Pro Evolution Soccer

Series overview

Pro Evolution Soccer

Tagline: "We are the Football Tribe"

The 1st installment in the series of Pro Evolution Soccer games was released in October 2001 for both Sony PlayStation and PlayStation 2. It was released under the name World Soccer: Winning Eleven 5 in Japan and North America. Commentary on the game was provided by Jon Briggs and Terry Butcher.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2

Tagline: "They Will Rock You"

Pro Evolution Soccer 2 (World Soccer: Winning Eleven 6 in Japan and World Soccer: Winning Eleven 6 - International in the US) is the 2nd installment and was released in October 2002 and some felt that it was a slight backwards step from the original Pro Evolution Soccer. Others argued that it had improved. The pace of gameplay was much faster than in the game's older sibling, with sharper turns and quicker reactions to tackles. It also included a training session mode. Extra clubs were added, with an extra Master League division. There were two new commentators, Peter Brackley and Trevor Brooking, but this aspect of the game was criticised for the commentators' inaccuracies and tendency to speak over each other.

The licensing was much the same, but infamously all Dutch players were called ‘Oranges’, because Konami did not hold the rights from the Royal Dutch Football Association, for use from Dutch players (in fact, plenty of other football games of the period with FIFPro licences also saw this happen to them - including FIFA 2002 -, following Netherlands' unsuccessful campaign at the 2002 World Cup qualifiers). Also, unlike in the original game, the "unofficial" club names stopped using obvious city names (e.g. Manchester United was Manchester, Real Madrid was Madrid etc.), and instead used very ambiguous names (e.g. Manchester United were now Aragon, Liverpool became Europort and West Ham became Lake District). The edit mode included a club editor which offset this problem to some extent, with editable kits and logos as well as club and player names.

The game notably included tracks from Queen: We Will Rock You and We are the Champions. A PlayStation version (known as World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2002 in Japan) was also released, which was again a minor update of its predecessor, and was the last Pro Evolution Soccer release for the original PlayStation.

Pro Evolution Soccer 3

First Tagline: "The Season Starts Here" (Winning Eleven 7/Pro Evolution Soccer 3/Winning Eleven 7: International (US))

Second Tagline: "Football is Life" (Winning Eleven 7: International (JP))

Pro Evolution Soccer 3 (World Soccer: Winning Eleven 7 in Japan and World Soccer: Winning Eleven 7 - International in the US) is the 3rd installment in the series and was released in 2003, and featured the Italian referee Pierluigi Collina on the cover (although bizarrely he is not present as an in-game referee). The most significant update was the overhaul in the graphics engine, with more life like players and much improved likeness. The gameplay was changed to accompany this, with more fast-paced action than that of PES2, a much better physics engine, additions such as the advantage rule improved passing and long-ball functions, while as per usual, more licences (with the infamous Dutch Oranges removed, replaced with pseudonyms such as "Froibaad" in the place of Kluivert), more club teams and the Master League is now split into regional divisions, with competitions equivalent to the Champions League and the UEFA Cup and as Umbro was no longer revived, the company has been replaced by Adidas.

Pro Evolution Soccer 3 is the first in the series (3rd overall) to be released for Microsoft Windows and was well received by the PC games magazines but criticised by fans for its lack of online mode and bloated system requirements at its time, particularly not supporting the common Geforce MX series. Its rival, FIFA Football 2004, had online functions and had more modest system requirements in comparison. The game was essentially a direct conversion of the PlayStation 2 code, albeit with sharper graphics and is easier to download fan made mods for the game.

Pro Evolution Soccer 4

Tagline: "The long road to the Final"

Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (World Soccer: Winning Eleven 8 in Japan and World Soccer: Winning Eleven 8 - International in the US) was the 4th installment in the series and was released in 2004; featuring referee Pierluigi Collina, Thierry Henry and Francesco Totti on the cover. This is the first Pro Evolution Soccer game to feature full leagues, namely the English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch top divisions, though with full league licences only for the latter three. As a result, clubs in, for example, the English League, an unlicensed league, have ambiguous names like "West London Blue" and "Man Red" for Chelsea and Manchester United respectively, and their home grounds Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford are respectively named "Blue Bridge" and "Trad Brick Stadium".

The gameplay has improved from Pro Evolution Soccer 3 (though not as much of a significant leap as its predecessor) with improved AI, tweaked play-on advantages and better throughballs. Dribbling is tighter with the players (though at one-star difficulty, a player receiving the ball on either wing can dribble the ball down the length of the pitch relatively uncontested), plus free-kicks have been changed to allow lay-offs. The gameplay was criticised for its relatively easy scoring opportunities, as players can pass their way through opposing defenses, or hold on to the ball at the edge of the penalty area and simply wait for the opposing defenders to move away and thus give him space to shoot. A new 6-star difficulty was added as an unlockable in the shop, as well as the previous items, while the Master League included enhancements such as player development, so many players over 30 would see certain attributes decline as the game progresses. Conversely, players could improve upon their attributes up to the age of 24-25, though the improvement is most rapid and obvious in players aged 22 and under.

The edit mode has been enhanced rapidly, with the options to add text and logos to shirts (essentially sponsors) and pixel logo editing as well as the traditional preset shapes, thus making it easier to replicate a team. The game also includes an "International Cup" and four regional Cups:

• The "European Cup" is remarkably inclusive, including almost every major European country, as well as smaller countries like Slovenia, Hungary, and Slovakia. However, countries like Israel and Iceland are not included. The Czech Republic team is simply called "Czech".
• The "American Championship" is a merger of the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa América. It includes most North, Central and South American countries.
• The "Asia-Oceania Cup" includes only five Asian countries, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, and South Korea, plus Australia. Ironically, in real life, Australia has joined the Asian Football Confederation, and now the defending champion of AFC Asian Cup. South Korea is simply called "Korea". Adidas templates are used in Edit Kit in Edit mode

Pro Evolution Soccer 5

Tagline: "Bring it On"

Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (known as World Soccer: Winning Eleven 9 in North America and Japan) the 5th installment in the series, was released in October 2005 and featured John Terry and Thierry Henry on the cover and alongside Didier Drogba on the main menu. The improvements are mainly tweaks to the gameplay engine, while online play finally made it to the PlayStation 2 version. The game was perceived as much harder by fans, with a very punishing defence AI making it harder to score. Some players have pointed out inconsistencies in the star difficulty rating, such as 3 star mode being harder to beat than 6 star due to its more defensive nature, but in general scoring is harder. Referees are very fussy over decisions, awarding free kicks for very negligible challenges.

There are various new club licences present, including Arsenal, Chelsea, Celtic, Rangers and a few other European clubs, as well as the full Dutch, Spanish and Italian Leagues.

Since crowd animations on the PS2 version slowed down the framerate to an unplayable level in the testing phase, crowds were rendered as flat animated 2D bitmaps which, on certain angles, become unseen, making the stands appear empty; however, fully 3D-rendered crowds are present during cut-scenes. There are however fan-made patches which address this in the PC version, although no official patch was released. Official PlayStation 2 Magazine UK gave it a perfect 10/10 score.

Pro Evolution Soccer 5, was released for Xbox, Windows and PS2, all online enabled. A PSP version was released, but with stripped down features, such as no Master League, no commentary, only one stadium and limitations in the editor, due to the limitations to the UMD. The PSP version featured Wi-fi play, and the gameplay was faster and more “pin-ball like” in comparison to its console siblings, but it did not receive the same acclaim as the mainstream console/PC versions.

Pro Evolution Soccer 6

Tagline: "Express Yourself!"

Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (World Soccer: Winning Eleven 10 in Japan and Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 in the US) is the 6th installment in the series and was officially released in the UK on 27 October 2006 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360 and PC platforms and on 9 February 2007 for the Nintendo DS. The PC version does not utilise the Xbox 360 engine but is a conversion of the PS2 edition. The PSP version is similar in many ways to its PS2 brother, while the DS version has graphics and gameplay reminiscent of the older PES series on the original PlayStation.

A criticism of the previous version was that the game was too unforgiving and so suppressed fluid attacking football. Pro Evolution Soccer 6 was issued with more tricks and an overall more attacking mentality, but whether it does make it easier to take on defenders and get forward is debatable.

