From Commodore 64 to Amiga to PC, I grew up playing so many different football games. Many of them (and more besides) reached the top of the charts. In the 2000s, though, that was the preserve of just a couple of series, and inevitably I have talked about the rivalry between FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer at length. In doing so, it does feel like I’ve done a bit of an injustice to the latter in presenting so many of its best moments through the lens of a rivalry arc over time.
As we reach the end of the 2000s, that rivalry becomes increasingly one-sided, but I’m going to try to avoid spending long on it. I will briefly point out that Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 being the first multiformat #1 to sell most on PS3 rather than Xbox 360 is both a sign of a console doing slightly better and also indicative of the extent to which PES remained tethered to one line of consoles. I’ll end it there.
Instead… well, again, I have played a lot of football games, and Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 is a really good football game. It plays with a level of detail that earlier eras could only dream of, and plays with it to great effect. You don’t have to get bogged down in too many complications if you don’t want to, but every moment on of your players gets the ball is a moment of decision making and immense possibility. The philosophy is clear from the use of the right analogue stick as a control to manually direct passes with a destination and power up to you. A logical extension of the extremely sensitive shot power controls, it lets you easily go very wrong but gives you the power to pull off some wild moves based on your own skill and perception.
Heightened by the transfer to HD, the game also looks wonderful. The crisply saturated colours and better-than-life stadiums give everything a hyper-real sheen that’s its own perfect fantasy. And in close up replays, with depth of field effects to up the magic, it looks deeply dramatic in a way that outdoes any level of realistic detail. Each rolling video becomes a succession of moments that would each be the pride of a sports photographer. Its the same kind of vision that motivated all those Gran Turismo 5: Prologue photo opps, pulled off at least as well even as it comes off more casually.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 even, and here’s where I get to something the series is not as known for, makes top use of a bit of licensing. It includes the UEFA Champions League, Europe’s premier club competition. This week of all weeks, with the World Cup in Qatar about to start, is not the time to pretend these big organisations and events are a force for positivity or even neutral. UEFA and the Champions League have their own issues — Gazprom sponsorship, anyone?
Watching big Champions League matches for decades, though, it’s hard not to have felt the effect of their superlative bit of branding. Chiefly, their anthem, that bombastic trilingual Handel expansion that accompanies every match and makes its presence felt in this game. Even lining up in Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 as an unofficial North London, a choir belting out “the champions!” gives it an unrivalled sense of occasion. What a wild and silly and beautiful sport, and what a fine video game version of it.
Top of the charts for week ending 18 October 2008:
