Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 PSP Review

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 is the latest in a long line of football Sims by Konami.
Whilst not the biggest fan of the beautiful game itself, I was intrigued to see what it was about the Pro Evo series that has kept people hooked all this time. It was time for to leave my pre-judgements at the door and see if I can enjoy a game of football. A challenge I initially thought I would find quite difficult.

As you start your game you are asked to set up your friend card, so if you are playing other players over the PSP’s Wireless mode, they can see all of your stats. This is where it hit me that Football is a man’s world. There was no option to create a female friend card so I ended up with quite a feminine looking man called Sarah. Whilst I accept the fact that the vast majority of Pro Evo players are going to be male, and the players themselves are male, would it have been too difficult to include the option to choose to be a female on your friend card? Apparently so.

Once you have done this, you then move onto the main menu where you are hit with options on how to play. I was actually quite impressed at the amount of choices you have. UEFA Champions League Match pits you versus the computer with any two teams of your choosing, Legends enables you to play casual matches with your friends in Ad Hoc mode, Become a Legend mode places you in charge of one player and its up to you to play as him and transfer teams, Master League enables you to form a team out of people you can transfer, while League and Cup modes let you participate in a season or tournament with your desired team. This is a lot of choice; a frightening amount of choice for a football newcomer!

I decided to play it safe and head for the UEFA Champions League. Once I had chosen this mode I was then hit with more options: Competition – guide your favourite team to victory, Exhibition – a 1 off match against the computer and Ad Hoc – play your friends in the UEFA Champions League. I chose Competition and then got the choice of whether I wanted to load previous data, start fresh or receive Playstation 2 data.

The last option struck me as a little odd, surely being Pro Evo 2010, the option to receive data would be receive Playstation 3 data? Or is the PS3 not compatible with the PSP? Either way, if you have bought the Playstation 3 version to play at home and the PSP version to play out and about in the hope you can transfer your data over, you can’t; sorry about that.

Once you have decided what you’re doing, you are then able to choose your team. There is a huge choice from your usual household names, Manchester United and Liverpool, to more exotic choices from Spanish leagues and French leagues. Again choosing to play it safe I went for Man U! You are then given yet more options for your match such as match timings, whether injuries are on or not and what type of football you want to use. Once this is done it’s on to the game itself.

You are given your line up of matches. There are 5 fixtures, with each fixture featuring 16 matches. After these there is then the final fixture with an additional 16 matches. That makes 96 matches in the entire UEFA Champions League. You’re going to be at this for a while! Luckily there is the option to save and quit after every match so you won’t have to sit there and play strait through.

The game itself is actually pretty straight forward; if you are reading this review I am assuming that you already know the concept and major rules behind football itself. If not, in short, grab the ball, run up to the other end of the pitch and bang the ball into the opponent’s goal. Simple.

Starting with the initial pass, you must do everything you can to get that ball into the net. By ways of running, tackling, dribbling, passing and shooting, you aim to outsmart your opponent and score the goal.  The opposition AI is surprisingly good though; gone are the times when running madly up the centre of the pitch and shooting got you the goal 9 times out of 10, now opponents are smarter and more interested in getting the ball off you. That being said, in beginners difficulty I won 8-0 first time by using the run like hell tactic! It has to be said though that higher difficulty levels have cottoned on to this strategy.

Controlling what’s happening on the pitch is very easy - you automatically control the nearest player to the ball. So when the opponent dribbles past the player you were controlling and comes into close proximity of your next player you assume control.
Tackling is done by running into the player with the ball, once you have control you are able to just keep running, pass to another player or shoot if you are close enough to make it worthwhile.

It all sounds incredibly simple right? But that is the beauty of it. Simple controls allow you to immerse yourself in the game. When you’re not worrying about which button does what you are able to enjoy the game more and I must say I found myself getting quite into some of the games.

Helping you to get into the atmosphere further are chanting crowds, advertising boards and the fantastic commentary of Jon Champion and Mark Lawrenson. The commentary really makes you feel part of the game and is absolutely spot on when keeping track of everything as it is happening.

Graphically everything looks well… like a football game! Its not winning any prizes for up to date fantastic graphics, but then again, it doesn’t have to. It’s all there: pitch, players, ball, crowd and it all looks ok. Not the best, but certainly not the worst.  The intro movies are pretty good though, nice graphics with a good selection of licensed music to accompany.

I was surprised to see songs from All American Rejects and The Chemical Brothers make an appearance in the start menu I must admit, but it does add to the atmosphere the game tries to create.

All in all Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 is a fantastic game for hardcore football fans, but an equally fun game for the less dedicated footie player. It plays very nicely, mainly due to its simplicity and it can be a lot of fun. The atmosphere is there and you do get immersed in it all with the help of some authentic touches i.e. commentary and fan’s singing. If you want to play football on the go then this is the game for you.