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The International Superstar Soccer
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Winning Eleven 6 Final Evolution &
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The International Superstar Soccer
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Winning Eleven 6 Final Evolution &
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First of all we'd like to apologize for such a late review. Winning Eleven 6 Final Evolution (WE6FE) has been out in Japan since late December and the GameCube version was released in January (to sadly very lackluster sales). Whereas the PS2 version has clocked in more than 500,000 units already. There's hardly any difference between the two games. There's some slowdown in the GC version, but that's about it.
WE6FE is an amalgam of Winning Eleven 6 and the European Pro Evolution Soccer 2 (PES2). Basically after releasing WE6 in Japan in March 2002, Konami quickly converts the game into the European PES2 with a few quick improvements based on feedback. However, whereas in the European versions Konami's changes are often rough and out of balance, the Final Evolution is a stunningly balanced and much-improved final version with many finely tuned nuances. PES2, while a superb game, pales in comparison to the Japanese games. The Japanese games in the series look noticeably sharper, play smoother and the small kinks have been ironed out of the gameplay. For most fans of the series the important updates are the correct rosters, graphical updates and some new players in the various National and Club teams. It's all here.
The fact that the changes made in WE6FE are small, but make the game feel almost new when compared to WE6, are an testament to the superbly honed and intricate gameplay that Konami offers in it's soccer game. WE6FE feels drastically different than both WE6 and PES2, despite it being an update of the same game. The graphics have improved, but it's the gameplay that's really been re-worked. The rosters are bang up to date, or rather were back in December when the game was released. However, the big news is that WE6FE supports updates via the PlayStation BB-unit in Japan (and no, you cannot use the service with an US, European or 3rd party Ethernet adapter, you need to be using the SCEI offered BB-service). In other words, there's online-support. Konami updates the team rosters every once in a while and they can be downloaded via the game's option menu. Only in Japan though. Of more interest is that according to the developers, some visual updates will be also possible to download. So David Beckham's ever-changing hair can be matched in the game, but other visual differences can also be downloaded. Hopefully this is the first step to offering full online play in the next game. The graphics engine has also been changed, though it still is Renderware.
In terms of teams, they are the same as they were in WE6, besides the updated, afore-mentioned rosters of course. There are 32 club teams in total and it's hard to see Konami bringing in more since all the known and interesting ones are already in here. The problem in bringing in more club teams is of course that the quality of each team starts to differ quite a lot when compared to the current 32. Still, it's understandable that more club teams from various national leagues are wanted to satisfy players needs, but the current line-up can hardly be faulted.
The editing facilities have been greatly improved. There's a massive selection of boots and shirts that are very close to the real-life ones, even if there's no Nike, Umbro etc licenses in here. By default the jerseys are accurate in their color, but purists will want to change some of the shirt designs around a bit. Also, thanks to the not-so-laidback-Dutch football governing body, there are no real player names for the Dutch national team. Most other teams have real player names. It's possible to customize pretty much everything, but if you got an Xport, it's worth tracking down some of the amazing save files that have been created. These make the jerseys and rosters 99% accurate.
WE6FE gameplay has improved tremendously. It's the first game in the series for years that will re-kindle players interest to the series. This is due to the great balance that the development team has achieved. The previous games were awesome, but it's scary to play WE6FE and realize just how much has been improved. Everything has been tinkered a bit, to a very positive result.
