Let me first off say, like many gamers I know and friends in my life, I’m not a football fan, I have been raised in a football loving family but i never was a fan and I doubt I ever will be. Which is a damn hard thing to say in a family of football fanatics and retired players. I don’t like the way the sport has changed over the years, where men are made into gods and cry after scrapping a knee. It doesn’t mean I don’t know about football (I wont be able to list the top 10 players in the world but I know what offside means), and it definitely doesn’t mean I wont support England at the World Cup. But as a sport, I prefer things with a little more action.

Now, with that said football games are in a odd grey area in my game collection. Much like other sports titles, the yearly iteration of updated player rosters, some kind of new animations and better facial movements when falling over don’t really interest me. I’d rather pay for the £10 sports title from last year which is pretty damn similar to the new version. There are exceptions to my trail of thinking, these are controls, online player, game mode additions (which are actually useful) and wrestling games (as updated character rosters usually mean new moves). Luckily Pro Evolution Football 2008 on the Wii ticks almost all these boxes for me to be interested (it unfortunately doesn’t have wrestlers).

Its taken the basic game and formed around the Wii’s strong point, Different and more involving controls. I’ve played the latest Pro Evolution game on the 360 and personally, it lacks control depth at a basic level, the Wii version is supremely different offering what I could only describe to some degree as an management perspective.

Where most sports games let you control the man with the ball/puck/important thing, Pro Evolution lets you control men off the ball in addition to the man on the ball. Working similar to a RTS, you first tell the lad with the ball where you want him to go (that’s usually to the other goal then) this is done by pointing at the screen and clicking on their destination. While they are moving to that position you can select other team mates to join him in a run, maybe get a man on the wing to run ahead of him to pass the ball in a free area, and another behind him in case someone manages to hassle the ball away from him. Strategy is key and its all with simple clicks of the Wiimote and not at the cost of the games pace.

When it comes to getting up to the goal, the game gives you the basic control of flicking the nun-chuck. That’s it. Players stats then calculate if he will be on target, which foot he will kick with and if hes smart enough to beat the keeper. It all works really nicely and makes its simple for people new to football games (such as myself) able to jump right in. I really do have to commend Konami for these controls, they have taken the IR of the Wiimote and focused on it til it was perfect. Not just 3rd parties need to take note here, Nintendo could learn a thing or two as well.

Aside from the best controls this side of the universe, the game has several different modes to choose from, Champions Road being the main bulk of the single player game which lets you take a team through different tournaments with a team, letting your players skills improve while gaining additional players to use, its nothing amazing, but it gives the player an easy to access football tournament segment which lets you alter smaller pieces of the game like formations, line ups and players while not making you worry about bigger issues like salary, fans, character profiles (happy/sad players) and training.

The game doesn’t disappoint when it comes to multiplayer either having local and online play available. While local can sometimes suffer slightly from lag (depending on where your foe is playing from comes in to play obviously) then main issue with it is the lack of people wanting to play. This isn’t a problem if you already have friends to have a few matches with but beware people just looking to play a random Brazilian. Other than those two minor gripes online play is every bit as good as local play,  I only wish i couldn’t see the opponents reticule on-screen.

Closing Comments
While the game play isn’t anything new (well what can be made new in football?) the controls are unrivaled in their brilliance and i hope will become a mainstay for this series and several others. The inclusion of online play is not only a godsend but another worthy reason to buy the title not to mention Nintendo WFC player trading, online friend stat tracking/cup progress and the use of Mii’s as players makes this one of the Wii’s essential purchases even for the football fan novice.

Score - 9.1

+ Controls are perfect
+ Large amount of modes
+ Jump-in style game play
+ Online mode and features work well

- More team customisation would of been nice
- Graphics are a little on the poor side
- More Mii features please!