If there is one thing that is sure to divide football fans across the nation, it is whether they think Pro Evolution or FIFA is better. For many years the two franchises have been battling head to head for our loyalties. But which one is best?
For me, there is no question.
It has to be Pro Evolution.
Growing up in the Playstation years, Pro Evo or International Superstar Soccer as it was known then was the only choice. Konami consistently delivered the ultimate football game year after year with its ISS franchise. Its realism at the time was unparalleled by FIFA’s rather lousy efforts.
ISS prided itself on a faithful reproduction of the beautiful game; something that it did with huge success throughout the nineties with a number of seminal titles.
The series did a great job reproducing player likenesses. Despite the somewhat limited capabilities of the Playstation, players such as Carlos Valderrama, Paul Gascoigne, Gabriel Batistuta and Roberto Baggio are all instantly recognisable in their virtual form.
While they may have been recognisable, the players weren’t able to be given real names as EA Sport’s FIFA series held the official licence. To counteract this, Konami had to be clever in coming up with player names and they came up with some real crackers.
My personal favourites include Roberto Larcos (Roberto Carlos), Geags (Giggs), Sheallar (Shearer), Shereng (Sheringham) and Ronarid (Ronaldo). While these names may be silly, they have a certain nostalgic charm about them which is endearing to those that played the game.
On the other hand, FIFA had the real player names but were a franchise rather reliant on gimmicks rather than substance. For example, in FIFA International Soccer, you could run away from the referee if you got a yellow card. If you did so, the referee would chase after you and eventually give you a red card. While infinitely funny, it didn’t distract from the fact that FIFA International Soccer was not very good.
Similarly, FIFA 97 was also rubbish despite having an indoor pitch. The gameplay was Pascal Cygan slow and suffered from a glitch where you could easily block a goalkeeper’s kick and score a simple goal.
As FIFA went backwards, ISS went from strength to strength. 1999 saw the release of ISS Pro Evolution which was the first game to feature Konami’s much heralded Master League mode. In Master League, you take control of a team of generic players in the hope of building a dynasty.
You earn points by winning games and with those points, you can make transfers.
The introduction of the master league mode to the ISS/Pro Evo franchise has seen many people spend countless hours in front of the TV trying to assemble their own virtual Manchester City.
However, the next generation of consoles saw FIFA close the gap on ISS as it morphed into the more recognisable Pro Evolution format.
Recognising the threat for Pro Evolution, EA Sports put a lot more of its considerable resources into improving the FIFA franchise and it began to pay dividends. Not only were they continuing to sell more than Pro Evolution, the actual games were getting better as well.
FIFA 2001 was the first title to come out on the new PS2 platform and it was a highly polished effort by EA Sports. While the gameplay wasn’t as immersive as its Konami counterpart Pro Evolution Soccer, it did boast fantastic graphics and animation which were to be a hallmark of both titles in the PS2 era.
There weren’t much to choose between successive Playstation 2 offerings from either side as both games had their plusses and minuses.
However, this all changed when the games moved into the present generation of consoles.
Konami were simply not equipped to deal with the step-up in power from the PS2 and Xbox to the PS3 and Xbox360 and as a result, their product took a massive hit.
Pro Evolution 2008 was Konami’s first effort on this generation of console and it was disappointingly lazy. The game showed little improvement from its PS2 predecessor and was hampered by its shoddy presentation and online slowdown.
FIFA’s debut offering on the Xbox 360 and PS3 was FIFA 08 and it didn’t disappoint. The game was a typically slick offering with a deeply immersive football experience. The franchise introduced its now ubiquitous ‘Be A Pro’ mode in which you take control of a single player while attempting to complete certain tasks based on your performance.
It used to be FIFA which was trailing in Pro Evo’s wake but now it was the other way round. Konami had to up their game fast or risk losing their devoted fanbase.
And they did so with last year’s game. Konami improved the presentation of the game with a complete overhaul of the game’s menu system along with some licensed music which had been previously lacking.
The game can no longer make the claim as being the most realistic football game on the market: that title goes to FIFA, but it is by far and away the more entertaining of the two.
And so we come to this year’s games. This month saw the release Pro Evo 2011 and FIFA 11 to the masses and the games will do little to sway people on either camp to change sides.
Pro Evo has seen the most radical change this year with the introduction of a new passing system which requires players to use a power bar to determine the strength and accuracy of their pass. The system takes a little while to get used to but in the end, it feels excellent as you are able to thread balls that you could otherwise never do.
FIFA meanwhile has added very little this year as it needs relatively little done to it. EA Sports have added the option of playing in goal in this year’s ‘Be A Pro’ mode which is no doubt a nod towards the ability to play full eleven a side games online.
I’ve nailed my colours to the mast at the beginning of the article and Pro Evo will be arriving through my letterbox in a matter of days. But overall, it really does come down to personal choice to which game you think is better.
Which game do you prefer?
Like my article? Follow me on Twitter – Subscribe to my RSS feed.
