Old School Pawapuro Thread

Ah, this is where my area of expertise lies. Well, in Super Famicom and Game Boy Advance. Thanks to the magic of emulation (which is legally questionable, but valid for me since I don't have a Super NES), I've played every PawaPro game from '94 to Basic Han '98.

The last 3 SNES PawaPro games (from '96 to '98) are more or less roster updates with new situation modes. It kinda sucks, but the games are fun, so it doesn't bother me much.

Someone recently uploaded 7 minutes of Pawapuro 6 footage.

Pawapuro 6 was for the N64 and arguably the best Pawapuro ever made.

Sorry about not updating this at all. I've been busy with Warhawk and MLB Power Pros. I've been playing both Pawapuro 6 for N64 and Pawapuro 99 Kaimakuban for PS1 via my Japanese PS3. Both games play similarly, since I believe they were both released in the same year. I'll just share my experiences with 99 for now.

In the past with Pawapuro 11 and 12, I've had this routine of taking pitches. I'd look at all the pitches until 2 strikes, unless there was a mistake pitch down the middle. During this time, I'd have the cursor always set to power. Once two strikes were on, I'd bat for contact if there were less than 2 outs and no runners were on. If there was a double play situation, I'd always bat for power to avoid DPs. If I had runners in scoring position and 2 outs, I'd bat contact to bring the runners home. I used this in order for the CPU to get realistic strike out totals, pitch counts, homer to RBI ratio, and help my weaker batters get a few homers per season.

Well, this elaborate routine fails miserably with MLB Power Pros' normal bat cursor and it's equally poor with the pre-Tanibuchi Pawapuros. I've had to change my entire approach at the plate to get decent hits and I'd also have to change my pitching style. Here is what I do to get good games. Keep in mind that this is for Powerful level difficulty.

I'll start off with pitching. There's not much to it. Just mix pitch types and locations as usual, but you have to be way stingier since old Pawapuro games will smack anything even slightly in the strike zone on Powerful level. You have to have the mentality of hitting the edges of the strike zone perfectly or throwing a ball. Catching too much of the strike zone is not an option, unless you want to be hit hard. Luckily, once you've practiced enough, guys with better control will be able to hit the edges on a pretty regular basis.

Batting is very fun once you understand the right mentality to hit with. Basically you swing for power with the guys who have poor meet and good power. You swing for contact with guys who have no power at all. With players who are good with both contact and power, like Ogasawara, you can decide which type to bat with depending on the situation. If you want to start a rally, it's better to go with contact. Also, unless you're a Pawapuro superstar who can win tournaments, it's suggested you play with catcher mit on and analog batting. Any other way and it'll be very difficult to get good wood on the ball. I also suggest swinging away at any time on whatever good pitches you see. Just make sure you don't swing early on everything, unless you want the CPU to throw a complete game.

This style is much more natural than taking pitches all the time and the fantastic AI makes it so the computer doesn't always throw strikes(even on Powerful).

I have one gripe, though. I don't know if it's because I'm playing on my PS3, but the AI got stuck on the substitution screen when it ran out of players. I had to quit the game. It was the first time I ever saw a Pawapuro game freeze up on me like that, so I'm guessing it was perhaps the PS3.

I may invest in a Nintendo 64 again since there's no hope of these games coming out on the Wii Virtual Console. I know there were some cartridge differences between the Famicom and the NES, and also between the Super Famicom and Super NES. However, I'm pretty sure there's no difference between the N64 carts in Japan and the USA. Please tell me this is true! I want to play PawaPro 6!

There is a difference. I use a little plastic converter that I bought a long time ago from an import shop. There are only two plastic pieces that block a Japanese cart from going into an American N64, so I believe there is some way to cut those out in order to make a universal N64. There has to be a tutorial on the internet somewhere. Google it.

There is that one thing tho that I hated in Pawapuro CPU pitching, even powerful CPU in 10 onwards (the ones I've played)...pitchers throw EVERYWHERE, even the middle, on a regular basis.

