Genre: Sports
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami

Two years ago, this reviewer assessed 2017's chapter of Konami's elderly "Pro Evolution Soccer" football-a-thon, and found it to be infirm in many ways, instead of filled with youthful optimism. So what's new with this 2019 version? Things don't get off to a good start, with the verbatim synopsis of a 2017's graphics serving just as well here: compelling animation, but flatter than dry paint in all other regards, and with less charm than a kitchen toaster to boot.

Gramps' hearing aid needs adjustment, because the game doesn't do any better in the aurual department: Konami has been recycling the same generic, boring crowd sounds for what seems like well over a decade at this point. What's more, in these contemporary "Winning Elevens" the "Gran Turismo"-style Japanese elevator music of the PlayStation 2 generation-and-before have made way for combinations of terrible stadium pop music, and now even "Madden"-influenced rap selections. The grandkids are frantically trying to hold grandpa's shaking hand still while he finishes his will-- time is short.

Thankfully, grandpa's pacemaker is in good shape: in the couple of Earthly sun revolutions since last look, the dour, sluggish, real-time-physics 2017 gameplay paradigm has been polished a great deal, with scripted animations almost completely eliminated, and with players whom actively shield the ball with their bodies. The passing system is extraordinarily realistic, and is the series' crown jewel. It's just too bad then that all of the game's modes feel so stale: Master League is still fun, but it could seriously use a fresh set of clothes at the very least. At least "Edit Mode" is just as robust as ever, for filling in those missing league and team license gaps.

In a nursing home battle of geriatrics between the only two surviving, many decades'-old geezers of the footballing video game world, FIFA and Pro Evo, the former has taken on more arcade-like sensibilities, while the latter has opted for the most extreme forms of gameplay realism imaginable. In reality though, both games' total lack of endearing personality and focus on details only die-hard fans will appreciate renders neither of them friendly for the faint-of-heart. And that's just where this review has landed: gramps is still hanging on for another year, even if the beating organ in his chest has seen better days.