The pace of the game has slowed down a bit, but finally, the players varying running speeds are properly brought into the game. In the old PS one games, fast players such as Brazil's Roberto Carlos could basically run around the pitch and go past 99% of the defenders due to his speed. So after that Konami opted to change this so even players with fast running attributes, were always caught up by slow defenders, which became annoying and took some of the shine off the attacking gameplay. Now though, great balance has been stricken, but it's also a combination of new the animations that helps this balance. If you run with the ball utilizing a fast player and have gained some momentum, the slower defenders will have problems stopping you. They'll try to bump you off the ball and both players use their arms to push each other away in a very realistic manner. While battling for the ball like this for dozens of metres doesn't look that realistic, the system still works great. Good attacking players can shake off defenders and leave them in their wake, or try to dribble around them. The slower pace of the game really helps the dribbling aspect. The WE/PES-series has always been notable for the fact that is possible to create great plays and moves, as one can hold on the ball for a bit instead of having to kick it all over the pitch as the defensive team unrealistically runs to each attacking player trying to get the ball. The slower pace and improved dribbling allows skilled players like Zidane to weave through a few opposing players with great skill and make great passes even under pressure. This doesn't mean that it's always possible to do Maradona-style runs all the time, the defending play has also been improved, but not losing the ball as soon as you hit an opposing player has an drastic, positive, impact on the gameplay. Sometimes the ball can bounce to your advantage and sometimes it doesn't.
The crossing was great in WE5, floaty and useless in PES2 and brilliant in WE6FE. It is possible to reach a forward player on the edge of an off-side position only for him to escape the defenders and go at the goalie one on one. Also, good passing players can accurately make long high passes straight into the path of running players. The passing in general has been improved. Through-balls work far better than before and it's now possible to put the ball straight to the feet of your advancing attacking player who is in the middle of defenders trying to get ahold of the pass, if you got an player that can pass the ball well. The shooting also harkens back to the old days. You can unleash some seriously powerful drives just outside box that seem to rip the goal's net out of it's place. This is very satisfying and makes for more entertaining gameplay as you really cannot allow chances for skillfull shooting players to have an open chance to shoot. The AI-controlled teams are also deadly in their set-pieces. It's not a good idea to give Rivaldo or Beckham a chance to try and score from a free-kick near the penalty area.
It's quite difficult to score with long shots though, but not impossible. All in all, the shooting element is well done, but it's still strangely difficult to hit the target when you are facing the center of the goal, no matter how close you are. The ball tends to drift wide.
While the defender AI has in general improved, there's still an occasional problem with the Center-Backs. They often allow an midfield player the chance to run straight into the box as neither of them move in to block until it's too late. Also, it's a bit too easy and common to keep hold of the ball in the opposing teams penalty area, it's just a bit unrealistic and hard to defend against. The goalkeepers have gained many new animations and are certainly the toughest they have ever been in the series.
The Master League is much the same as it was before. Pick a team, gain points by winning and buy real-life players for your team and try to create an soccer-dynasty that will go on for years and years. There's loads of game-options and various game modes, but an proper league system for multiple human players is still lacking.
The visual differences in WE6FE when compared to both WE6 and PES2 are surprisingly great considering this is an update, not a sequel. The graphics in WE6FE are, in short, superlative and the best we've so far in the series. The player's are a bit chubby in close-ups but the superb animation takes your mind off that. The player models aren't that detailed in general, but the facial details are quite strikingly close to many real-life players, which helps the immerse the player into the action during replays. There's some new individual celebration and kick-animations too.
The animation is more complex and there's surprisingly many new moves that you didn't realize were missing before. Goalkeepers tip the ball over the bar, throw their hands up to signal that the ball is going over the goal, stop making a dive when they see the ball going past the goal and so on. The new animations are small, but there's loads of them that really help to round out the whole package.
The stadiums also look utterly fantastic, all of them. The pitches, especially the actual grass looks a bit more realistic than before as some of the glass-like shine has been gotten rid of. The stadiums look good, but it's really the pitches themselves that look magnificent. There's clear distinction between different types of grass and each surface is quite close to how they look in real-life. None of the stadiums are named correctly, but you got Barcelona's Nou Camps and Manchester United's Old Trafford for example.
