PES and move

The big rivalry with modern football games is between EA's FIFA games and Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series. While PES was once considered the hardcore fan fave, the general consensus for the last few years has been that EA's fully licensed franchise has eaten into its lead. With last winter's new releases the tables turned altogether, seeing FIFA 09 leapfrogging PES into first place like a late-blooming Liverpool team on a last gasp title charge.

Free-flowing

The big exception was last year's Wii release, which eschewed typical joypad control for a system based on the console's infared pointer capabilities. The result was a control scheme of almost overwhelming complexity which took some getting used to – but which, with time, made for some of the most realistic, free-flowing football we'd ever seen.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 for Wii continues that trend, albeit with a few tweaks and refinements that set it apart from last year's effort. Not least of these is the option to turn the Wiimote on its side and play PES 2009 Wii like a normal footy game. However, to get the most out of it, you'll want to stick with the now tried and tested Wii-specific method.

You control your players in Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 Wii with a combination of Nunhcuk and control stick. Moving a pointer about the screens selects players, who you can move with the analogue stick, or alternatively by holding A and moving the pointer about the pitch to make them sprint. In possession, B passes to wherever your pointer is aimed, allowing fully-integrated analogue passing that you simply wouldn't get on Xbox and PS3. Likewise for shooting, which is done by shaking the Nunchuk, or for a lobbed, by shaking the Wii Remote.

The benefits of the PES Wii control scheme are clear after just a few minutes. Players intelligently overlap, run into space, and flood forward in their droves, allowing you to put together slick flowing moves, passing into space and running rings around the computer opposition. With that mastered, you'll want to learn the more advanced controls, like holding Z whilst passing and manually playing a one-two, knocking the ball further ahead of you by holding the control stick up while you're doing an A button pull-dribble.

Attack attack attack!

The big drawback, as with PES Wii 2008, is that it's all still weighted more towards attacking than it is defending. Player A.I., while perfectly at home overlapping down the wing or bursting through the middle to collect a nicely-weighted through ball, has far more issues placing defenders where you'd want them to be, and the lack of any real skill in timing your tackles is somewhat jarring next to the intricate possibilities at the other end of the pitch. It'll often come down to shaking the Nunchuk furiously, hoping your defenders will clear it.

The good news is that it makes for frantic, fast-paced end-to-end footy in which you can expect gloriously high scorelines. The bad news is that only the highest difficulty will offer any real challenge against the computer – making PES 2009 on Wii more weighted to multiplayer than single play.

It's fortunate then that PES 2009, like its forebear, features such great online play. Yes, there's that somewhat annoying (especially if you're an Xbox Live fan) Friend Code issue, but there's also the option to play against random players as well – and of course, there's the always-rewarding same-screen multiplayer mode. However, there's a particularly big irony here; PES on the next-gen systems is famed for its pick-up-and-play nature, while FIFA is regarded the more intricate tactical simulation. If anything, PES 2009 Wii has the same end-to-end nature as its joypad counterpart, but the complex controls make its multiplayer mode more suited to two out-and-out experts.

Point and pass

Elsewhere we've got the same issues presented by the releases last year: not all of the teams have licenses; the general presentation is sub-FIFA; and deadline day transfers have been ignored, so Robbie Keane is still (painfully) at Liverpool. That said, the Champion's League license is a nice touch, and the Wii exclusive Champion's Road mode, where you build a team, win players from the opposition, develop a Mii, and aim to finish the season as champs, is well done and reasonably deep with it.

In all, PES 2009 Wii is a different enough game to the next-gen console versions to be worth a shot, while the general improvements in A.I. and control make it worth going for over last year's edition. It's a little imbalanced, and definitely an attacker's game, but if free-flowing, high-scoring, point-and-pass soccer fun is what you're after, there's really not much else like it.

GAME's Verdict

• At its best, PES 2009 Wii offers the most flowing game of pass-and-move footy around.
• Great online play.
• You can always turn the Wiimote on its side or plug in a GameCube/Classic pad if you really can't click with the controls.

• Complex point-and-click controls take some getting used to.
• Not as immediately pick-up-and-play in multiplayer as the joypad-based versions.
• Presentation is pretty basic.

Review by: Mark 'Midfield Maestro' Scott
Version Tested: Wii
Review Published: 03.04.09