For long periods of time, FIFA was the go-to football game among my friends and family. But there was a time, in the mid 00’s, where Pro Evolution Soccer (or PES, or Pro Evo) reigned supreme.
From PES 4, through 5 and 6, to finally 2008’s jump to PS3, we played it pretty much non-stop. Even now my brother and best mate will make very specific references to particular commentary, songs, or players. It’s safe to say it left a mark on us.
But I had to pick one entry to write about, so it’s 2008.
Firstly, there’s this –
An absolute banger I’m sure you’ll agree. Better…better better better!
Through these PES entries the three of us latched onto National teams; Spain for Ben and Netherlands for Jake, whilst I took Argentina. History be damned, we got fully on board with these teams, learning about the players, supporting them in tournaments, and even buying shirts.
I became a big fan of CMF Lucho González, his versatility and strength supporting my favoured 4-4-2 wide diamond formation. He never looked tired, despite repeated comments to the contrary from Jon Champion and Mark Lawrenson. What a player! Id be gutted if he was on a down-blue.
I should probably explain that. Once you chose your team, you’d go through to team setup. Here you’d see the squad, and next to them an arrow. Red/yellow/green/blue/grey. As the colour changes, so does the direction of the arrow. The arrow indicates that player’s form. So seeing a grey arrow, pointing straight down, meant you weren’t realistically using that player.
We all knew each other’s favourites, so we’d be on the lookout as soon we saw the form arrows for the players in each game. To find Lucho on a down-grey or down-blue arrow was utterly demoralizing. Messi on a red (we only mentioned direction when discussing worse form for some reason) was ridiculous. Multiple red form players would provide a noticeable boost to stats, and often a nice dose of positivity in mindset too.
The actual gameplay was fairly arcadey in its feel. Through balls were king, though cutting in from the wing was cool too. Fortunately, things had moved on from FIFA 2001’s nailed on method of bicycle kicks from crosses. There wasn’t a tonne of variety, but it moved quickly and encouraged aggressive play. Which is exactly what you want with your mates, even if the odd time you got completely hammered and still hear about it years later.
Most of the games I write about in this feature are also legitimately strong, well-respected games. PES 2008 is not one of those games. But the mixture of mechanics, music, and menus, plus love affairs with random teams, means it’s Super Duper to us.
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