The "Retro Game Reviews" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
This thread has been linked to the game 'Pro Evolution Soccer 2008'.
It would be fair to say that, to date, developers have been somewhat lazy in implementing wii controls into their games, merely replacing a button press with a waggle, or producing carbon copies of Nintendo's own initial efforts. Konami could easily have had you control movements with the stick, and flick it instead of press a button to pass, it would have been lazy, but expected. Thankfully they had the balls (somewhat appropriately, being a football game...) to make ProEvo different. You're using the wiimote and nunchuck as Nintendo would have hoped - controlling the play in a way you simply couldn't on any other platform.
Let me explain the basics of it. When you have the ball, you hold down the 'A' button, and use the wiimote as a pointing, directing where you want the player to go. With this, you can control his direction, and speed. To pass the ball, you point, on the screen, to where you want to pass to, and press 'B'. To shoot, you swing the nunchuck. The game forces you into a tutorial when you first start, and by the time you've completed 5 basic actions, it starts to feel natural.
But it's not until you start to play a game that you see the true benefits. See, whilst you have a player running, you can point to another player, and drag him into space, then pass the ball through. You feel as though you're manipulating players in a way never before possible - certainly not with as much ease, anyway. When defending you can mark up players by clicking on them, try to intercept passes - you really feel as though you are in control of a whole team, rather than a bunch of individuals.
It's an absolute thrill to play, it feels unique, and yet quickly, so natural. Playing against the wii, there are 5 difficulty levels, and with the basics you can compete at the third level. When you ramp it up to 'professional' you've got to really turn it on to get anywhere. The opposition will intercept the obvious passes, they'll attack with more fluidity, and you'll have to adapt to controlling a couple of players in quick succession - get the ball, run into space, start another player on a run, and knock the ball through. There's such a feeling of satisfaction when you split the defence and find yourself one on one with the keeper.
But the game's not without its faults. Swinging the nunchuck to shoot, feels somewhat hit and miss (quite literally, in fact...). I never felt like I had control of where the ball was going to go, or the power behind it - maybe I haven't mastered this yet, but it still feel that in further editions of the game this would be tidied up.
The graphics are nothing special, certainly not much better than you would have seen on the GameCube, you still get the feeling that developers aren't paying much attention to what the wii can do graphically, and are happy to use last gen models, because it's not up to PS3/Xbox360 standards. Sound-wise, it's fine, nothing to complain about. Apart from Lawro. It's just like watching football on the BBC, with his inane comments.
There are online options, and plenty of leagues and cups to play through (though you'll have to give the Premier League teams their proper names) and Joe Cole's not in the England squad, which was a bit of a puzzle, but the presentation, and options on the whole are decent. You can tinker with formations, change line-ups etc as you'd expect.
One more thing which deserves a mention - you can unlock the option to play games using mii characters, with big heads. I don't think I've ever seen anything as funny in a football game as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air's Uncle Phil scoring with a diving header. It's a novelty option, but its a good laugh.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 comes highly recommended, especially for those that have been waiting to see something truly different on the wii, and all those that appreciate a good game of football. Great fun.
Let me explain the basics of it. When you have the ball, you hold down the 'A' button, and use the wiimote as a pointing, directing where you want the player to go. With this, you can control his direction, and speed. To pass the ball, you point, on the screen, to where you want to pass to, and press 'B'. To shoot, you swing the nunchuck. The game forces you into a tutorial when you first start, and by the time you've completed 5 basic actions, it starts to feel natural.
But it's not until you start to play a game that you see the true benefits. See, whilst you have a player running, you can point to another player, and drag him into space, then pass the ball through. You feel as though you're manipulating players in a way never before possible - certainly not with as much ease, anyway. When defending you can mark up players by clicking on them, try to intercept passes - you really feel as though you are in control of a whole team, rather than a bunch of individuals.
It's an absolute thrill to play, it feels unique, and yet quickly, so natural. Playing against the wii, there are 5 difficulty levels, and with the basics you can compete at the third level. When you ramp it up to 'professional' you've got to really turn it on to get anywhere. The opposition will intercept the obvious passes, they'll attack with more fluidity, and you'll have to adapt to controlling a couple of players in quick succession - get the ball, run into space, start another player on a run, and knock the ball through. There's such a feeling of satisfaction when you split the defence and find yourself one on one with the keeper.
But the game's not without its faults. Swinging the nunchuck to shoot, feels somewhat hit and miss (quite literally, in fact...). I never felt like I had control of where the ball was going to go, or the power behind it - maybe I haven't mastered this yet, but it still feel that in further editions of the game this would be tidied up.
The graphics are nothing special, certainly not much better than you would have seen on the GameCube, you still get the feeling that developers aren't paying much attention to what the wii can do graphically, and are happy to use last gen models, because it's not up to PS3/Xbox360 standards. Sound-wise, it's fine, nothing to complain about. Apart from Lawro. It's just like watching football on the BBC, with his inane comments.
There are online options, and plenty of leagues and cups to play through (though you'll have to give the Premier League teams their proper names) and Joe Cole's not in the England squad, which was a bit of a puzzle, but the presentation, and options on the whole are decent. You can tinker with formations, change line-ups etc as you'd expect.
One more thing which deserves a mention - you can unlock the option to play games using mii characters, with big heads. I don't think I've ever seen anything as funny in a football game as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air's Uncle Phil scoring with a diving header. It's a novelty option, but its a good laugh.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 comes highly recommended, especially for those that have been waiting to see something truly different on the wii, and all those that appreciate a good game of football. Great fun.
Thank you. It's a very enjoyable game, still playing daily, still improving - the fact that even after a month I'm still improving goes to show either - a) how much room there is to develop in this game or b) how slow I am...
Well done on the GAD!
Its a really good game, by the end of 4 or 5 games you feel knackered enough to of actually played a real game lol only thing in my opinion that lets the game down is the fact that you cannot updates the squads or players appearances like in every other version of the game. So you cant update all the transfers.
As am I, pb :)
Good review.
Good review.
Nice review Mr Dragon. Despite not being a football fan, I'm toying with the idea of getting this anyway.
It would be fair to say that, to date, developers have been somewhat lazy in implementing wii controls into their games, merely replacing a button press with a waggle, or producing carbon copies of Nintendo's own initial efforts. Konami could easily have had you control movements with the stick, and flick it instead of press a button to pass, it would have been lazy, but expected. Thankfully they had the balls (somewhat appropriately, being a football game...) to make ProEvo different. You're using the wiimote and nunchuck as Nintendo would have hoped - controlling the play in a way you simply couldn't on any other platform.
Let me explain the basics of it. When you have the ball, you hold down the 'A' button, and use the wiimote as a pointing, directing where you want the player to go. With this, you can control his direction, and speed. To pass the ball, you point, on the screen, to where you want to pass to, and press 'B'. To shoot, you swing the nunchuck. The game forces you into a tutorial when you first start, and by the time you've completed 5 basic actions, it starts to feel natural.
But it's not until you start to play a game that you see the true benefits. See, whilst you have a player running, you can point to another player, and drag him into space, then pass the ball through. You feel as though you're manipulating players in a way never before possible - certainly not with as much ease, anyway. When defending you can mark up players by clicking on them, try to intercept passes - you really feel as though you are in control of a whole team, rather than a bunch of individuals.
It's an absolute thrill to play, it feels unique, and yet quickly, so natural. Playing against the wii, there are 5 difficulty levels, and with the basics you can compete at the third level. When you ramp it up to 'professional' you've got to really turn it on to get anywhere. The opposition will intercept the obvious passes, they'll attack with more fluidity, and you'll have to adapt to controlling a couple of players in quick succession - get the ball, run into space, start another player on a run, and knock the ball through. There's such a feeling of satisfaction when you split the defence and find yourself one on one with the keeper.