While the great crowd chants have been cut back a bit due to memory restrictions to bring in more animations, the audio commentary is great. It's in Japanese and I only understand some of it, but the passion and the feel of the commentary works superbly well. The music starts to grate after a while though. There's still room for improvement here as the crowd doesn't always react properly to the events on the pitch. It would nice to get a massive crowd chant going on while you are going for that winning goal in extra-time or hit the post in a tight situation. -- Thomas
Winning Eleven 6 Final Evolution is an stunning soccer game and an incredible improvement over WE6 and PES2 on which this is based. The finely-honed gameplay is the best it's ever been. The improvements are small, but they are exactly the kind of ones that have required hundreds of hours worth of testing and feedback. Compare this to PES2 and you will be amazed at the many improvements. There's very few niggles, but for experienced players, the game is a bit too easy in it's Master League mode and in general, even at the highest difficulty setting. Still, great stuff from the development team.
Arcadey and workman-like, but works well, if a tad slow. Far better than the slow-loading and visuals-over-usefulness method of EA's. 7.0
Superlative animation, vibrant and sharp arcade-style graphics. Everything feels and looks right. Amazingly well done MoCap. Stunning CGI-intro again too. 9.0
No more Queen, but great commentary and crunching sound-effects. Repetitive menu-music. Again. 8.5
Utterly addictive and loads of fun. Yet, there's still room for improvement. Just a bit. No slowdown! 9.6
Until the next game in the series arrives, this will be stuck in your PlayStation 2. That is if you like soccer games and the Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer series in general. 9.7
Football games have been done to death, right? If you already have FIFA 2003, then what's the point in splashing out for a Freeloader and an import copy of a game that's packed with as much Japanese text as you'd find in your average RPG?
Because, quite simply, the snappily titled World Soccer Winning Eleven 6 Final Evolution dumps on every other football sim from a great height.
It's an enhanced Japanese special edition of Pro Evolution Soccer 2, the massively successful PS2 title, and its appearance on Gamecube comes as something of a surprise.
The Pro Evo series is synonymous with Sony's consoles, having sold countless millions of copies along with a mountain of PlayStations, which is why we'd always assumed that Sony had some kind of exclusivity agreement with Konami. Happily for Gamecube owners, that's not the case.
The thing that sets it apart from all of the competition, including the recent Pro Evo-alike FIFA 2003, is a tangible feeling of solidity and control. Where other football sims, no matter how good, have some niggling fault that you have to try to ignore in order to have a decent game, Winning Eleven is as complete and thorough as you could hope for.
There are no cheesy goals, no unwelcome assistance from the computer and no way to win on the hardest difficulty setting without having a genuine understanding of the real sport.
Learning how to play it well is a daunting task. You'll need to start with the basic passes and shots before moving on to the intimidatingly complex stuff, which is explained via video demonstrations in the training mode. It's tough, but the rewards for perseverance are great.
A one-two pass in most football games is done via a simple double-tap of a button. Here you have to hold the left trigger, press pass, run into position, and press a different button depending on whether you want the return ball to be passed along the ground to your player's feet, chipped over the defence, or knocked into an empty area of the pitch for the player to chase.
Alternatively you could use the C-stick for better precision and this too can be combined with the shoulder buttons to select a high ball, low ball or through ball.
There are even more options for shooting, such as powerful shots, chipped shots, curling shots, dummies, and at least four different ways to take a free kick. When defending, you can put a foot in with two degrees of force or attempt a full-on sliding tackle.
If you have a defensive wall in place, you can make it jump, stand firm, or scatter to charge at the kicker. Pressing B will make any available defenders close in on the ball in open play. Pressing Y makes the keeper rush out for a spot of one-on-one play with an oncoming attacker.
There are special skills and evasive moves accessed via the Z-button and also dotted around the controller as seemingly undocumented extras - pressing shoot and pass, for example, activates a little shimmy move that wasn't explained in the tutorial.
If all that sounds needlessly complicated, the feeling of accomplishment when you actually master a new move shows that Konami's developers knew exactly what they were doing. Every move proves useful in many situations and, once you've learned something as devastating as the long-range hoof into the penalty area or the chipped one-two pass, you'll wonder how you ever managed to play without it.
