Players are able to select fully licensed Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid, and Barcelona club teams, or the licensed Italian or French national sides. All new visuals with completely remodeled players and animations, and new physics routines to ensure the ball behaves more realistically have been included, while the AI of the CPU sides has been enhanced to provide an ever evolving challenge.

The PES 2009 demo also include promotional videos detailing the new game's 'Become a Legend' and online 'Legends' modes, which see the player controlling just one player within a team and attempting to forge a career in football. Starting as a promising 17-year-old, players must force their way into the first team and produce a series of blistering performances which will ultimately result to a move to one of Europe's biggest sides. Or, on the flipside, poor performances can see a player struggling in the lower leagues and eventually being released.