When u play PYS, after the match when u check the pitches location, u will see that they do what normal pitchers do - try to avoid the middle and hit the corners. But in Pawapuro, u will see that it's evenly spreaded. I dun quite understand why they'd leave it there.

However, it's not that big a deal, but since we're talking about these stuffs, I suppose I should just bring it up, especially since I just feel it again today playing 11K.

Been playing 11K a little today...

Made a good version of Sugiuchi and Aoki with stats similar to what they should be now.

11's success mode is surely a lot better than the new ones.

And I found myself actually pitching better than when I first played this. Noticed how CPU batting at powerful actually has a plan setted up to how to hit u. They usually have one pitch they look for, and therefore u can use other pitches to get the better of them. I even had a powerful CPU batter swung uglily at a 6 movement curveball (I knew he was looking for it) that broke from the middle-in of the plate into his hands.

This is something I dun see CPU doing in the ones after. And by throwing balls and changing speeds to make them off balance, I see a way better effect than what I've been playing these few years.

I suppose I will continue to make some of the updated players, and then might start a pennant if I feel like with the updated roster.

Next up...Hichori Morimoto.

You can also buy the proprietary screw and open the N64 and remove the plastic cover. Only problem with this is that it leaves the components exposed, but if you leave a game in the machine all the time, it eliminates that problem.

Its nice that you don't have to buy a mod chip to play N64 games...

Starting to feel this success mode is actually very easy as well....

With some luck, I was able to make a B meet 238 power B speed player...

In all of the tournaments combined, I hitted over .450, with over 10 homeruns.

Never remember the ball having so much pop in it. And it seems there are LOTS and LOTS of bloopers/soft single.

Success Mode in 11 is only as easy as you make it. You're playing with analog control. When I win a ton of games, I seem to float somewhere around B control, B stamina, 150 km/h as the low end. On the high end, I can make B control, A stamina, and over 155 km/h. I have to really take advantage of the tag training when I do that, though. I've only reached 160+ km/h once in All Japan. I mean, how much more difficult do you want it? What if you want to recreate Matsuzaka in 2006? You want it to take over 50 tries to get that? No thanks.

BTW, here's a tip if you haven't attained all the batting and pitching forms. Just play All Japan and wait until the conbini event before the first game. Once you get that form, you can just quit and you'll still have it.

That's true, ha...

Well, I will continue to use analog when playing Success, since my goal aint to play REAL, but to make the player as good as possible.

In Teikyo scenario, it is not hard at all to make 150 BA/AA 10 movement pitchers. The extra practices makes things gives lot more EXP.

About getting batting/pitching forms...

The only downside about this is, since All Japan scenario will/force u to save ur character into records, if u quit immediately after the learning form event, u will end up with a bunch of weak characters. Which could make playing the other scenarios less easy.

I'm in the middle of modding my PS2 so I can play some of the legendary PawaPros (Swap Magic: good or bad?). But which ones are they? I've heard a lot of good stuff about PawaPro 11 and 12, but what about 10? Which PS2 PawaPro games are the best?

Sorry but I lost my Pawapuro 10, and therefore haven't touched it for nearly 4 years. So my memory about it aint that good (u dun realize the difference unless u play and compare...unless it's a big dramatic drop like 13 and onward)

12's breaking pitches seems to be sharper and breaks later than 11, but CPU pitching never throw to anywhere outside the strike zone....which ticks me off a lot. 12 also introduces a few new skills (laserbeam, blooper hitter...etc) and one of the best pitches in the series - knuckle curve. 12 Kaimakuban's powerful CPU batting is annoying, they hit everything. 12K's overall CPU is better, but still never throw balls. Best about this version for me is that Watanabe Shunsuke, who happens to be my favorite player, has some of the best stats he ever had.

11K has great ball mechanics, player movements. And the overall balance just seems to be on top of the other ones I've played. There are more modes to choose, the legendary showdown is pretty fun to play thru to get the OBs instead of smacking 100 boring homeruns.

