PES 2017 is coming to mobile. We don’t know when, we don’t know how (magic?) but it is. And that brings one of the fiercest gaming rivalries onto handheld. Which is pretty exciting, if you stop and think about it.

And I did stop and think about it. I stopped and thinked about it for a good long while. And from that thinking I created this piece of astounding writing. Astounding I tell you!

What does PES need to do to ensure that when you think of mobile footballing games its is the first one that springs to mind? Well, it could do these things, and that might be a good start.

Actually let us play football

FIFA Mobile is really only half of a football game. You only get a chance to take part when your team is attacking, and quite frankly that’s a bit dull. I mean, sure scoring goals is good, but last ditch tackles are every bit as important.

And it looks like PES gets this. Because it’s likely to be a full and wholesome mobile reimagining of the console version. In other words, you might get to see your keeper do some impressive saves, or get your entire backline sent off for egregious tackles. Ahem.

Do mobile right

Squishing a console game onto a phone or a tablet is no mean feat. But equally getting it right is an extra layer of difficulty on an already difficult thing with layers on it. Do we want buttons? Do we want swipes? Do we want voice control?

I mean we probably don’t want voice control (although now I think about it shouting at your phone for the ball would be pretty cool). Whatever scheme Konami uses it has to work, right from the start, otherwise the game of two halves will be a game of one half and it’ll lose it.

Multiplayer

Football games, for me anyway, have always been about playing with other people. So let us get some friends over with their phones and have a local kickabout. Or let us join up with people online and recreate the beautiful game digitally.

We could even all be on the same team, passing and moving our way through matches like we’re fully aware that there’s no I in team. The multiplayer options need to be as full and rewarding as the rest of the experience.

Personalisation

You know your phone has a camera on it right? And you know that games have been allowing you to add your face onto digital avatars for the best part of, oh I don’t know, forever?

So how cool would it be if you could make a hideous 3D version of yourself and then work your way up through the kick ball leagues. There’s a very good chance it’s not going to happen in real life, but you could at least get a small, digitsed taste of the glory of lifting the Johnson’s Paint Trophy. I assume that’s still a thing.