As much as we praise and admire the efforts of developers who strive to bring the beautiful game to smartphone, there’s one inescapable fact for keen console footy gamers.
Sticking your flashy, licensed footy game onto a touch-driven device is a bit like sticking Cristiano Ronaldo into central midfield. Both will do a competent job, but there’s the lingering feeling that you’re not making the best use of their talents.
Konami’s way around this for PES 2011 is to make the game suit its new environment as much as possible.
Decent touchThe first way this is achieved is in the vital area of control. While Konami has opted for those far-from-ideal virtual controls by default (don’t even think of trying the accelerometer ones), the fact that there are only two ‘buttons’ in addition to the virtual analogue stick makes it relatively simple to play.
You rarely have to look down to see which button you’re pressing – ‘B’ handles passing and crossing, while ‘A’ handles shooting. In defence, the same buttons handle pressing and sliding respectively.
There are advanced controls, such as swiping the 'B' button for the through ball or tapping elsewhere on the screen to manually change player, but these skills are easily folded into your repertoire once you’re comfortable with knocking the ball around.
Serie A styleAnd this is the other way Konami makes PES 2011 on Android feel more at home on essentially alien technology. It’s easy – a little too easy, in fact - to keep possession and move the ball around.
One reason is because of the game’s extremely (some would say excessively) slow pace. Another is the dodgy tackling system, which often punishes a proactive defence – even when the challenges appear legal. In addition to some generally lethargic AI, progress can feel a bit too sedate and by-the-numbers at times.
Other than that the football here is fine and pretty much on a par with the original iPhone version, with officially endorsed Champions League and Europa League competitions and a League Cup to keep you occupied. Only local multiplayer has been omitted, so hopefully Konami will rectify that soon.
While the sting has been taken out of the PES tail somewhat, we can still recommend this 2011 version to all Android-owning footy fanatics.
PES 2011
PES 2011 goes to great lengths to make its brand of passing football play nicely on a touchscreen, though it may be a little ponderous and basic for some
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.