ** One of the Nintendo DS spinoffs was ''Powerful Golf'', which is, well, a ''golf'' simulator. |
| 281 | * OlderThanTheyLook: Every game has a Power Pro and a Glasses Clan member who generally look the exact same as each other regardless of their age. Though it is downplayed in the Power Pros' case as their appearance is meant to be a blank state. In cutscenes, child characters are actually depicted as being smaller than adults. |
| 282 | * OnceAnEpisode: Nearly every ''Pawapoke'' has the following events: |
| 283 | ** The protagonist receives some kind of tutorial from a character who explodes once he's done. It was just a dream. |
| 284 | ** The protagonist hears he'll get fired, crippled or even killed if he doesn't live properly for the next 3 years. The poor guy then makes either just the "scribble" shocked expression or all of them in a row. |
| 285 | ** At the end there will be a shot of the Gundar Robo or some kind of kaiju emerging from a cityscape for some kind of final battle. |
| 286 | * OnlySaneMan: The main character, Power Pro-kun, tends to be the most level-headed in any story. |
| 287 | * OpaqueNerdGlasses: Yabe and his clones. |
| 288 | * OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Or a college student, or a rookie pro, depending on the games. |
| 289 | * PassionateSportsGirl: Aoi, Misaki, and Hijiri are all national-level (and even professional) players in their respective teams despite being females. There are loads of other female players as the series progresses as well. |
| 290 | * PasswordSave: Characters created in one game wil generate a set of long password which can transfer the character's stat into the next game. Success Mode's characters' real stats also can be unlocked via a password input ([[GameBreaker something that is banned in an online play]]). |
| 291 | * PlayingTennisWithTheBoss: The final boss for Happiness Island Edition in ''Pawapoke 6'' suddenly turns the game into a ''Zelda'' parody. Mecha Kameda can't be harmed normally, so just avoid his claws and slash his missiles until he fires an energy orb you can knock back at him. |
| 292 | * ThePowerOfFriendship: Getting your teammate to like you allows special training and events with them, where they help you rack up your skill points. |
| 293 | * ThePowerOfLove: To the lesser extent to the above, getting a girlfriend does net you with better fatigue and stat boosts, especially if the girl is an athlete who likes dragging you on a workout for a date. |
| 294 | * PressStartToGameOver: It is possible to play some of the ''Power Pro'' games so badly that you can get kicked out of a team or get a career-ending injury within the first few minutes of the story. |
| 295 | * ThePromise: When starting to date Momoko in ''Pawapoke Dash'', the protagonist must promise to meet her once per month on a certain week. Forget it even once, even towards the end, and she will ditch you before disappearing forever. Geez. |
| 296 | * PuzzleBoss: In ''Pawapoke Dash'''s RPG mode, the boss fight can only be defeated by a certain method. It becomes awfully powerful on its second phase but has to cool down every 6 turns. So walk 6 steps, hit him twice and repeat until he's reduced to rubble. The optional boss at the bottom of the dungeon works the same way, but it takes longer to reach the second phase and it has a third one where he fires a powerful beam if you move ''away'' from him. |
| 297 | * RecurringBoss: In the ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' minigame in ''Pawapoke 4'' you fight a Core as a boss several times. On each battle it wields different powers and then flees when defeated, except at the very end when you can finally shoot it dead. |
| 298 | * RecurringCharacter: |
| 299 | ** The hero from ''Pawapoke 1'' is also the protagonist of ''3''. He's the only Power Pro who appears in more than one game. |
| 300 | ** Yabe Akio is present in every ''Power Pro'' game since his debut in ''4''. |
| 301 | ** Some Yabe lookalikes show up in more than one story. In particular, Kameda (''Pawapoke 1'') reappears as an antagonist in certain games and Yuda (''7, 8''), Yamada (''4, 6'') and Oda (''6'' -- from the Happiness Island story) play a big role in ''[[BackForTheFinale 14]]'' as the protagonist's parents. |
| 302 | ** The three women ball players [[TheSmurfettePrinciple (Aoi Hayakawa, Mizuki Tachibana, and Hijiri Rokudo)]] |
| 303 | ** TheRival Ikari Brothers (Mamoru and Suzumu) and Ryo Tomozawa |
| 304 | ** [[BeefGate Kageyama The NPB Scout]]. |
| 305 | ** Mao Serizawa makes some appearances after ''Pawapoke 7'', still working as a sentai heroine. |
| 306 | ** Dr. Daijōbu, a doctor that will find anyone for his research. |
| 307 | ** The Baseball God who appears after a game over has a larger role in some stories. |
