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| | Title:
World Soccer Winning Eleven 9
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System:
Xbox
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Genre:
Sports
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Publisher:
Konami
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Developer:
Konami Corporation
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Release:
2/7/2006
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Online:
Yes
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ESRB:
Everyone (E)
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While soccer is a popular sport among the USA, the same cannot be said for the videogames. It is not to say that soccer games are not popular, they are not just at the level of popularity that certain titles like Madden easily achieve. With that said it should come to no surprise that there are quite a few people in the videogame community who have never picked up a soccer title. This is an unfortunate circumstance because until a week ago I too was one of those people who had never touched a soccer title. The extent of my knowledge was that Brazil was one of the best teams and that was it. But needless to say, after spending time with my first soccer videogame, Winning Eleven 9, I have been turned into a soccer fan. The intensity of the matches, the skill of the players, and tactile plays of this sport are brought beautifully to the screen. Winning Eleven 9 does have a few problems, but nothing to not make the game a must buy for soccer fans (new and old).
The first thing players are going to notice when they begin a match in Winning Eleven 9 is how well the game handles. Getting control of the ball and moving it down the field is not only an exhilarating experience, but its loads of fun. Better yet is the fact that screw ups never feel like they happened because of the lack of quality from the title itself. If you make a mistake it is your fault, not the programming of the game. The best way to make a comparison would be the all too frequent interceptions that occurred in NFL 2K5. Half the time one wondered how that interception was even caught and felt cheated out of a good play. I understand it is hard to compare two different sports but you get the general idea. After getting the ball down field comes the most intense moment in the game, trying to score.
While this sounds like a terrible cliché, it truly isn’t. The combination of sound (we’ll get to this in a minute), and incredible defense by the computer A.I. really make these moments to remember. Scoring a goal is all about keeping the ball out of the other team’s possession and passing to that member of your team who is in the perfect spot to make the goal. By the nature of the sport this doesn’t happen this often but when it does, oh the feeling is so sweet. I don’t care how many points you’ve scored in whatever sport you’ve played, nothing quite compares to finally getting that one goal that seals the game for your team. Adding to the effect is a cool replay mode which the player can control and view their victory from as many angles and many times they want.
Despite all these great things, there are a few sections of the game that dilute the experience. Even though the game handles beautifully, most of the time, there are a few instances where it falters. The first is the passing system. Nine times out ten the passes will go exactly where they are supposed to and result in some amazing drives down the field. A few other times though it won’t. Now and then a pass will go to a player that was not intended to receive it. This sometimes puts the player in a touch spot and the worst case scenario can be the loss of the ball. The second part of the passing that needs work is the camera. A few times while playing I would pass the ball to someone off screen and the camera would not follow. For a few seconds I had no idea would had the ball or if there were players from the other team around me. Like the passing to the wrong players this can also lead to some outcomes that are less than favorable. Besides these two problems the game plays without a hitch.
There is a good list of games that are known for their sound, and Winning Eleven 9 (in my opinion) should be put among this list. The sense of excitement and tension brought to matches by this game’s sound is an experience few sports titles have ever mastered. The true star of the game is the crowd. Now we all know that by definition soccer fans are crazy, and that putting a few thousand in a stadium results in some of the loudest chants to ever come out of a stadium. Winning Eleven recreates this type of sound perfectly. The crowd is constantly blaring their cheers and reactions to the game you are playing. Steal the ball and the stadium roars, get close to the goal and they quickly go silent (an amazing effect that puts an amazing of pressure on the player). They also will groan or cheer depending on whether the goal is made. The first time the crowd became silent as I approached the goal the thought of, “oh crap I better make this,” filled my head. No other game I played has ever pulled off that type of reaction in my mind. The crowd reacting to the game may not seem like a big deal, but when you’ve played other sports titles that are filled with a constant cheering buzz in the background, Winning Eleven 9 is a breath of fresh air.
Outside of the matches Winning Eleven 9 has a health career mode. Players will pick a team of their choice and put them through the paces of the league. A nice touch for rookies of the soccer genre is the visual bar representation of how your players are improving. It has an almost RPG look to it that is really easy to understand. What players are doing well and which ones aren’t becomes clear very quickly. This is great for when gamers need to negotiate to acquire new members of their team. The only real problem with the career mode is the lack of more licensed teams and some of the confusing visuals for the buttons. More licensed teams would have been a nice touch (especially when compared to Fifa). Players can satisfy their need for different teams by creating their own teams and players. There are a wealth of options when designer the team colors, jerserys, and even name. It is pretty much the standard found in any sports game. As for the buttons. A text description for each button is given but they just aren’t as intuitive as they could be. Hopefully, Konami clears this up for the next Winning Eleven title.
Graphically the game is okay. The facial expressions are the highlight of the game, as true anger and excitement can be seen on the faces of the players as they perform on the field (replay mode is the only true way to see this since the camera is very high up for the games). The stadiums are rendered in good detail as is the field itself. Where the game is lacking the graphics department is the weather effects and crowd. The one weather effect that really miffed me was the snow. It just didn’t feel like snow at all. There were only a few white patches on the field and the general number of white snowflakes falling was just not enough to satisfy me. The crowds also are downright ugly. They are simply flat animations with hardly any life to them whatsoever. This is too bad since the audio for the crowd’s is downright amazing. If Konami had put the time in to make the visuals match the audio in terms of quality then the experience would have increased ten fold. Maybe when Winning Eleven make’s the jump to next-gen we will finally see some crowds worthy of a soccer title.
This is also Winning Eleven’s first venture onto the online realm. Being that it is, Winning Eleven 9 features only the basics when it comes to an Xbox Live game. There are Quickmatch, Optimatch and Create-a-Match options available. During online play there is some noticeable lag but it doesn’t show up frequently enough to make it a real hindrance to the game.
Overall, Winning Eleven 9 turned me into a soccer fan. I never appreciated the sport until after this game and now I find myself reading up on all the latest news regarding the sport. For a game to do that it has to be pretty special and that is exactly what Winning Eleven 9 is. A few problems do plague the gameplay and visual department of the game but as a whole it is an amazing package.
| The Core Score |
Overall
8.5 |
| Fun |
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9 |
| Gameplay |
|
7.5 |
| Graphics |
|
9.5 |
| Audio |
|
8.5 |
| Replay |
|
8 |
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