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IGN Review of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
It's no secret that Pro Evolution Soccer is going through a bit of a rough patch this year. With EA Sports pumping so much money into its perennial footballer, Konami has had a hard time keeping up on consoles. But thanks to the decreased investment required to compete on the portable front, Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 could have a fighting chance.
Just as it was in the console versions, the PSP rendition of Pro Evo features some nice changes to its presentation as well as the all-new Become A Legend mode which actually performs better than in the sixty-dollar releases in most respects. Just as in FIFA's Be A Pro mode, Become A Legend charges you with creating a player from scratch, assigning him a position and a few attribute points and then building him up over time. It's a lengthy exercise and players will certainly enjoy the added pieces to user interface like the arrow indicating proper positioning and assigning special abilities to your footballer.
The only real issue I had with Become A Legend was its camera. It sits a bit closer to the action than it does on consoles and thus has a harder time keeping with the movement of the ball. The camera does swing fluidly but it moves around so much that it can be disorienting at times. There are also instances when a pass will come to you and just as you turn to take the ball up field a defender that you would've seen with a more removed perspective snatches the ball.
The rest of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 plays just as you remember from last year's PSP release. Player movements are a bit rigid, but that's to be expected on this hardware. But in general the action – from the colors to the environments to the player models – simply don't pop the way they manage to in FIFA 09. That said, PES is still a good football engine and it's still rewarding to nail that perfect lob thru ball and bury one in the back of the net. I just would have liked to see a step forward on a grander scale.
One feather in the game's cap that will please those hell-bent on picking up PES 2009 is the inclusion of wireless support for multiplayer. The sign-up process is a bit of a headache – though not as annoying as on PS3 – but once you're online the experience is enjoyable with little lag or slowdown.
It's too bad that Konami didn't flesh out the rest of PES's modes. You'll find the usual exhibition, list of cups and the management-centric Master League that allows you to control every move your team makes. There's also a thinly featured training mode that offers little to no actual training. Toss in Become A Legend and the list of modes has legs, it just so happens that the majority of the gameplay is old hat.
©2008-12-10, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Just as it was in the console versions, the PSP rendition of Pro Evo features some nice changes to its presentation as well as the all-new Become A Legend mode which actually performs better than in the sixty-dollar releases in most respects. Just as in FIFA's Be A Pro mode, Become A Legend charges you with creating a player from scratch, assigning him a position and a few attribute points and then building him up over time. It's a lengthy exercise and players will certainly enjoy the added pieces to user interface like the arrow indicating proper positioning and assigning special abilities to your footballer.
The only real issue I had with Become A Legend was its camera. It sits a bit closer to the action than it does on consoles and thus has a harder time keeping with the movement of the ball. The camera does swing fluidly but it moves around so much that it can be disorienting at times. There are also instances when a pass will come to you and just as you turn to take the ball up field a defender that you would've seen with a more removed perspective snatches the ball.
The rest of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 plays just as you remember from last year's PSP release. Player movements are a bit rigid, but that's to be expected on this hardware. But in general the action – from the colors to the environments to the player models – simply don't pop the way they manage to in FIFA 09. That said, PES is still a good football engine and it's still rewarding to nail that perfect lob thru ball and bury one in the back of the net. I just would have liked to see a step forward on a grander scale.
One feather in the game's cap that will please those hell-bent on picking up PES 2009 is the inclusion of wireless support for multiplayer. The sign-up process is a bit of a headache – though not as annoying as on PS3 – but once you're online the experience is enjoyable with little lag or slowdown.
It's too bad that Konami didn't flesh out the rest of PES's modes. You'll find the usual exhibition, list of cups and the management-centric Master League that allows you to control every move your team makes. There's also a thinly featured training mode that offers little to no actual training. Toss in Become A Legend and the list of modes has legs, it just so happens that the majority of the gameplay is old hat.
©2008-12-10, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved