Review Review - Winning Eleven World Soccer

[dice]

Winning Eleven - World Soccer

Title Screen
The popular Japanese football game from Konami gets shrunk onto the small gba but will it perform as well as its bigger brothers?

Main Menu / Team selection (National)​

Although most of your time will be spent on the pitch, you will spend a bit of it navigating your way through the menus, (something of a problem for those who don’t know any Japanese) luckily for me I was able to find out what everything meant for this review.
-please see below for more information-

Team Selection (Club) / Before the match begins you can edit your team strip and how long the match will last​

It’s nice to see that Konami haven’t been lazy in producing this game as you’ll find the same modes in this game as you would from the Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer series on the Playstation and Xbox. These include, Exhibition Game, League Mode, Cup Mode, International Mode and of course the Master League. The best mode by far would be the Master League as your aim is to take your team to promotion and win the cup. Here you’ll be able to sort out your team and check team statistics before each game. Other modes such as training mode, option mode and link-up mode are also included.
As this is the World Cup edition (if you would like the club edition then I suggest getting J-League Winning Eleven Advance 2002) you’re limited to 44 countries which should still satisfy most. Along with an additional 16 club teams (accessible only in the Master League) from Real Madrid to Manchester United there are a total of 60 teams to play as.

Err... / You get a nice view of the pitch before the game starts​

Gameplay

The gameplay is excellent, the passing and tackling system is flawless and the decisions made by the referee are always spot on. It’s the free kick system which lets it down slightly here. Your options are limited to just directing a straight line, bothersome for when trying to shoot at goal. The fact that the game is *fully Japanese doesn't mean that it is unplayable. After a few tries, navigating your way through the main menus should become easier but there are quite a few menus to get used to. I did find it a bit confusing changing my formations and making substitutions to begin with. They've made scoring a challenge but there are options to make the game harder or easier for those who are new to this game which makes this one for everyone to try out and with so many leagues and tournaments to win your way through this’ll give you a reason to keep on playing.

England vs. Brazil / Sweden vs. Argentina ​

There are your usual set of controls (e.g. A to shoot and B to pass) but Konami have cleverly implemented the more advanced controls into the game that you would find in the console versions of this game.
-To see the full list of controls please see below-

9/10

Graphics

The players are modelled well and the kits used look good although it seems that some of the same kits are used for more than one team (e.g. Brazil and Sweden). With a fairly bright pitch, the ball is very much viewable and allows you to have a comfortable game without trying hard to see what you're doing. A clear radar is also added to the bottom of the screen so there’s no one at fault but yourself when the opponent runs in and intercepts the ball. The scenery is nice but isn't as good as it could be. The pitch is always the same which is a shame as some variety could have gone well with this game; also the lack of weather conditions really limits the different kinds of difficulty usually found when playing real football in different situations.

7/10

Sound

There are only two tunes in the game (excluding the title screen) from the main menu and from a replay after scoring a goal which is constantly repeated over and over. It’s not the best music ever heard from the gba but it’s good enough to bear with. There’s no music during play and apart there’s the odd cheer from the crowd the commentary is the main thing you’ll be hearing. Even though I don’t understand Japanese it's pretty easy to tell that the same comments are being made over and over again which makes it too repetitive. The oddest part about the game is the occasional moment of silence quickly being followed by a ball being hit with a huge *thud* sound.

6/10

A funky sound is played during replays / One of the many goal celebrations ​

Red Card ​

Round-up

Overall good footy game in fact it’s probably one of the best football game currently on the GBA.

Pro's
+ Great gameplay, easy to learn
+ Many teams to choose from
+ Lots to do
+ They’ve added a Master League

Con's
- Commentary doesn't seem too great
- Crosses and free kick system need improving
- It not going to be released outside Japan

8/10

Written by dice

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*Some Images contain pictures of text written in English. To apply the patch please go here and check out the contents to find out how to apply the patch. It also contains a handy FAQ including what each menu means and the controls.
If you are stuck and need help PM me and I’ll do the best I can to help out.


NOTE: Credit goes to AkiraXXX, flashermac and skarthebloodchild for helping me to find the patch.
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