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So, I went ahead and got myself some Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 for my Wii. The port to Nintendo's new console was released on March, so Alt+Games is right on schedule when it comes to new footie games on Wii (see the Fifa 2008 feature here). Konami has preserved the basic engine of PES 2008 but has revamped the whole in-game (and menu) user interface to provide a different kind of play experience for the Wii people. And I have to say I like it. Even though it really isn't comparable to PES for any other machine.
Graphics look very much like they do in the PC version of the game. The UI is completely redone. Yes, you can move the player with the control stick, but everything else is different. For me, the UI resembles more a real-time strategy game like StarCraft or Dune 2 than a sports game: you have a cursor (the Wiimote pointer) with which you can make pin-point passes (to team-mates or to an empty space) and you can also drag your team-mates to make runs etc. Defending is done in the same way; you point and click opponents to man-mark them and drag your players to cover runs.
It takes a while to get a grip of this mode of controlling your team but once you learn it, the experience is quite pleasant. Especially being able to target a pass and order a team-mate to make a run towards the target point of the pass by pointing and holding down the Wiimote's B button is a marvelous thing. You feel like you are more in control of the whole team's tactic, especially in attack but also in defence, because you can try to man-mark the players that are in good positions. I imagine you could even try different types of defences, pressing the ballhandler or hanging back and trying to eliminate all forward passing lanes and dribble penetration.
There are also drawbacks. PES 2008 on Wii is strictly a one or two player game as you are able to control the entire team at once. Also to me the shooting mechanism is worse on Wii than on PC and PlayStation versions. You flick the nunchuk to shoot and there's no difference in the way you do it, the computer determines the quality of the shot by the skills of the player. This seems to result in fewer goals from long range efforts. I've also heard that defending is very much more difficult and yes, the goals seem to be racking up although I haven't played that many games yet.
As the gameplay is totally different from the other versions, I see much potential in the PES line for Wii. And as for the controls, you have to wonder if Konami already has plans to make a similar game for the Nintendo DS as the touch screen could easily do what the Wiimote does in the Wii version. However, this year's version probably isn't that well polished and balanced so this game did not really blow my mind as hard as PES 3 did a couple of years back. I predict that PES 2009 for Wii will be the Next Big Thing for computer football (aka soccer) games.
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