The depth extends to the management and customisation options too. You can mess around with every setting, making subtle changes to the way the game plays, or create entire new teams using an editing mode that's flexible enough to recreate every club strip you could think of.
The more popular ones are included by default but, if you have a hankering for 1970s Liverpool or Marco van Basten's AC Milan, half-an-hour or so in front of the editing screen should be enough to rebuild the team of your dreams.
Thanks to Konami's FIFPro licence, the majority of the most famous players are all included, with the bizarre exception of the Dutch national squad - they're all called Oranges, which should certainly make for some interesting commentary if they ever get around to producing an English version.
Although it works best as a multiplayer game, the Master League option's combination of player-trading and giant-killing will keep solo players busy for weeks. There are also several cup competitions for club sides and national teams, as well as custom tournaments and a novel series of training minigames that will test how well your skills are progressing.
It may well be that you've already played Pro Evolution 2 for the PS2, in which case you might think the only point in getting this is for the novelty value of seeing it on Gamecube. However, there are a number of changes in this Final Evolution edition that make it play a much better all-round game and, according to the many people from various PS2 mags who've popped in to the NGC office for a quick match or three, the Gamecube version has nicer graphics.
We've noticed an annoying little glitch that makes the screen stutter for no obvious reason but, since it only seems to happens once or twice during the average ten-minute game, it isn't too off-putting.
On the bad side of things, the referees are consistent only in awarding instant red cards for seemingly innocuous incidents and never, ever playing the advantage. If your player gets fouled but stays on his feet and is certain to recover the ball, the referee will always blow his whistle and award a free kick anyway. Winning Eleven is definitely a non-contact sport.
The lack of first-time control shown by many players can mean an attack breaks down simply because your centre-forward is a Heskey rather than a Bergkamp but then there are plenty of management options to sort out underperforming teams.
The most truly annoying thing is that there appear to be no plans to release the game in Europe. Even PS2 owners won't get it, as the Final Evolution editions have always been for Japan only.
Instead we'll get the arcade-style ISS 3, which has been delayed by a couple of months and is nowhere near as good as Winning Eleven. If Konami won't bring it over here then Nintendo should pay them to publish it and bundle it with new Gamecubes. It's a system-selling game and one of the most compelling reasons to invest in a Freeloader disc.
Simulations of the beautiful game constitute one of the few genres in which GameCube has thus far failed to deliver. Now we can say ecstatically that this is no longer the case. As GameCube owners, we now have a world-beater of a football game. Konami Tokyo shoots… “Gooooooooaaaaaaaal!”
Right from the very first kick-off, you can just sense that this is a bit special. The ball feels perfectly weighted and it moves just as a real Fevernova does on real grass. How the bladder moves, of course, is the single most important factor in determining whether or not a football game succeeds. No joke. And in Winning Eleven 6 Final Evolution, it moves precisely as would a real size 5.
But the ball is only one third of the equation; the players and the pitch must also be spot-on. The Winning Eleven series has always boasted silky animation, but in this version player animation is exceptional. You’ll see them stumble, you’ll see them fall; they even show disappointment when things don’t go their way. Intricate footwork is clearly visible and eminently lifelike. Overhead kicks, diving headers and all the other flicks and tricks (and there are lots of skills that can be pulled off) are animated in such a way that by glazing your eyes it’s possible to dupe yourself into believing that you’re watching a match broadcast on TV, and the basics are just as polished. Players run and kick just like their real-life counterparts. The animation, however impressive for the most part, does just occasionally disappoint — the odd missing frame holds Winning Eleven 6 back from perfection in this regard. Still, the tremendous variety compensates for the infrequent misdemeanours.
