Pro Evo Wii - Full Review

It’s easy to dismiss the Wii and cast it aside. The console has been so popular, not only amongst gamers, but also with ‘non-gamers’. With popularity come a lot of issues – the main one being third party developers cashing in on the Wii with awfully conceived and poorly designed games. These usually have some waggle controls tacked on to give the impression of some effort when in reality barely any human input is to be seen.

As a result of this, so called, shovel-ware the Wii is slated as a casual gamers console only with very few killer titles for the hardcore audience. While Nintendo fans know this isn’t true, not with the likes of Mario and Metroid, no one can deny that third party support hasn’t been great. In fact, the features that brought the original hype of the Wii seem to have forgotten. Apart from first party titles and a few others there have not been many innovative implementations of the wii-mote.
Well, hopefully that is starting to change.

I present to you…Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 Wii! Or PES for short. If you’ve the first impressions then you’ll know I like this game. After playing it some more I’ve decided that I love this game! Who needs Fifa when you have this? Seriously, Fifa 08 did nothing for the Wii. The party mode was a waste of time and I’m glad PES doesn’t condescend to Wii owners as if we’re all a bunch of kids. No offence kids.

Let’s start with the defining feature of PES Wii and how it’s changed football games on the console forever. When I heard about the control scheme I was initially sceptical. How was pointing at the screen and moving players realistic? But then again, how is tapping some buttons realistic?

PES Wii takes a step back and uses a team led approach. Rather than controlling just one player you can direct multiple players simultaneously. The controls are strange at first but simple. When you’re on the ball you click and drag the player in the direction you want to go. You can also use the analogue stick but this is limited to jogging. Usually when using the click and drag system the analogue stick acts as various skill techniques etc depending on the direction you push. Click and drag works extremely well, it’s very responsive and allows you to point exactly where you want to go. At the same time you can select players off of the ball and, using the same click and drag system, direct them to move into space.

This is one of the highlights of the game and it completely changed the way you think about football as well as the way you play. The matches suddenly become a lot more tactile, choosing your passes carefully and waiting for the precise moment to unleash your deadly through ball rather than just blistering down the sidelines. (Although that is still an option). You can choose to manually move a player into space or as you’re dragging the player in possession you can also click B in any space and the nearest player will move to intercept. However, this is not always as effective. One-two passes are also available. This is done via the same method but without letting go of the A button. The system is great for deceiving the opposition but making runs to pull away defenders or sending players surging into the box as you send in a cross.

These elements are the best parts of PES Wii because at any moment your defence, or the opponents, can be ripped apart. In that way it is much more like real football – a goal can come out of nowhere. There is one minor gripe about the controls in Pro Evo and that’s the defensive side. There are no real options for defending. As with attacking you take a team approach selecting players to man mark or dragging them to cover vulnerable areas. However, this style of defending is too indirect. The players feel slow and sluggish when it comes to tackling giving an unfair advantage to the attacking team. Of course, the same applies to the opposition when you’re attacking but nonetheless it slightly dampens the achievements by Konami on the control front. In ‘panicky’ situations where your own box is flooded with players it becomes very difficult to take hold of one player to make a tackle. Instead you’re left attempting to man mark every player in the hope you can get close enough to execute a slide tackle. The slide tackles themselves are fine (done by holding Z and shaking the nunchuck) but it’s getting close enough that’s the problem. Hopefully Konami will address this by taking a more direct approach or making the AI of the defenders that bit more intelligent in the next version.

That said there are hardly any other issues. Besides, attack is the best form of defence. Everything else is pretty straightforward once you get used to it. Shooting is done by shaking the nunchuck or the wii-mote to perform a chip. It may seem clumsy but considering how much you need to concentrate elsewhere on the pitch…it makes sense. The training mode is nicely designed easing players into the new control scheme with a good learning curve. Once you know the basics it is up to you to implement the new system and make it work. I.e. it’s down to your own skill, sweat and blood…but mostly sweat.

The initial training mode teaches you the basics. After this you must start the Champions Road mode to learn new tips and tricks. This mode is what will keep you coming back. You pick either a team like ‘Man Red’ (guess they still don’t have the licenses), pick a made up team and edit the kit etc or start from scratch. Not having licensed teams has no bearing on the game at all – as soon as you start playing you’ll forget which team you are anyway. In Champions Road the idea is simple: Enter the tournaments and leagues, win them, unlock more tournaments around the world and win those.

Along the way your players attributes increase with experience. Once their ‘bar’ has filled up you can allocate new experience points in basic skills or special skills. You also have a great degree of control over player positions and formations. Using the wii-mote you can ‘grab’ the player caricatures and move them into the desired position. This allows for greater control of your team’s tactics and style of play. As well as this, when you beat a team you can add some of their players to your team. You do not know which player you’ve picked until you choose one but it’s an interesting way of building up your squad. You’ve just thrashed your opponents and now you rub salt into the wound by nabbing their best players – nice! As you progress different missions become available to complete in each match such as ‘Complete 3 short passes’ or ‘Have 10 shots on target’. By completing these you earn the right to pick more players from beaten opponents, choosing players of higher ability (based on a star rating) and more.

The online mode, while basic, works perfectly. As with most other online games for Wii you can choose either a friend match or a free match with random opponents. In my online matches there was no lag at all. The only problem I had was within 30 seconds I had a player sent off, went down two goals, and came back by two only to have my keeper sent off. Made the match interesting though. There are no league tables or ranking systems here. As a result you lose the competitive reason to return online but if you’re no good then it’s nice not to have to bother with it all. However, I do think Konami should include this feature next time round. There is also normal match mode in which you can compete with the computer or a friend.

The graphics of this game are mixed. It’s obviously not as good as its hi-def cousins but overall it’s okay. Player models are good, well animated but perhaps a little scary. It seems all the players have an abnormal amount of freckles and wrinkles. The opening sequences and stadiums are well animated. The pitch is as you’d expect…green; but suffers from some bizarre texture issues which appear in replays mostly. I have no idea what it is, whether it only occurs on an HDTV or what. All in all there’s nothing special here. But as I said before, none of it matters once you start playing.

Konami have done a great job here. Finally someone else has bothered to put the Wii’s functions to good use and implement them. After a few games it feels natural to play this way and I wouldn’t go back to a traditional pad/control scheme. In fact that would feel weird now. A few minor gripes here and there but these don’t detract from the experience at all. Definitely buy this game if you’re a footie fan – if you aren’t you’d still enjoy it. I’m sure future iterations will improve on an already great game.

9/10