| 308 | ** A blonde foreign man appears in pretty much every ''Pocket'' game while [[TheChewToy falling victim]] to all [[DisneyVillainDeath kinds of]] [[LookBothWays accidents]]. The Arai brothers also show up all the time, even when their sister Norika doesn't. |
| 309 | * ReusedCharacterDesign: |
| 310 | ** Different incarnations of Power Pro-kun and his glassy friend Akio Yabe exist concurrently over the course of the series. And when somebody from the Glasses Clan isn't available, [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute somebody else]] with nerdy glasses shows up in their place. |
| 311 | ** In games that have a second Success mode, you'll surely see alternate versions of characters from previous stories as well. |
| 312 | * SamusIsAGirl: The black ranger in ''Pawapoke 7'' is a girl called Mao Serizawa. |
| 313 | * SaveGameLimits: The one save slot in the Japanese games' Success mode acts as a quicksave, which deletes itself upon a load or a game over. If a game does not erase the file while it is in play, resetting the game is considered a death and expends one of your continues. MLB Power Pros games allows SaveScumming, otherwise. |
| 314 | * SecretCharacter: From ''Pawapoke 7'' to ''9'' (including ''Dash''), one of the six love interests only appears if unlocked for a NewGamePlus. |
| 315 | * SeriousBusiness: Any hard mode scenarios involving "elite baseball school" or an army of sort. You'll be constantly tested of your skills and will get a game over really fast if you're not up to the standards. |
| 316 | ** In Factory Baseball Society from ''Pawapoke 6'', the fate of corporations is decided in Baseball matches. |
| 317 | * SexyDiscretionShot: ''Pawapoke 13'' has implied sexual encounters between the protagonist and most of his love interests that make use of this trope. You know, for kids! |
| 318 | * ShaggyDogStory: |
| 319 | ** In ''Pawapoke 6'' the hero travels to the past to stop a time criminal who sabotaged the factory he works for. The culprit's identity is never revealed and they were actually attempting to restore the timeline to its ''original'' state, which only elaborated upon several games later. The two canonically don't even meet because the game over from losing the final match is the true ending. Ultimately subverted by the Happiness Island story being a direct sequel to this and ending with the hero becoming the president of his factory and ensuring it won't get bankrupt again. |
| 320 | ** In ''Pawapoke Dash'', the Baseball God promises the protagonist he'd revive his father from his current possessed ball form if he won a national-level baseball championship in three years. The protagonist succeeds, but his father's soul moves on anyway. This is subverted in the second Success mode, where the boy does manage to bring both his parents back to life. There is also a literal example in that Igumori the dog girl also had a deal with the Baseball God she's unable to fulfill. |
| 321 | * ShoutOut: |
| 322 | ** ''Pawapoke 4'' and ''5'' have ''Gradius'' minigames. In ''6'', the hero owns a laser gun that shoots the ring laser ripples from that series. |
| 323 | ** ''Pawapoke 5'' has a FallingBlocks minigame called "Hako de Gucha". It means "Box de Splat", as in ''"VideoGame/PanelDePon"''. It plays nothing like Nintendo's puzzler, though. |
| 324 | ** ''Pawapoke 6'' has a secret final boss which recreates the gameplay of the Goemon Impact giant robot battles from the SNES ''Ganbare Goemon'' games. It goes as far as showing Power Pro riding the seat elevator to the mech's head the same way as portrayed in ''Ganbare Goemon 2'' and making a little nod to the battle theme from that game. |
| 325 | ** ''Pawapoke 8'' has a ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' minigame. The game's story is loosely based on ''VisualNovel/{{Snatcher}}''. |
| 326 | * ShowWithinAShow: ''"Space-Time Warrior Gundar Robo"'', a ''Gundam'' + ''Mazinger Z'' + ''Macross'' mashup. It is first talked about in ''Pawapuro 6'' and the titular giant robot is made into reality in ''Pawapoke 3'', ''6'' and ''7''. It makes even more apparances as an enemy or playable mech in the Inner Success scenarios. |
| 327 | * SiblingYinYang: The Ikari brothers: the older Mamoru is an aloof main rival; the younger Suzumu is a NiceGuy. |
| 328 | * SimpleScoreOfSadness: |
| 329 | ** ''Pawapoke 2'' and ''7'' have a simple slow song that plays in melancholic scenes. |
| 330 | ** A certain game over screen in ''Pawapoke 13'' shortly plays a slow misuc box version of the game's RecurringRiff. |