Winning Eleven’s gameplay system has been honed over the years. The current format is unsurprisingly the one that best fits the game. Considering that this is the first Winning Eleven game on a home Nintendo console however (a J-League version of Winning Eleven was released for the Game Boy Advance last October), and that the GameCube pad is of a peculiar design, it’s surprising just how successfully the controls have been translated from the PS2’s Dual Shock. As it happens, the GameCube controller’s analogue stick offers perfect control — in some ways surpassing the level of control that is afforded by the Dual Shock’s stick. The C-stick is also utilised, quickly kicking the ball in the direction inputted. This is great when you’re in the middle of a scrap for the ball and suddenly find it at your feet. Holding the R trigger causes the player under your control to burst into a sprint, while the L trigger maintains closer control by sacrificing some speed of movement.
Other controls are more obvious in effecting passes and shots of different types and also slide tackles and blocks. You can do everything/anything possible within the laws of physics. And, cleverly, Winning Eleven encourages the combination of different commands in order to pull off more moves and kicks than it initially appears are available. Rest assured, in practice it all happens naturally. Wonderfully so. What’s more, all the action can be viewed from pretty much whichever angle you find to be most conducive to good football. You can even play vertically, a la Kick Off, if you so desire. For our money, the standard ‘TV’ camera is just about perfect (I go for the most zoomed out possible to get the biggest visible area of pitch meself — pedantic Ed).
Superficially, Final Evolution doesn’t disappoint. Presentation is admittedly little more than functional, though menus are clear and pre-match cutscenes are well shot. Visually, in-game, Final Evolution is not a stunner like Virtua Striker 3, but it does look more impressive than FIFA and ISS. It has a certain dry quality, however — evidenced in its pitches and stadiums, particularly — that distinguishes it from the crowd. Final Evolution doesn’t just play like real football — it resembles it too. And, amazingly, it sounds like it. Crowds chant and cheer, boo and hiss, in good spirit or bad, and it’s always obvious exactly what they’re shouting about. Man, even Jon Kabira and Tetsuo Nakanishi are up for it (see ‘Not John Motson!’ boxout). Plus, of course, all the current statistics and squads are in place. However, one of the best things about Final Evolution from the perspective of united statisticians and gaijin, is that so much of it can be edited. Players, teams, kits, and names… you can edit the lot if you’re that way inclined.
Is there anything that Final Evolution gets wrong? No, there isn’t.
So there you have it. You could of course add extra features/modes/teams/stadiums to what’s already here on this little disc, but as for the game at the core of it all, well, it would be very hard to improve that. In multiplayer, the strength of Final Evolution’s gameplay really comes to the fore. With four pads, you can play two versus two, one versus three, or or four against the computer! And all of you will be fully in control, yet matches are nearly always eventful and never less than thoroughly entertaining, not because of dodgy CPU interaction, but thanks to the fact that anything can happen. Every match is a fresh canvas on which you can stamp your own style of play. Winning Eleven is about being creative, and as anyone who’s ever played with Lego can attest, our creative instincts when satisfied leave us feeling most rewarded.
As an import, Winning Eleven 6 Final Evolution is well worth investing in. Okay, you will have to navigate menus full of Japanese script, but without a PAL release in sight there’s no reason to let that put you off. If there’s one reason to get a Freeloader (unless you already have an import Cube, of course) then Final Evolution is it. What a game!
95%
March 10, 2003 - In the US, soccer is a fickle sport. Yes, there is a litany of soccer fans here, but by comparison to say, England, France, Brazil, heck, any place, Cameroon, Niger, the support for professional soccer simply pales in comparison in the world. Soccer is definitely growing in the US, however, and each and every year the major publishers take a stab at improving their games on a multitude of systems in addition to capitalizing on the growing popularity of the professional sport. Starting with its excellent rendition of International Superstar Soccer on Nintendo 64 in 1997, Konami has soared like a comet into the scene and has slowly cut into Electronic Arts' FIFA series grip on the sport (though it's still established in the top ranks across the world). But if you speak with a dedicated, life-long videogame soccer fan anywhere but in the US (with a few exceptions), they'll tell you that Konami's game is the one to beat.