More licences were added, including fully licensed international kits including the nations England, Spain and Italy to name a few (as well as the ever-present Japan licence). The French Ligue 1 is now included as fully licensed league, as well as the Spanish, Italian and Dutch leagues, plus several other individual clubs. However, the Chelsea F.C. licence from PES5 was removed and, due to a lawsuit, Konami were forced to drop the Bundesliga licence. The only Bundesliga team to appear in the game is Bayern Munich. The game had not updated Arsenal's venue to the Emirates stadium; the defunct Highbury is still present. The same applies for Bayern Munich, who, despite having moved to the Allianz Arena, are still represented in the game as playing at Munich's Olympic Stadium. Also, the recent extensions to Old Trafford are not included, while Serbia and Montenegro are still present despite the dissolution of the country in May 2006, this being due to the disestablished state competing at the 2006 World Cup. All teams which competed at the World Cup featured their 23-man squads from the tournament, including those who retired from international football (e.g. Phillip Cocu of the Netherlands) and from the game altogether (e.g. Zinedine Zidane of France), although club teams were fairly up to date.

The Xbox 360 version features next-generation, hi-definition graphics and more animations, but gameplay similar to the other console versions, according to a recent interview with Seabass. The Xbox 360 version also finally introduces the Pro Evolution series to widescreen gaming, a feature that was sorely missing from the PS2 and Xbox versions of the game. Much of the gameplay and editing options were severely stripped down for the 360 release.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

Tagline: "If football is your life, PES 2008 is your game."

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Known as World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2008) is the 7th installment in the series. The game cover features Portugal and Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo and a local player (Michael Owen in the UK, Didier Drogba in France, Jan Schlaudraff in Germany, Gianluigi Buffon in Italy and Lucas Neill in Australia). A new adaptive AI system entitled 'Teamvision' was implemented into the game, Teamvision is a sophisticated AI programming that learns and adapts according to an individual's style of play. As such, it will learn new ways to build attacks and to counter specific movements and previous attacking or defensive errors, ensuring games are more in line with the tactical but flowing nature of the real thing.^[4] The game was released for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 on 26 October 2007 in Europe, 2 November 2007 in Australia, and 31 December 2007 in Japan. The PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS version were released in November, and the rather different Wii version. Pro Evo Wii was released in March 2008.^[4] It was the first game in the series to drop the Winning Eleven name from its title in the US. The English commentary was provided by Jon Champion and Mark Lawrenson for the first time.

20 teams are also in the D1 and D2 Leagues, four more than in past editions.

The game's 'in-game editor' however was a large downgrade from previous versions, with players unable to add text to unlicensed team shirts or base copy specific players; however, the PC version allows for face pictures to be uploaded or directly photographed through a webcam. On the PS3 the game was a huge disappointment with lots of frame rate issues and strange glitches.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (known as World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2009) is the 8th installment in the series. Released on the 17th of October in Europe, featuring FC Barcelona Argentine star Lionel Messi as its cover star (opposite Mexican midfielder Andrés Guardado from Deportivo La Coruña in some versions).

While in some respects keeping the same structure of its predecessor, PES 2009 makes a large number of improvements, starting from the graphics, now better suited for HD image technologies. Also, the overall pace of the gameplay was slowed down, with a better AI for computer-controlled teammates as well: they will look for better passing spaces and goal routes.

A new addition of this game is the Become a Legend mode, which follows the entire career of a single player (as opposed to a whole team, like in the Master League) as he moves to better teams, achieves national team caps and wins MVP awards, like the similar mode called Fantasista in J-League Winning Eleven 2007 Club Championship, a special edition only for Japan. This also inspired the Be a Pro mode introduced in FIFA 08.

This game has sponsored Lazio once in real life (during a match against Inter Milan), but the team's in-game kit does not feature the PES 2009 sponsorship.

This was also the first version to include the UEFA Champions League licence.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010

Tagline: "Where Champions Live!"

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 (known as World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2010) is the 9th installment in the series. The game has gone through a complete overhaul as it tries to compete with the FIFA series. PES 2010 has improved animations and 360-degree control was introduced, available on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 versions of the game via the analog sticks on the respective controllers. PS3 owners benefited from this when using the DualShock’s D-Pad, but the Wii D-Pad is limited to eight-directional control and the Xbox 360 D-Pad to sixteen-directional control due to their hardware. The A.I. was improved thanks to Teamvision 2.0. The referees were reworked to make better calls during matches. It also features more licensed teams and players than ever before. The cover features players Fernando Torres and Lionel Messi.

