Platform: PSP, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360

Genre: Sports

Number of Players: 1 (2 via AdHoc)

Soccer is a huge, international phenomenon, though it still isn’t quite as big of a sport here in the United States as it is just about everywhere else in the world. I guess American’s are too involved in “their” sports; basketball, baseball, football, basically anything that doesn’t involve other parts of the world. When you have a sport however that has become such a global success story, it’s just as important that if you’re going to license it out for video games, you only get the best. Konami has been scoring big points with its Winning Eleven series, and 2007 brings yet another entry into the franchise.

Konami’s Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 brings the excitement of soccer right into your living room, or in this case, right into the palm of your hand. There are plenty of different modes to be found in the game, all of your favorite teams, and a wealth of options to keep even the most seasoned soccer fan occupied.

If you’re not necessarily a fan though, or want to know how to play the game without bothering to read the manual (something that I’m quite guilty of) WE:PES ’07 does offer a training mode. While this doesn’t necessarily walk you through the controls, it does give you the opportunity to play the game without needing to take on another team. You can practice shooting, passing, and everything else that is required to score big points.

You can also tackle the games exhibition mode that will simply have you involved in the match of your choosing, including a penalty only version. You can opt either to play a team from anywhere around the world and the game divides this up into locations and all fully licensed; The Ameircas, Europe, Asia, you can play one of the various clubs in the league, or take on the Master league, something not seen on the PSP versions of the game until now, where you can create the team that you want. Each team will show you the stats as well so you can decide which might best suit your style.

There is also the standard season mode and a cup mode to participate in. What’s great about the game is that you have full control over everything, meaning that you can customize it to your level of play. You might want to make the penalties a bit more lenient for instance, though this will also apply to your opponent, or you may want to play by standard league rules. Novices can set the game for an easy level of gameplay while those that live and breathe the game can increase the computers AI for a more challenging game. You can also choose if you want to have injuries or not as well as fatigue for the players, something that combined gives Winning Eleven that added sense of realism.

The game looks fantastic and though soccer is quite a fast paced sport, there isn’t any onscreen clutter with too many players nor any slow down. The game even has a setting to save power where the cheers and such are turned off. You’ll see some outstanding moves, great sliding tackles, but one of the best parts of the game in my opinion is the replay mode. Once you’ve scored, you’ll see the game give you a playback before doing to a second version. Here you can change and follow the player to want, you can rotate the camera, slow the action down, even change to an overhead view, all with the option to rewind. You can save these replays as well to further gloat at your winning points.

The PSP of course has offered gamers many opportunities to play their favorite games against friends and others around the world. While you may not be able to take on the game through an online mode, you can use the systems AdHoc feature to play head-to-head against a friend. This is one of the many features that hardcore soccer fans are going to appreciate.

The only real drawback I found about the game is there does tend to be a bit of load time no matter what mode you chose. It could be the edit mode, it could simply be any of the many game modes, but you will be waiting for the data to load up. However, it seems that what’s really doing on is that EVERYTHING is being loaded at once meaning that when you’re finally playing, there isn’t any additional wait time, so that works in the games favor.

I’m not necessarily a soccer fan or a sports fan actually, but Wining Eleven really is a great game and all of the custom features make it perfect for a novice such as myself or those that have played almost every version of the franchise that has been released. This is a game that is easy to jump right into and have a blast playing and while we’re always told it doesn’t matter who wins or loses . . . . my first game (as Japan) let’s just say South Africa got a certain piece of their anatomy handed to them. Koanmi and Winning Eleven is a winning combination that lets you take the glory of the sport of soccer with you everywhere and for fans, avoiding this is going to earn you a red card.
 

-mike-