Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

One touch silky smooth gameplay

I have to admit that I'm a Pro Evo addict. In fact, that's the primary reason that this review has taken so long to write, as I've been playing too much Be a Legend mode on Pro Evo 2009 (btw for all those people who think they stole this mode from Fifa, think again, as it's been in the Japanese version of Pro Evo - Winning Eleven - for a while now).

There's no Be a Legend mode on the mobile game unfortunately, but there is one very good attribute that previous versions have lacked. Bluetooth gameplay. That's right folks, you can now play PES 2009 on mobile against your mate on mobile through Bluetooth. How cool is that? Well, to find out, we managed to head down to Glu's inaugural PES 2009 mobile tournament. Ok, well, the tournament never got officially underway, but we did get a chance to check out the bluetooth functionality and it's pretty decent.

Admittedly it can take a little bit of time to join a match someone is hosting but I think that was down to how many people were in the immediate vicinity with their phones on. Once you've joined, pick your teams and off you go. The gameplay is pretty slick and Glu have given you a few options of control systems. You can have the standard controls which involves different buttons for shoot, pass or through ball. Or you can play the very easy one touch button mode, where the main button or 5 does everything. Well, almost everything, as you can't do a fake shot here, but that'a about it.

In fact the only thing lacking from the controls I would say, would be the absence of a skill button. Your player can still pull of skills if you change direction at an angle, but it's more of an animation than being controlled directly through user input. All the other moves are there though, run, pass, through ball and even a fake shot. Cool huh? And as you can use only one button, that allows from some very nice and crisp gameplay.

The game itself plays pretty fast for a phone game. Passing is quick, and usually accurate. Shots are quite a law unto themselves, as you can put a lot of curve and dip on the ball. So shots from distance become easier to score, and the ball physics have been well designed. Once you get the hang of the running and dribbling you may find it a bit easy to score. Two to three quick passes and your forward may be through on goal to unleash a curling shot into the top corner.

There are plenty of modes too, leagues, cup competitions and a challenge mode. Replays are not saveable, but I do find myself watching them if I've put together a good move (and getting my colleagues to watch them too). All the teams are in there from both a national and club team perspective. Konami and Glu have managed to get a license for all the players somehow. The one drawback here is that the squads are pretty small, and you only get around 6 extra players in the squad. This can be annoying when a few people get injured as cover is sparse.

In addition to this, I came across two slight drawbacks to the game. When the AI is about to receive the ball you may well be pressing 5 to get your player to move towards him. Unfortunately, if the AI misses the ball, the fact you are holding 5 means a long pass bar will build up. I never thought I would say this about a mobile version of PES but a cancel button would work really well here as it does in the console equivalent. The other slightly annoying this is that if you are running towards goal, often the pass selected (yellow arrow above your player) seems to be behind you. This is a bit weird and to combat it, you have to be running towards the player you want to pass to, effectively "pointing" at him. Or you could wait until they show up on screen and pass to them then. These two are minor gripes as you quickly get used to the free flowing gameplay.

There doesn't seem to be anything to unlock in the game, but there are lots of trophies to be won. The real gem to the game, is the bluetooth mode as I mentioned above, and combining this with the decent graphics, slick gamespeed and very controllable shots and you have an addictive hit on your hands.