Following the minimalist ESPN MLS Extra Time on PS2 in April 2001, which catered to US ESPN presentation trends and which lacked the options, depth and gameplay of its European counterparts, this year's Winning Eleven Six International betters its predecessor in numerous ways. As a side note, it should be known that Konami is a strange bird when it comes to soccer. This version of the game is a tweaked rendition ofPro Evolution Soccer 2, which is in turn an altered version of Winning Eleven Six, which hit Japan some months back. You could call this Winning Eleven 6.5, and that would be right, sort of, but Konami tweaks each version for the territory, so they're all different in strange and slightly illogical ways. But in the end, what's important is that this 11-on-11 beast delivers an excellent game of soccer, and that it does, that it does.
According to Konami, the game of soccer is a straight-on simulation design. It's not based on arcade-style play. The closer to the way professional soccer players kick, slide, sprint and leap, the better. What this translates to is a game that places a high importance on timely passing, strategic formation and pure gaming skill. You're not likely to sprint down the pitch, faking and juking like Maradona, and slam one in. That's FIFA. In fact, newbies to the game will find that they're not scoring very much at first, or in fact, at all. Games often end up in 1-0 or 2-1 finales. This is a game designed as a simulation and then tweaked and tuned to be fun, slightly forgiving and of course, well balanced.
Despite its less than perfect graphic appeal and slightly cumbersome menu interface, Winning Eleven Six International plays beautifully. The controls are simple and intuitive, yet there's an amazing level of layered depth that goes beyond the initial level. The game is superbly designed to create plays naturally, using crosses and pass-throughs, and it boasts an enormous sense of finesse while dribbling or vying for an opponent controlled ball. The controls are as follows, X for pass, Square for shooting, Circle for lobbing/crossing, with R1 as sprint, and L1 used to enact more complex moves (like lobs, ground passes, etc.). On defense, players use X or Square to defend closely, a nice newer touch to the game, and Circle to slide tackle. The goalie is automatically controlled, except for goal kicks and shootouts. In shootouts, it's just Triangle and a direction. Like I said before, the controls are great, and if you haven't used them before, it only takes a few minutes to get going.
However, technically, the game delivers a subtle style of soccer that might be easy to learn, but it takes a lot of time to master. Players probably won't score in their first game, which is why we strongly recommend playing through the tutorial before jumping into a season. The controls are very sensitive, especially the shooting controls. One can master them, and they're well balanced, but it takes a long time to learn how to keep a ball on the ground during a shot, which can be frustrating to the newcomer and in the heat of a moment, a little frustrating. Slamming the shot button is more akin to a football field goal, not a soccer shot. Even moderately hitting down the shot button often results in a monster kick. This isn't a matter of poor control; rather it's a matter of learning to grow accustomed to the game's subtleties.
Several other changes improve Winning Eleven Six International. The pace of the game has slowed down a bit; varying running speeds are properly brought into the game. In the old PS one games, fast players such as Brazil's Roberto Carlos could basically run around the pitch and go past 99% of the defenders due to his speed. Over the years, Konami has opted to change this, so that slower defenders could snag players with fast running attributes. This became annoying and took some of the shine off the attacking gameplay. In Winning Eleven Six International, Konami has achieved great balance between player speeds, and the combination of new animations helps to create this balance visually. For instance, if you run with the ball utilizing a fast player and have gained some momentum, the slower defenders will have problems stopping you. They'll try to bump you off the ball and both players use their arms to push each other away in a very realistic manner. While battling for the ball like this for dozens of yards doesn't look that realistic, the system still works well. Skilled attacking players can shake off defenders and leave them in their wake or try to dribble around them.
