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Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 Review
For so long the Pro Evolution series (or Winning Eleven, as it was formerly known in America until last year) has been made in a vacuum. But EA's FIFA franchise has slowly made strides, and is now forcing Konami to acknowledge that it's not the only company capable of making a good soccer game.
Like FIFA, Pro Evo has a Become a Legend mode, where you play as a single player on the pitch trying to achieve international stardom and secure a spot on your national team (including – unlike FIFA – international qualifiers). While this game plays better on the pitch because AI teammates are smarter at taking runs, distributing the ball, and springing others with through balls, it lags behind FIFA in its feedback to the player and the fact that it has a better sim feature while you are on the bench.
The other way this game keeps up with FIFA is with its UEFA Champions League mode, which uses real teams and players to let you recreate the summer tournament in reasonable fidelity. Manchester United and Liverpool are the only officially licensed Premiership clubs, unfortunately.
These additions and the slight graphical uptick mask a game that feels relatively similar to its previous incarnations. Most of the time it's a very smooth, extremely responsive experience, although the animations are dated and the AI can lose its guts when pulling the trigger around the box. With EA hot on its heels, this isn't the time for Konami to lose its resolve.
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