| 331 | * SimultaneousArcs: ''Pawapoke 1'' happens during the second year of ''Power Pro 5''. ''Pawapoke 3'' and ''4'' happen at the same time. ''7'' starts midway through the plot of ''6''. ''Dash'' starts during thew second year of ''7'' and ends as ''8'' begins. ''8'', ''9'' and ''10'' are also concurrent but this stops for the rest of the series. |
| 332 | * SlidingScaleOfRealisticVersusFantastic: ''Pawapuro'' games have Mundane stories and ''Pawapoke'' games have Unrealistic and Unusual stories. The Inner Success modes in the ''Pawapokes'' have flat-out Fantastic stories. What's strange, though, is that the actual Baseball gameplay was pretty mundane all across the franchise until the final ''Pawapoke'', which finally gave everyone energy-based super moves. |
| 333 | * SoundTest: The first ''Pawapoke'' to have one was ''7'', though it starts out locked. ''Dash'' had 5 tracks from every previous game except ''8'' in its series retrospective. Again, ''Dash'' was for the Game Boy Advance and ''8'' was on the DS, so the sound hardware was incompatible. |
| 334 | * SpiritAdvisor: In ''Pawapoke Dash'', the local Power Pro-kun's father gets killed by a baseball to the face and his spirit latches on to it. Failing to take care of the ball is a game over condition, but the man passes away for good at the end of the story anyway once the boy wins a championship. |
| 335 | * StatusEffects: |
| 336 | ** Certain events will inflict a physical or mental illness on Power Pro, requiring the player to use a turn to take him to a doctor or a therapist. For a ''[[LuckBasedMission chance]]'' to get healed. And for only one status at a time. Certain statuses give penalties on each turn or make Pro unable to train properly. And as mentioned before, getting lovestruck is bad news: you're forced to have a date on the next turn and Pro might ''get hit by a truck'' afterwards. |
| 337 | ** A particularly nasty one is the addiction to gachapon in ''Pawapoke 5'' and ''6''. There are certain events, some optional, some ''mandatory'', where the local glasseye dude asks you for money to buy action figures and other nerdy stuff. If you go along with that enough times, the protagonist gets addicted as well and begins randomly wasting turns to go to the toy store. ''This status cannot be healed''. The game even plays an ominous cutscene [[FissionMailed like you got a game over]] and enables a bad epilogue for the ending. |
| 338 | * SuperDeformed: The characters are short and big headed. Like VideoGame/{{Bomberman}} they have no nose and mouth but they also lack legs. The latter ''Pawapoke'' games let you play as realistic people in Free Play mode, though. |
| 339 | * TeamPet: |
| 340 | ** A recurring puppy (Gundar) usually appears as the series mascot. In-game, it acts as a supporting cast that forces you into extra trainings. |
| 341 | ** The ''Pawapoke'' series has a different dog character for each game. |
| 342 | * TertiarySexualCharacteristics: Some of the Success Mode's scenarios let you play as a woman... which is the regular Powapuro-Kun with eyelashes and a huge ribbon. |
| 343 | ** Yabita Akiko is basically Yabe with a woman's hair. |
| 344 | * TheEnd: |
| 345 | ** In most death sequences, "End" shows up in hiragana (おわり) The actual endings have a triumphant "Clear" message in katakana first and then show "End" after the credits while Power Pro waves goodbye. |
| 346 | ** The game over screen shows "End" in kanji (終) in blood-red over a silent black screen for most of the series. The latter ''Pawapoke'' installments instead have a red background with a stylized black "終" filling out the whole top screen. While the first can be sad to look at, the second is like the game is smugly rubbing your failure in. |
| 347 | * TimedMission: Success modes usually span three in-game years. There often is some objective you must achieve before a certain date to prevent a Game Over. |
| 348 | ** In ''Pawapoke 3'' you must raise each of your stats to a certain amount before the end of the first year to get drafted, save several million yen to develop a long-term battery for Power Pro's body before the end of the second and then keep his Memory gauge over 80% to get past the third year. Failure to do any of this results in a Game Over. |
| 349 | ** Taisho Adventure in ''Pawapoke 7'' gives you 200 days to clear a debt of 5000 yen. You must also obtain enough stat enhancers to get a score of 90 at the puppet contest in the final day to fight the true final boss. |
| 350 | * TitleScream: Every game has a voice shouting the title on the title screen. In some you actually can press a button other than Start to enter the main menu without the shout. |
| 351 | * TogetherInDeath: Subverted in ''Pawapoke Dash''. The second Success mode sees the protagonist trapped in the Underworld until he walks on his dead parents having lunch. He gets pulled out of there before getting to talk to them, [[StarsAreSouls looks sadly at the sky]]... and realizes they're still right next to him. |
