For me, there is no question in my mind that the King of Footie over  the years has been Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series. Ever since taking to the field in International Superstar Soccer (the first of the series) I was hooked by its smooth passing game, shooting mechanics and build up play. The game offered you the chance to simply pick up and play or to really get tinkering around with your squad options and controls, I believe what I am trying to say is the game had depth. With each iteration Konami made incremental but impactful changes for the better.  

By this time, and still to this date but for different reasons, most virtual footballers were split into two camps: Pro Evolution Soccer (Konami) or  FIFA (EA). Pro Evo always portrayed the more realistic gameplay approach while sporting their excellent Master League Mode thought lacking the official club licenses, arcade style football and the superior graphics engine of FIFA. The two games ran at a tangent but they never shared a common intersection and gamers were either a "sim" style player or an "arcade" style player, in other words the decision was fairly straightforward.     

Over the next decade or so Konami boosted their gameplay engine while FIFA was more content adding more features to their product (challanges, manager mode, etc). However, over the last few seasons FIFA has slowly been improving its gameplay while also continuing to add more game modes (both online and offline). On the other hand Pro Evo's inovation seems to have come to a stand still and this year they felt that they had to poach FIFA's "Become a Professional" in order to keep up with the competition. 

FIFA 09 really threw down the gauntlet this year with more game modes than Pro Evo's cover boy Messi can shake a stick at. Pro Evo's lack of online options and a poor and inconsistant online experience has played a big part to the flock of gamers that have started to migrate across to FIFA. 

EA's has been added functionality to FIFA 09 over the course of the year with the likes of the Online Club Mode for free (which enables 10 vs 10 online play free) and more recently, and my personal favourite mode, Ultimate Mode for 800 Microsoft points (where you use in game currency to purchase player card packs to build and maintain your ultimate squad). 

It seems that not only have the paths of these games crossed, but FIFA appears to have now taken the highground while Pro Evo has maintained its original course. Unfortunately for Pro Evo that course just happens to currently be the lowground. Following this years passing of the much loved King Pro the Crown of the Undisputed King Footie was given to a younger more energetic King.   

FIFA 09 IS KING ... LONG LIVE THE KING