Every year we like to recognize the best in gaming on Nintendo consoles.
Wii - Best Sports Game
Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 was released in March of last year, and it quickly set the bar for sports games on Nintendo’s new console. Designed for the Wii from the ground up, it’s perhaps the best example of a developer using the Wii’s unique control scheme to enhance a sports game instead of lazily using motion controls as button approximations. PES 2008 controls like a dream, allowing you to point-and-click to where you want the ball to go instead of moving a player towards the ball. If that sounds complicated, don’t worry –it isn’t. And that’s the whole point.
PES 2008 also impresses with its robust featureset, rivaling Super Smash Bros. Brawl with the degree to which it excersises every aspect of the Wii’s functionality. It has local and online multiplayer matches, the ability to save replays and send them to other players on your friends list, the ability to save players to your Wii Remote to trade them on another console, and Mii integration. There are also plenty of game modes, including one-on-one matches, league play, tournament play, and a Champions Road campaign featuring full team management down to the smallest details of each player. You also get excellent tutorials that explain every aspect of gameplay (and believe me, as the controls get deeper these become more and more helpful), some very competent voice commentary, and a clean look thanks to a polished graphics engine. To top it all off, the Wii version of PES 2008 has more stadiums than any other version.
If you’re a Wii-owning soccer fan, you probably already own PES 2008. However, it’s so good that we here at NWR even recommend it to non-soccer fans. If you appreciate sports games on any level, it deserves to be in your library. It’s an excellent introduction to the world’s most popular sport, and one of the best sports games released so far this generation. It was a shoo-in for our award for Best Wii Sports Game in 2008.
Runners-up: Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip,