| 352 | * TournamentArc: A local baseball cup spans at least a quarter of a Success Mode. Losing a match usually means a game ending sequence; therefore, the longer you persist in the tournament, the longer you can develop your character. |
| 353 | * TrueFinalBoss: Achieving [[GuideDangIt some difficult goal]] in a Success mode will award you a final boss and the true ending. Those battles generally are examples of an UnexpectedGameplayChange. |
| 354 | * {{Tsundere}}: Becky. |
| 355 | * UnintentionallyUnwinnable: There's so much that could go wrong in a playthrough. Quest lines that involve minigames, for a minor example, get harder with each minigame cleared. In ''Pawapoke 7'', do not let the block-matching game be the last, as the CPU is nigh invincible on difficulty 4. |
| 356 | * UnwantedHarem: Hakusetsu High School scenario in the [=iOS=] app. Your character trains hard to get enrolled into Hakusetsu's baseball club, only to find out there's only women playing there. Worse off at least four girls got attached to him, so the team's principle forces you to play date with them to keep the morale up. |
| 357 | * VictoriousChildhoodFriend[=/=]UnluckyChildhoodFriend: Becky Fox, depend on whatever you woo her or not. |
| 358 | * VideoGameRemake: Remakes of the first two Game Boy ''Pawapokes'' were done in the engine for ''6'' and released as a compilation for the GBA. |
| 359 | * VideoGameTutorial: ''Pawapoke Dash'' features an unusual card game mode in place of the baseball simulator, so it gives detailed instructions to the player. The protagonist [[LampshadeHanging even gets surprised]] when it happens. The tutorial is [[ForcedTutorial mandatory]] on the first playthrough, but is skipped afterwards. |
| 360 | * VisualNovel: The Success Mode, a rare case you'll see your character on screen. |
| 361 | * WeCanRebuildHim: |
| 362 | ** In ''Pawapoke 1'', [[spoiler: Suzumu was hospitalized due to a traffic accident and was abducted by the Propeller Team during his stay. He was subjected to many surgeries which boosts his ability as a pitcher and batter considerably. You will see him again donning the persona of Yakyūmasuku(Roughly translates to "The Masked Baseballer") serving the Holy Emperor High School, the game's FinalBoss.]] |
| 363 | ** In ''Pawapoke 2'', the Propeller Team revives Kameda as a cyborg. He's later restored to human form. |
| 364 | ** In ''Pawapoke 3'', we find out the original Power Pro died [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome between games]]. Not to worry, though, Kameda has him rebuilt as a cyborg. With cheap materials. By the end of the story, Pro gets his mind transferred to a cloned body. |
| 365 | * WeirdnessCensor: Horuhisu in ''Pawapoke 6'' is a good guy who's part of your team, but nobody other than the protagonist seems to notice something's off about him. He is a creepy-looking living crayon scribble with wide BlankWhiteEyes and a vacant and perpetual wide smile. |
| 366 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: |
| 367 | ** We usually never get to know what ever happened to the protagonist of a given game after his adventure since there are so many possible outcomes and the developers are adamant in [[ShrugOfGod "preserving the player's imagination"]]. The one time we did was the aforementioned HappyEndingOverride from ''Pawapoke 1'' to ''3''. |
| 368 | ** We last see Kameda scheming something in ''Pawapoke 5''. Then he's never heard of again. |
| 369 | ** Later on the ''Pawapoke'' series, we learn a building was set on top of the empty lot from ''Dash''. It is left ambiguous if Momoko the peach tree was left in her place. |
| 370 | ** [[spoiler: Suzumu's fate was remain unkown at the end of Power Pro 5's success mode. This is averted however if you consider the story of the [[VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket1 spinoff]].]] |
| 371 | * AWinnerIsYou: There usually is a group shot artwork with a congratulations message that unlocks after you witness every ending and epilogue in a given game. |
| 372 | * YouALLLookFamiliar: Before the MLB games, every player in the actual gameplay has only one appearance. You also can't change your look outside skin color. This is quickly inverted into CastOfSnowflakes since then. |
| 373 | * YouHaveFailedMe: In Happiness Island Edition you have to manage the "Dog Meter". If you fail to serve the Blood Butterfly army properly and it drops to zero they'll execute you in cold blood. You don't want the meter to fill all the way, either, as that will trigger the ending where you turn into their madly loyal soldier. |
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