In addition to the added UEFA Champions League licence, the UEFA Europa League licence was also added, both playable in the Master League.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2011

Tagline: "Engineered for Freedom."

Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (known as World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2011) is the 10th installment in the series. PES 2011 is a football video game developed and published by Konami with production assistance from the Blue Sky Team. The UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League feature in the game; and for the first time CONMEBOL's Copa Libertadores and UEFA Super Cup are fully licensed.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012

Tagline: "Can You Play?"

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 (known as World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2012) is the 11th installment of the series. Both Jon Champion and Jim Beglin remain as commentators. Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo who was the first time in the cover art of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 replaced Lionel Messi as the cover star.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2013

Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 (known as World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2013) is the 12th installment of the series. The gameplay improves the AI as well as giving the player the ability to accurately aim passes and shots. Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo is featured for the front cover. For the first time of the series, all 20 teams from the Brazilian National League, Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A, are included in the game series. The UEFA Champions League and the Copa Santander Libertadores is once again appeared in the game.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2014

Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, officially abbreviated to PES 2014, also known in Asia as World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2014 is the 13th installment in the series, developed and published by Konami. The game features a modified version of the new Fox Engine. It was released on 19 September 2013, in Europe, 20 September in United Kingdom, 24 September in North America and on 14 November in Japan. This game also become the last game with PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2015

Tagline: "The Pitch is Ours"

Pro Evolution Soccer 2015, officially abbreviated as PES 2015 and also known in Asia as World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2015, is the 14th installment in the series. The cover art features then Bayern Munich player Mario Götze. For the first time in the series' history (excluding the regional versions which included the J & K-Leagues 1 and 2), the game featured unlicensed secondary leagues.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2016

Tagline: "Love the Past, Play the Future"

Pro Evolution Soccer 2016, officially abbreviated as PES 2016 and also known in Asia as World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2016, is the 15th installment in the series. It is also the game to be released during the series' 20th anniversary.^[5] The cover of the game features Brazil and Barcelona forward player Neymar.^[6] It was released on 15 September 2015, in North America, 17 September in Europe, 18 September in United Kingdom, and on 1 October in Japan. Also in April 2016, the special edition of PES 2016 called UEFA Euro 2016 which features Real Madrid and Wales player Gareth Bale on the cover. English commentary by Peter Drury is provided for the first time with Jim Beglin.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2017

Tagline: "Control Reality"

Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 (officially abbreviated as PES 2017, also known in Japan as Winning Eleven 2017) is the 16th installment in the series. On 25 May, Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 was announced and scheduled to be released on PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. The cover of the game features Barcelona players, including Neymar, Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Ivan Rakitić and Gerard Piqué. On 26 July 2016, Konami Digital Entertainment officially announced a premium partnership with Barcelona allowing “extensive” access to the Camp Nou, which will be exclusive to the game for three years.^[7] Features includes, among others, improved passing, Real Touch ball control, and improved goal tending technique.^[8][9] Konami has released Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 for mobile phones.^[10]

Pro Evolution Soccer 2018

Tagline: "Where Legends are Made"

Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 (officially abbreviated as PES 2018, also known in Japan as Winning Eleven 2018) is the 17th installment in the game series. The cover of the game features Barcelona players, including Neymar (who was replaced by Gerard Piqué after his transfer to Paris Saint-Germain before the game's release; due to this as well, the Brazilian edition cover which was to feature him in the Barcelona colors now features Philippe Coutinho playing for the national team), Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Andrés Iniesta and Sergi Roberto. It was released worldwide in September 2017.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2019

Tagline: "The Power of Football"

Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 (officially abbreviated as PES 2019, also known in Japan as Winning Eleven 2019) is the 18th installment in the game series. PES 2019 is the first PES not to feature the UEFA Champions League license after Konami lost the rights to EA Sports.

J-League Winning Eleven series

The J-League Winning Eleven series is exclusive to Japan and has been released since 1995 with the release of J-League Jikkyou Winning Eleven.

Management games

Card collection (trading card) games