My interest in
soccer has grown over the past few years. Konami and EA have been delivering
solid soccer games. The World Cup was incredible to watch and that helped expand
my knowledge of soccer. The richness of the sport has become clearer with every
passing year. There’s no other sport right now that has captivated my thoughts
like soccer has. It is the most widely viewed sport in the world and with its
popularity only growing in the United States, I, too, have been watching it
carefully. With Winning Eleven 9, Konami has released another solid soccer game
that will please all the fans of the internationally beloved sport.
In 2005, I had
my fair share of soccer games played on my consoles. Konami released Winning
Eleven 8 early in 2005, which happened to be my first soccer game since the
early NES days. EA then followed up later in the year with FIFA 06, which also
delivered on all merits. My anticipation grew with the upcoming release of
Winning Eleven 9. I had to play the next version as soon as possible, especially
with the ongoing World Cup championship gauging my awareness. I skipped out on
buying it when it first released with my hopes lying towards a 360 version in
development, but, I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. The Xbox version will
suffice until Konami announces the release date of Winning Eleven 10.
With the Xbox
version, Konami has implemented online support for the first time ever in North
America. You’ll be able to hop right into a match or search for a suitable
opponent. The headset is open for use – online trash talking here I come!
Winning Eleven 9 also includes an online league system. Five different divisions
make up the league system: Division 1, Division 2, Division 3A, Division 3B, and
for the newcomers, the Amateur league. The more you play and win, the better the
chances you’ll move up to a new league. If you aren’t playing for stats and
wins, there are lobbies with no restrictions and where losses do not matter. The
lag throughout my matches has been minimal.
If you have
played Winning Eleven 7 or 8, you’ll feel right at home with this iteration. The
gameplay options that are open to play include: master league career mode, quick
match, custom league & cup modes, online play, edit mode, and, of course,
training. I’ll begin with the quick match, since that is the easiest to describe
– it is for those who want to hastily jump into a match without any hesitation.
Moving on, the edit mode is intensively the most important mode on Winning
Eleven 9. Why you ask? It’s simply because Konami lacks any of the important
licenses to have real player names, leagues, and club teams. Konami over the
past few years has acquired smaller league’s licenses along with their clubs.
Still to this day though, the authenticity of real players and teams is a huge
drawback. The edit mode helps relieve the pain of losing all the named players.
The editing tools allow are extensive and in-depth, so making your favorite
player is easier than ever before.
The meat of
Winning Eleven 9 is found in the master league career mode. There are two ways
to play the career mode – with ‘real rosters’ or ‘fictional rosters.’ Basically,
the fictional rosters are unskilled players without any resemblance to any
player. The real players at least bare some resemblance of who they are
‘supposed’ to be. I recommend not using the fictional roster due to that it will
be tremendously harder to win a game. If you can not win a game, be prepared for
the career to come to an end. The more games you win, the more points you’ll
earn to pay your team’s salary at the end of the season.
The master
league career mode may sound hard, but, the difficulty only comes with the
danger of losing your job. The financial and business side of things is much
easier than it sounds. The actual decisions you’ll make include starting
line-ups, keeping the players happy, and in-game decisions of substitutions.
Injuries will pop up, fatigue will kick in, youngsters will want playing time,
and of course winning games is important. The career mode is deep enough to keep
the attention of the player for a few years into the game.
Playing the
actual game is rewarding to every soccer fan alive – the improvement from
Winning Eleven 8 to Winning Eleven 9 is immense. The control of the players and
how they handle is what stands out. When you have possession of the ball, the
teammates will act accordingly to assist you on the field. With realistic
animations, it’s beautiful to watch in motion a brilliant soccer game such as
Winning Eleven 9. The best way to play Winning Eleven 9 is to distribute the
ball around the field with several passes. Passing is essential in all game
plans if you want to win. Especially since the CPU has a keen sense of defense;
it will be hard to break through deep into their side of the field.
Is Winning
Eleven 9 the ultimate soccer game? No, it still needs a little refining with
online play and its career mode. What’s needed is more licenses and genuineness.
More clubs, teams, leagues, and players would only be beneficial to the fanatics
venturing out to buy their next soccer game.
Review Scoring Details for Winning Eleven 9 |
Gameplay: 9.5
This has to be
the best soccer game I have played. If you have any of your edit saves from
Winning Eleven 8, you can upload them into Winning Eleven 9 and save time on
changing all the player’s names.
Graphics: 9.0
The menus still could use work, even after the
overhaul they have done. When paired up against other soccer games, I’d lean
towards Winning Eleven 9 having the tops in graphics for current generation of
consoles (PS2/Xbox/Cube).
Sound: 8.5
Japanese music
is an awkward fit in Winning Eleven 9. I didn’t enjoy it up until I became used
to it. Now that I am used to it, I prefer it over the EA rap heavy soundtracks
for their sport titles.
Difficulty:
Easy/Medium
The soccer players will adapt smoothly into playing
Winning Eleven 9. Once you learn how to play, it’s as easy as one, two, and
three!
Concept: 8.0
The concept of
a sports title isn’t a hard one to think up. I do like that they are improving
with every year and continue to push the envelope further. They’ll need licenses
to compete in sales with EA.
Multiplayer:
8.5
For the first time in the series, online is available.
Having online capabilities, that alone makes the game worth the price. Being
it’s the first time the series has offered online, I’ll judge it accordingly.
Its debut on Xbox Live is good but not great.
Overall: 9.3
To all those
Xbox 360 players, this isn’t currently backwards compatible. The graphics aren’t
as beautiful as FIFA on the 360, but they get the job done. This is as close to
a complete package you can get.