The slower pace of the game helps the dribbling aspect. The Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer series has always been notable for giving players the ability to create great plays and moves. One can hold onto the ball for a while now instead of having to kick it all over the pitch as the defensive team unrealistically runs to each attacking player trying to steal it. The slower pace and improved dribbling enables skilled players like Zidane to weave through a few opposing players with great skill and make great passes even under pressure. This doesn't mean it's always possible to perform Maradona-style runs all the time because the defending play also has been improved, but not losing the ball as soon as you hit an opposing player has a drastic, positive impact on gameplay. Sometimes the ball can bounce to your advantage and sometimes it doesn't.
Crossing has reached a new height of balance and beauty. It's possible to reach a forward player on the edge of an offside position only for him to escape the defenders and streak toward the goalie one on one. Also, good passing players can accurately make long high passes straight into the path of running players. In general, the passing has been improved. Through-balls work far better than before. If you have a player that can pass the ball well, it's now possible to put the ball straight in front of the feet of your advancing forward while he's in the middle of defenders.
Shooting also harkens back to the old days. While I mentioned that shooting is a skill that requires a good dose of patience and time spent playing, when you do learn it, it's excellent. You can unleash seriously powerful drives just outside the goalie box that seem to rip the goal's net right off the crossbars. It's quite difficult to score with long shots, however, which again reinforces players the need to put in some serious time before growing really good. Even if it's still strangely difficult to hit a target when you're facing the center of the goal, all in all, the shooting element of Winning Eleven Six International is well done.
The AI is tough. AI-controlled teams are deadly in their set pieces. It's not a good idea to give Rivaldo or Beckham a chance to try and score from a free kick near the penalty area. While the defender AI has in general improved, there's still an occasional problem with the center fullbacks. They often allow a midfield player the chance to run straight into the box as neither of them move in to block until it's too late. Also, it's a bit too easy and common to keep hold of the ball in the opposing teams penalty area, it's just a bit unrealistic and hard to defend against. The goalkeepers have gained many new animations and are certainly the toughest they have ever been in the series. You'll feel great relief in these goalies, as they block high and corner shots and they seem to make the best, most logical plays toward the ball. The only case when the goalies seemed to perform poorly is when the attacking team is in a one-on-one situation. In these cases, they tend to come straight out of the goalie box, leaving a lot of opportunity for attackers to score. The solution, of course, is never to let the attacking team in that situation.
The game offers a substantial set modes. It includes Match League, League Mode, Cup Mode, Master League Mode, Training Mode or Edit mode. There is a phenomenal amount of customization players can become involved in, from tooling their leagues, their players looks and gear, their formations, and the like. I don't care much for the menu system, which is designed more like an old IBM operating system that a game front end, but if you can navigate through these things successfully, you're be able to truly customize your game.
Additionally, what's great about this game is that you can play against, at maximum, as many as seven other players. Using two multitaps it can indeed be done. Players can vie head to head, in one-on-one matches, or team up to play cooperatively. A good one-on-one game is excellent fun, and a two-on-two game provides an even deeper feeling of depth, competition and challenge.
While the gameplay is superb, for whatever reason, the visuals in Winning Eleven Six International aren't as sharp as their Japanese or European counterparts. Let me break it into pieces for you. The animations are smooth and excellent, the ball physics are outright superb, and the replays, CG, and intros are all well done, right down to confetti filled stadia. It's just that the in-game visuals suffer a bit due to some pretty consistent slowdown and a lack of visual detail. To be fair, the visual detail is hardest hit when the camera is pulled back. Angles such as Wide and Normal Long make the players look generic and anonymous. But it doesn't speed up the graphics. Bringing the game to a Normal Short perspective will show you how this version actually looks.
Up close, many of the players look like their real-life counterparts. The facial models are good, and if you are a soccer fan you'll instantly recognize your favorites by their hair, facial structure and eye color. You can particularly see the facial details in the in-game cutscenes, and in the closer camera angles.
The animation is where the real magic is. They're more complex than before, and they're a surprisingly good many new moves that one wouldn't realize were missing until after spending some quality time with the game. Goalkeepers tip the ball over the bar, throw their hands up to signal that the ball is going over the goal, stop making a dive when they see the ball going past the goal and so on. The new animations are small, but there are loads of them, and they really help to create a well-rounded package.
