Translations of console games for portable devices often involve compromise in either graphics or game play, but this does not appear to be the case with Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 for the PSP. Apart for the size of the screen Konami seems to have been able to squeeze its big brother console version into a pint sized game, without losing any of the game's excitement.

Game play is the same as the PS3 version with all its attended strengths and weaknesses. The new version has moved away from the AI aided game into a much more naturalistic feel. No longer does your ball magically find the nearest man as you now have to think about not only positioning but also how hard you are going to kick the ball. This makes passing more precise, after a bit of a learning curve and long balls more problematic, as it would be in the real world.

Graphically things have been toned down adding to the games realism, stadiums now look more like their real life counterparts and there is a good visual correlation between players and their representative graphics. Players have limited stamina and you will see your players slow down as the match progresses making substitutions a real necessity. There have been a few changes to the console version, but none of these detract from the overall fun.

On the audio from the commentary remain as does the crowd noises. Not having the best speakers in the world, PES on the PSP is best played with headphones. For the most part, commentary by Jim Beglin and John Champion is spot on with only a few amusing errors.

The real value of the game is its portability, with the time of the matches truncated it means that it is possible to have a quick game on the way to work and even have time to challenge another human player via the ad-hoc connection, or you can go mad and try out the four player mode.

It is by no means a perfect copy of its bigger brother, but it’s pretty close. Taken alone, Konami have produced a very slick portable football game which although not perfect scores very high for graphics, audio and game play.

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Charles Packer