But the game's not without its faults. Swinging the nunchuck to shoot, feels somewhat hit and miss (quite literally, in fact...). I never felt like I had control of where the ball was going to go, or the power behind it - maybe I haven't mastered this yet, but it still feel that in further editions of the game this would be tidied up.
The graphics are nothing special, certainly not much better than you would have seen on the GameCube, you still get the feeling that developers aren't paying much attention to what the wii can do graphically, and are happy to use last gen models, because it's not up to PS3/Xbox360 standards. Sound-wise, it's fine, nothing to complain about. Apart from Lawro. It's just like watching football on the BBC, with his inane comments.
There are online options, and plenty of leagues and cups to play through (though you'll have to give the Premier League teams their proper names) and Joe Cole's not in the England squad, which was a bit of a puzzle, but the presentation, and options on the whole are decent. You can tinker with formations, change line-ups etc as you'd expect.
One more thing which deserves a mention - you can unlock the option to play games using mii characters, with big heads. I don't think I've ever seen anything as funny in a football game as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air's Uncle Phil scoring with a diving header. It's a novelty option, but its a good laugh.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 comes highly recommended, especially for those that have been waiting to see something truly different on the wii, and all those that appreciate a good game of football. Great fun.
Let me explain the basics of it. When you have the ball, you hold down the 'A' button, and use the wiimote as a pointing, directing where you want the player to go. With this, you can control his direction, and speed. To pass the ball, you point, on the screen, to where you want to pass to, and press 'B'. To shoot, you swing the nunchuck. The game forces you into a tutorial when you first start, and by the time you've completed 5 basic actions, it starts to feel natural.
But it's not until you start to play a game that you see the true benefits. See, whilst you have a player running, you can point to another player, and drag him into space, then pass the ball through. You feel as though you're manipulating players in a way never before possible - certainly not with as much ease, anyway. When defending you can mark up players by clicking on them, try to intercept passes - you really feel as though you are in control of a whole team, rather than a bunch of individuals.
It's an absolute thrill to play, it feels unique, and yet quickly, so natural. Playing against the wii, there are 5 difficulty levels, and with the basics you can compete at the third level. When you ramp it up to 'professional' you've got to really turn it on to get anywhere. The opposition will intercept the obvious passes, they'll attack with more fluidity, and you'll have to adapt to controlling a couple of players in quick succession - get the ball, run into space, start another player on a run, and knock the ball through. There's such a feeling of satisfaction when you split the defence and find yourself one on one with the keeper.
But the game's not without its faults. Swinging the nunchuck to shoot, feels somewhat hit and miss (quite literally, in fact...). I never felt like I had control of where the ball was going to go, or the power behind it - maybe I haven't mastered this yet, but it still feel that in further editions of the game this would be tidied up.
The graphics are nothing special, certainly not much better than you would have seen on the GameCube, you still get the feeling that developers aren't paying much attention to what the wii can do graphically, and are happy to use last gen models, because it's not up to PS3/Xbox360 standards. Sound-wise, it's fine, nothing to complain about. Apart from Lawro. It's just like watching football on the BBC, with his inane comments.
There are online options, and plenty of leagues and cups to play through (though you'll have to give the Premier League teams their proper names) and Joe Cole's not in the England squad, which was a bit of a puzzle, but the presentation, and options on the whole are decent. You can tinker with formations, change line-ups etc as you'd expect.
One more thing which deserves a mention - you can unlock the option to play games using mii characters, with big heads. I don't think I've ever seen anything as funny in a football game as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air's Uncle Phil scoring with a diving header. It's a novelty option, but its a good laugh.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 comes highly recommended, especially for those that have been waiting to see something truly different on the wii, and all those that appreciate a good game of football. Great fun.