Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 is a pretty straightforward game. It’s based on a successful formula cooked up by Konami years ago – create an incredibly solid core gameplay experience, throw in some new features, and stuff it in the shrink wrap. Once again, this formula’s worked, as Pro Evo 07 is far from a new game, but its tight gameplay and new Master League mode make it well worth the purchase for any fan of portable sports.
As has been the norm with the Pro Evo series for the past few years, 2007 presents the player with a very clean soccer game. Player AI is solid, as your guys will always be in the right spot when you fire a pass (unless you’ve totally botched it and kicked too hard/far for your receiver to catch up with) and goalkeepers play realistically. Far from ever feeling cheap, the goalie plays realistically at all times, missing the stop when you fire a clever shot, and easily deflecting your shots when they’re slop. All the players handle the ball well, without it seeming like its glued to the players’ feet.
The new Master League is what really makes Pro Evo ’07 stand out. In Master League, you get to make up for the lack of licensed leagues by creating your own team and doing all you can to make it a team of winners. Play and trade, that’s what it’s all about, and it ensures you’ll certainly be playing plenty.
Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 sports (pardon the pun) two glaring issues, however, and though they are far from dealmakers, we can only hope they are fixed in the next version. First off – there’s no online multiplayer. Boo! Hiss! With the awesomeness that is the Master League, it would be great if we could take those teams online and duke it out. But noooo, we don’t get that kind of love from most PSP developers. Maybe next year.
The second issue is the game’s overall presentation. There seems to be little, if any, play-by-play commentary in the game, which makes it pretty boring on the audio front. Top that off with graphics that look like a mid-life PS2 game, and you wonder if they just took the previous game engine and slapped a new mode on it. Good thing it’s a new mode that’s worth playing!
Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer does something EA’s been trying to do with sports games for years – it repeats the best parts of past games and adds just enough new stuff to make it worth playing. A good game, and a worthwhile purchase for soccer fans looking for some gameplay on the go.
- Overall: 7.5
- Some quibbles with the overall presentation, but overall a solid purchase for fans of Soccer
— Craig Falstaff