PES to make Wii debut in March

By Robert Purchese Published 17 January, 2008

Konami gone to some effort.

Konami has narrowed down the Pro Evolution Soccer debut on Wii to March.

Unsurprisingly Wiimote gestures will control a large part of the game: you point and drag to dribble, use deft shakes to do skill moves, and point at players to receive passes, steering them into space if needs be.

The Nunchuk lets you tackle and rush your keeper of his line, and the d-pad lets you pick tactical options as you go. Sounds fiddly to us.

All of the usual game modes are stuffed in here, on top of an exclusive Champions Road competition where you take your chosen team all around the world to take part in leagues.

Unusually you receive players from defeated teams and gain experience points to boost their abilities after games, unlocking new skills by achieving things like hat-tricks in matches.

Wii support is in, too, so you can make your team look like you and up-to 15 of your mates, and you can play friends or strangers online, and even share team data over the WiiConnect24 Channel.

Sounds like Konami has gone to quite a lot of effort here. Eyeball the recent Pro Evolution Soccer Wii trailer to see what's what.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • BM #1 4 years ago

    Looking forward to this, could be a really different football game from the looks of the trailers

  • killyourtv #2 4 years ago

    controls sound like too much of a hassle

  • kissthestick #3 4 years ago

    hmm, will nintendo fans buy this? knowing konami's history on the wii..

  • jonsaan #4 4 years ago

    /Rolls eyes.

    Wasn't PES's control scheme perfect already?

  • Eurolamer #5 4 years ago

    Sounds tricky, but props to Konami for at least trying something a bit different. It'll be interesting to see if it works.

  • sd99 #6 4 years ago

    I don't know how they're finding time to develop the Wii version when they continually insist that they're still working "at full strength" trying to fix the teleporting issues over xbox live... *sigh*

  • Steroyd #7 4 years ago

    There's still that on XBL!

    Konami fixed that on PS3 months ago.

  • JayeM #8 4 years ago

    Wii version is developed by a different team.

  • kissthestick #9 4 years ago

    then theres still hope

  • sd99 #10 4 years ago

    Yep PES2008 over Xbox Live is still appalling, even after the first (inneffective) patch. Check out the pesfan forums for much Konami hatred...

  • BartonFink #11 4 years ago

    Wow PEES with shoehorned wiggle and waggle can't wait \o/

  • Sulphur_Man #12 4 years ago

    Winning Eleven 6: Final Evolution was great on Gamecube, so this does hold some promise.

    Considering how little effort Konami put into the 'next gen' PES2008 and the hopeless patch that didn't fix anything whatsoever, they need to restore some customer faith with this one. I traded mine and bought FIFA08 instead. Quirky controls or not, if it plays ok through WiiConnect I'll buy a copy. PES online was great, until PES2008 killed all the fun.

    Hopefully they're aware that they're bringing the world's most revered sports sim to the best-selling console......

    I wonder if there's an option to use a GC controller instead?

  • Muddtallica #13 4 years ago

    As daft as the controls sound, the trailer actually makes it look like a lot of thought has gone into it; even it it doesn't come off, I applaud Konami's effort for actually developing a game FOR the Wii, rather than shoehorning Wii controls into an existing template. Other developers take note!

    Also, is it just me, or does the idea of receiving players from defeated teams sound like an AWESOME rule that should be implemented into Premiership football ASAP?

  • Landmaster #14 4 years ago

    Good job "there's wii support" too eh? ;)

    Otherwise... You know...

    You'd have an unplayable wii disc...

    Thanks for the heads up Eurogamer!
    I thought the discs might not work!

    Cleared that one up didn't they?

    :) :) :) :) :)

    Ignore me.

  • gaselite #15 4 years ago

    The trailer looks really good I have to say, there's a lot of promise there and it seems to control really seamlessly based on the sort of moves you see in the trailer, which is great, but I'll have to try it for myself. I've passed on a console version of PES2008 so far (thinking of it for PSP) and stuck with FIFA08, but this could change my mind for sure.
    Edited by 1 at 17/01/08 @ 14:19

  • realworld666 Verified Lead Programmer, Fuzzy-Frog Games #16 4 years ago

    Presumably theres no 2 player support? Wouldn't it be dead easy in a penalty shoot out to see where the other player is aiming?

  • daz_john_smith #17 4 years ago

    Fingers crossed for this. I've found PES and it's now deformed cousin FIFA too frustrating and annoying for years since neither seem to be interested in fixing any of their majors problems or moving the genre on to any degree.

    I'm sure the controls will take a lot of getting used to, just like learning to control a FPS' with a controller did or playing Guitar Hero for the first time. Hopefully they won't make a mess of it. Still, I won't be holding my breath having seen the PS3 version in all its chugging framerate glory.

  • Dermoth #18 4 years ago

    Konami attempting something new SHOCK. They'll probably fail miserably, but for the moment I can dream about it being fun as well as innovative.

  • clean515 #19 4 years ago

    Go fix the 360 and ps3 version first ! never have a i played such a crappe game as pes 08

  • Wyrm #20 4 years ago

    This sounds like a load of old rubbish to me.

  • secombe #21 4 years ago

    This looks incredibly promising from the vids, fair play to Konami for really going nuts and developing this as a complete stand-alone Wii game. It can't be any worse than just porting the standard PES2008 across.

    Can see review scores being all over the place for this, those that 'click' with the new controls will probably think it's the best thing ever, those that struggle will probably hate it.

  • daz_john_smith #22 4 years ago

    Just out of interest, has anyone played the Wii version of FIFA? I've never really noticed a review for it and wondered if it was just another game with Wii controls tagged on?

    I'm not an EA fan but to be fair to them they've done a pretty good job of Madden on Wii. I'm not an American Football fan, but my best friends are and so at got it at launch with the Wii. I've been very pleased at how well it works and how the Wii controls are implemented.

  • Tomo #23 4 years ago

    Also sounds like balls to me :/

  • Bongo #24 4 years ago

    "Unusually you receive players from defeated teams and gain experience points to boost their abilities after games, unlocking new skills by achieving things like hat-tricks in matches."

    Um, why? I can't believe anyone thinks this will be good.
    4/10.