The main game play modes are Champions Road, Cup, and League. Online play is available, as well as playing against a friend’s team that’s been put together in Champion’s Road mode (kind of like 2K Sports’ VIP system). Champion’s Road pits you in a series of 4-team tournaments. Winning one tournament unlocks other tournaments for your team to enter. Winning individual matches and completing “missions” (training-related goals, like completing 20 short passes, three switches, a volley shot on goal, etc.) “levels up” your players and gives you the ability to take new players from the team you just defeated. You don’t get to pick the players from a list, however. Instead, you basically pick from a deck of cards, although you are given a hint as to the type of player you’re selecting. You can only have 16 players on your squad, so any new players you get are either used to replace an existing player or put on the “not used” list. Also, you can trade players with other gamers via the wiimote or Wiiconnect, which is a neat touch – kind of like trading baseball cards.

There are about a half dozen or so of the major leagues around the world (or fictitious facsimiles of them) to choose from (no MLS, sadly). You have to deal with fatigue, injuries, and form, but there are no transfers, player morale, relegation, or other issues to attend to. It’s “league mode lite” compared to the Master League in other versions of this title.

The game play is pretty much up to the standard of previous versions of this series. The ball movement truly is separate from the player movement, making for a free-flowing, realistic looking brand of soccer. Aside from the occasional defensive lapse (it really feels like you need to baby-sit your defenders a little too much, especially around the goal), the AI players do a good job of keeping their shape, making runs, and making intelligent passes and decisions when you’re not directing them.

The game consists of an interesting conglomeration of licensed leagues and teams. Regardless of the accuracy of the names of the players or teams, all of the players look very good. Their faces and even hair are detailed (and recognizable for the “big” names), and there are a variety of body shapes and sizes accounted for. The animations are elaborate, realistic, and varied. The action moves at a pace and moves with a smoothness that reminiscent of the game on television, and the pitches look great. The only visual issue is that during some of the cut scenes, there’s a lot of flicker or shimmering on shots of the stadium and pitch. It’s truly one of the better-looking sports games on the Wii.

The crowds are well represented aurally, but the announcing is pretty much standard fare for sports games nowadays. They are sporadic and generic with their commentary, but timely and pretty accurate. The announcers do get excited during the action, and it does seem pretty genuine, which adds to the immersion. As with most sports titles, it’s driven by a pop soundtrack that serves as an undercurrent to everything but the matches themselves.

Pro Evolution Soccer on the Wii is a definitively new way to play soccer video games. Although a little player control is sacrificed, the amount of influence you have directly on your team’s positioning and the movement of the ball more than make up for it. Soccer strategists will relish every attacking build-up, creatively finding new ways to defeat the AI, especially on more challenging difficulty levels. If you understand intricacies of soccer, PES 2008 for the Wii is an absolute must for your collection.