The stadiums also look utterly fantastic -- all of them. The pitches, especially the actual grass looks a bit more realistic than before, as some of the glass-like shine has eliminated. The fields are just short of magnificent. There's a clear distinction between different types of grass and each surface is quite close to how they look in real life.
Overall, the sound effects and music are good; not great, but good. The best effects are heard in the roar of the crowd, the solid variety and style of the announcers, and the simple sound of soccer itself -- goalies booting the ball, players sprinting and dribbling, and referee whistles blaring. The music accompanying the introductions is excellent, and the options respectable. You can only switch from stereo to mono, and you can actually tune the audio commentary or simply turn it off. One can switch between English, French, German, Italian or Spanish on the fly too. Announcer Peter Brackley and game analyst Trevor Brooking generally perform an excellent job in the commentary department, with less repetition and smarter things to say than in Konami's last effort.
The only thing that hurts this game's audio section is the incredibly poor tunes that seem to eke out of the speakers during replays and the like. The music bears an incredible resemblance to the cheesy filth that drowned '80s radio listeners 20 years ago. It's incredibly Velveeta. I mean, Madonna's first album was more classy that this stuff (and I actually liked her first album). But the point is, it's synthy dance music at its worst, and pretty much anything but Bill Joel would be better. It must be a Konami thing.
While EA strives to maintain its arcade-style of play and simultaneously edge closer in play to Konami's die-hard simulation, Konami's excellent soccer team continues to improve its unrivaled game of "football." I've come to the conclusion, actually I came to it a while back, that the Winning Eleven series isn't for everybody. It's a great game to be sure, and in my opinion, the best soccer game on PS2 hands-down, but it takes time to learn and master its subtleties. It's not quite as open and easy as other soccer games are.
The upside to this, however, is that Winning Eleven 6 International is insanely deep, incredibly polished, and a remarkably intense game of videogame soccer. And you won't find anything that comes close to it on PS2. If you love the game of soccer, and you're willing to try something besides FIFA, then you must own this game. Heck, scratch that: just go buy it now.
-- Douglass C. Perry
Great intros, cutscenes, and CG, but the menus are clumsy and may occasionally lose you. 8.0
Using a close-up camera angle, the level of detail is impressive, but even with a medium angle, it's poor. The variety and depth of animations are superb. 8.0
Good sound effects from the crowd and better than average commentary. The silly chintzy '80s music is so bad it's funny. 8.5
Rock solid sim-style gameplay that's deep and rewarding on offense and defense. Smart goalies, good pacing, great ball physics; average framerate, intuitive but occasionally frustrating controls. 9.2
You can play dozens of seasons without growing tired of the varied play. Then you can hook up two Multi-taps and play against as many as seven others! Damn!
Hopefully they'll not tamper too much with this winning formula when developing the inevitable Winning Eleven 7 and Pro Evo Soccer 3. But on their comparisons to PES2, I don't agree about the crossing being floaty and useless, or that long passes are now easier to hit (inferring that the were difficult before). And I don't like the sound of the game being slower, when it already was the slowest ISS/PES game ever. On the positive, good to hear the passing is generally better, which is a bit of a gripe with PES2. And the strict referees is actually good. I've personally found them way too lenient in the past, even in the ISS games where they can be set to strict! In PES2, if a player got past me, I'd just cripple him, almost with impunity. If the referees are really too strict, as the review suggests, I'd suggest it's more a case of him not being used to them. Unfortunately there's no word in any of the reviews on the real gripe of PES2: the attacking AI and pass-receiving AI. Essentially they don't attack quickly enough, or chase balls and errant or short passes. But more on that in the mini PES2 update review soon. In the meantime, it's time we got hold of Final Evolution for the Gamecube! With four-player capability, and as a cross-platform curiousity, it's a must. Especially to determine just how much better than PES2 it really is.
