Released – 2004, Format - Playstation2.
So you may find it strange that I’m reviewing a game, it could be to show off that I can speak at length about any subject, or maybe that I am a complete gaming nut.
Both of these things are in fact true but the real reason I am doing this is to make a very valid point.
Pro Evo 4 was, and still is, the best football game of all time.....and I’ll tell you why.
It’s release in late 2004 was one of the most anticipated video game releases for me, I came to the series back in 1997 and fell in love, it disappeared and came back as ISS Pro on the PS2, subsequent releases went under the name of Pro Evo until we came to Pro Evo 4.
The game was an improvement on Pro Evo 3 because of....it doesn’t matter, who gives a shit about the subtle nuances from one football game to the next, you always have 11 men, you score goals and try and win matches.
So the question gets asked again, why is this the best football game of all time?
Well that’s hard to explain, and the reason it is hard to explain is that Konami (the makers of the game) probably couldn’t explain it either, Pro Evo 4 had a magic feel to it, it made you want to keep on playing over and over again, as a two player game it is untouchable, I couldn’t tell you how many lost hours were spent playing this game against my friends.
It’s nearest rival was FIFA, now FIFA had the official licences so it looked 100 times better (Me and Kev solved this by painstakingly changing the Liverpool and Everton kits to be exactly right), only problem they had was, it’s a very shit game, people would say “if you want a footy game that looks good buy FIFA, but if you want a game that plays well then get Pro Evo”.
However.... there’s another problem, I mentioned that Konami themselves didn’t seem to know what little piece of magic they had in Pro Evo 4, well they proved this by steadily making worse games despite moving to the PS3 and Xbox 360.
The games became so poor that I have now switched to the dark side (preferring FIFA to Pro Evo) which is surely testament as to just how far Konami have lost their way.
So maybe this can be considered an open letter instead of a review, and I hope that somehow, somebody from Konami will look at this and say “Bloody hell, he’s right!”All you have to do Konami is to dust off the PS2, load up Pro Evo 4, grab a mate and lose yourself in football wonderment, then make a game that is a worthy successor or I for one will continue to line the pockets of EA sports and the FIFA franchise!
Marcus Mitchell – July 2010
