Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer was once the critical darling of video game football, offering a more realistic and in-depth representation of the game as opposed to FIFA’s all style and no substance approach. Since the transition to the HD generation, FIFA has mounted a major comeback while Pro Evolution Soccer has struggled to make use of the more powerful hardware or add any new and meaningful features. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 helps to restore some of the series’ credibility, but Konami has a lot to do before they can reclaim the football crown.

One of the major complaints directed at Konami has been that Pro Evolution Soccer never receives any real new features each year, that the developer focuses too much on evolution, and denies players any serious progress. Honestly, this year’s not a whole lot different, but Konami has at least gone to the effort of including a few new modes to try and lure you away from the helplessly addictive Master League mode. The Champions League is the feature Konami is touting as the most important. It’s a victory for the developer, who has struggled to compete with EA when it comes to official licenses. Also pinched from EA is FIFA’s Be A Pro mode, which has been dubbed Become A Legend, but essentially still involves the process of controlling one player throughout his career, and trying to get him into the record books.

Most PES fans will tell you that Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 was the series’ darkest hour. Konami has heeded the words of the fans, and brought Pro Evolution Soccer 2009’s gameplay back in line with PES6. This results in a slower paced, but ultimately more pleasing game of football. There’s a lot more emphasis on the midfield build-up for your goal opportunities, rather than just tearing down the pitch to lob one over the goalie. The ball itself feels heavier, yet glides effortlessly over the pitch with every pass. While Konami is trying to make its brand of football flow more naturally, Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 still has a tremendously stiff animation system. Archaic animation sequences in tussles and tackles often result in the computer controlled players running off with the ball while your guys are stuck in animation cycles over which you have no control. While FIFA has some similar issues, it’s much more pronounced in this game.

This year’s game still feels much the same as the Pro Evolution Soccer of years past. While the game has a solid foundation, we have to face the facts; there hasn’t been any serious innovation in the series since Pro Evolution Soccer 3, which came out over five years ago. The fact that the HD generation title still feels like the PS2/Xbox version running in a higher resolution is pretty insulting to the consumer. Konami really needs to produce a new gameplay engine which incorporates the best existing elements of the series, but provides for a more dynamic gameplay experience with a significant graphical upgrade.

Licenses still remain a major weakpoint of the Pro Evolution Series. Konami has expanded their efforts to include more teams and leagues, but they’re still unable to secure names for some of the more popular clubs, particularly those from England. Many of the real players are included on their respective squads, and the Edit Mode lets you straighten everything else out, but it’s still a bit of an annoyance. Konami claims that they will provide free content updates to ensure that recent transfers are reflected in the game’s rosters, though none were available at the time of review.

As mentioned before, one license that didn’t slip through Konami’s grubby little mitts is the UEFA Champions League. Due to license restrictions (and the fact that the Champions League license isn’t exhaustive), only thirteen of the teams that competed in the competition are available. On the upside, Konami ups the ante on the presentation for the Champions’ League mode with all sorts of fancy replays, video packages and such. Realistically, from a gameplay perspective, it’s really just another tournament, something that Pro Evolution Soccer already has many of.

Most players will spend the majority of their time with Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 in the Master League mode. The process is the same as always; take a team that’s filled with rather average players (the same ones as always), and try to build it up into a more powerful squad. There have only been minor changes to Master League this year, the most notable of which is the way transfers are handled. Negotiations are on a two-tier basis, with both the club and the player needing to be satisfied before the transfer will go ahead. Star players tend to be fussy and won’t join your club if you’re in the second division, but developing a team of young talent can work to your advantage in those early stages.

Become A Legend is this year’s major new play mode, though it is really just an enhanced version of the Fix mode from older games in the series. You take control of one player of your own creation and guide him through the various stages of his career at both the club and international level. If you’ve got an Xbox Live Vision camera, you can snap a picture of your mug and stick it on the player, though the results are ghastly, since it just pastes the picture over the player’s face in a most unflattering fashion. While the mode has been implemented in such a way as to match the Be A Pro mode offered by FIFA 09, the presentation of the mode, and the way in which your player’s progress is handled is just nowhere near as good as EA’s offering. There’s no guidance as to what your role in the match should be, no indication of where you should be on the field, and no feedback on your performance. It feels really half-baked.

Online modes are just as cumbersome and unflattering as they were in previous years thanks to heightened degrees of lag and Konami’s hopeless online infrastructure. On a positive note, the Become A Legend mode expands to the online arena as Legends play, where you and three friends can each control a single player on the field. It’s not quite as robust as FIFA 09’s 10 on 10 play, but it is more fleshed out than the single player equivalent with rewards for good performances.

Presentation has never been the focus of the Pro Evolution Soccer experience, and this year is no different. While there are some minor visual upgrades over the 2008 game, it still pales in comparison to EA’s offering. Animation is stiff and robotic, lacking the necessary flow to convey realistic player movements. Player models are missing those key details that make them look less artificial. The game’s stadiums, though mostly unlicensed, actually look pretty good. The game’s frame rate is solid this year, which is most notable in replays where the action used to slow to a snail’s pace. Commentary is unintentionally hilarious; the commentators are so far removed from the action that one could be fooled into thinking they’re calling another match.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 is a perfectly functional game of football, but that’s really not going to be enough for fans of the series who’ve been craving some form of major innovation for over five years now. A few minor tweaks and supplementary modes just aren’t enough; Pro Evolution Soccer desperately needs a new gameplay engine and a major graphical makeover, or FIFA will soon leave it for dead.