Pennant mode is also the best, both for auto-sim or playing thru it. The scout/draft search is actually better than the ones after it, as there's more to do with the draftees, like talking to them to show ur interest, and each scouts have different abilities, which will result on the type of players u can find. The later ones simplified it too much to a point it's just pretty pointless to do anything with it.

Oh btw, I saw the Jeter throw done by Tomozawa in 11K, altho he didn't get the out at first. Maybe Bigman can expand on this aspect.

10 has the best CPU AI. They swing at balls breaking out of the zone a lot more than later versions, so it's pretty realistic. 10 is also the last year with Kaz Matsui on the Lions. The downsides on 10 are lack of animations on defense(before wall climbs, crashing into walls, fancy infield animations, etc.), not nearly as many player specific batting/pitching forms as 11 Ketteiban, and My Life Mode is in it's first incarnation, so it's not as good or as polished as in 11 or 12.

11 is the best in terms of animations and overall greatness. My Life is about as good as 12's, Success is great, difficulty is pretty solid, and animations are probably the best of all the games. 13 and 14 have a lot more player specific batting and pitching forms(Maa-kun and Naruse!), but they'd degenerate when it comes to on field animations. Pennant is by far the best out of recent games. You can develop some real superstars after a few years.

12 isn't much more than 11. 12 Ketteiban is by far better than the July version. They fixed lots of AI issues and bugs. I remember being very disappointed with 12 when it first came out, because it was slightly worse than 11. Little did I know how much that gap would widen in later years.

Overall, I'd say...

11 Ketteiban > 10 Ketteiban > 10 > 11 > 12 Ketteiban > 12

I also have 8, but the graphics are pretty dated. They still published the games on CD-ROM back then. 10 was the first DVD version of Pawapuro.

I just realized that Pawafuru university is the strongest team of them all...if u're a pitcher...

I've been rocked numerous times by then (giving up a bunch of runs without even getting thru the inning.

Even when pitching against Saikyo or any other team, u can at least fool them with pitches and good locations. I've been hammered by Pawafuru over and over again as long as I throw it in the strike zone. It's scary.

Was extremely close in making a perfect Saitoh Kazumi. If it wasn't for an early confrontation with Pawafuru that gave Kazumi a Kire 2...which took me more time to spend on henkakyu practice than I wanted. Only stamina and control are off by a tiny bit.

After seeing the accident event in success 4 times in a row...(3 was when making the new Darvish...which all ended up screwed), I've decided to stop playing success mode...

Deciding if I will play a pennant manually, or continuing with my pitcher in mylife mode.

Sorry for bumping an old topic, but this seemed to be the most appropriate one. Is there anywhere with good detailed information on Pawapuro 6? I tried searching this site and google but haven't found anything of substance. Obviously, I can get the gist of the main game just by playing it, but without knowing Japanese I have trouble knowing what's going on half the time.

Also, I want to ask BigManZam something, but not publicly. I haven't found any relevent contact information though. If you read this and want to honor my request, e-mail me at jman2050atgmaildotcom. If you don't then you can safely ignore this part of the message. Info on Pawapuro 6 would be most appreciated.

Sorry for the late reply. You can post on any old thread as long as it's a relevant post. Pawapuro 6 has no English info, I believe. It's hard enough to get info on the game in Japanese. It's close to a decade old, after all.

I'll send you an email. I deleted my old email addresses a while ago.

I haven't received an e-mail from you yet. Did you send one? Maybe it's a problem with Gmail receiving from Yahoo? If there's another way for you to contact me, that'd be swell.

Anyway, I've tinkered with pawapuro 6 a bit over the past week or so. I can play a game, but I still have trouble knowing what's going on in all the other modes. Regardless, it's definitely a fun game.

the game I had the most fun was greatest nine for the saturn. I had to mod my saturn to play this game and I played it all day and night, after school. I still have my copies and I can play it on my pc via emulator.