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Winning Eleven 6: Final Evolution

by Lasse Pallesen - March 2, 2003, 12:57 am EST

It’s actually quite refreshing to play a soccer game that doesn't rely on "flying tackles" and "supershots" that turn the ball into some kind of flaming projectile of destruction.

Of all soccer games currently available for GameCube, only EA’s FIFA series and Konami’s own Jikkyou World Soccer 2002 (ISS 2 in Europe) have tried to – seriously – mimic real-life soccer. After having played Winning Eleven 6, I can safely say that none of them comes close to matching this game’s outstanding level of realism. In fact, it makes them feel shallow and uninteresting in comparison.

The pace of the game is slightly lower compared to Konami’s other soccer offering. This takes away the arcade-like feel, giving the player more time to think and plan their attack. In this way, the emphasis is put on out-smarting your opponent rather than simply being a battle of quick reactions. Oftentimes, you have to play the ball around a lot before finding an opening – if you just blaze forward, it will likely result in an opposing counter-attack. Patience is often key when building up an effective attack.

Another thing that separates Winning Eleven from its competitors is the sheer amount moves, passes, and shots at your disposal. Whether you’re jumping over a sliding tackle, performing dribble feints or making a high through ball or a one-two pass, you’re constanly confronted with options and decisions. Of course, this means that the controls can be quite difficult to get to grips with. Often you need to press two (or sometimes even three) buttons at once to carry out a certain move. It can be overwhelming for beginners, but with a little practice it won’t be as much of an issue. Besides, Konami can hardly be blamed for the limited number of buttons on the GC controller.

Furthermore, you really sense that each match has a certain uniqueness. For example, some matches are characterised by ”uneventful” midfield play with next to no scoring opportunities occuring, while others are highly intense affairs, where the play on the field flows quickly back and forth. Others are marked by a lot of free kicks and bookings and brutal tackles. I don’t know exactly how Konami managed to make the matches feel so different from each other, but one of the reasons must be the outstanding artificial intelligence (AI). Particularly, when playing on the harder difficulty settings, the AI is merciless when it comes to taking advantage of your mistakes. At times, the CPU players play almost as unpredictably as a human being would, which is a huge compliment.

The attention to detail is also reflected in the visuals. From the start, you’re treated to a highly impressive FMV. The in-game graphics are also solid. Player animation is fluid and varied. There are literally dozens of different shooting, passing, and dribbling animations, and none of them look exaggerated or unrealistic. Furthermore, grass textures are equally superb with bump-mapping nicely used to create a proper 3D effect. At times, though, it does become evident that this is a PS2 port (though a graphically slightly enhanced one). The player faces are not that detailed and don’t resemble their real-life counterparts nearly as much as in FIFA 2003. Also, the people standing outside the pitch (officials, journalists, etc.) appear to be low resolution and completely flat. Likewise, the crowds consist of jerky 2-D sprites. Fortunately, you won’t notice this much during a match, because the camera is almost contantly focused on the pitch itself.



The goalkeepers are slightly too tough, making it extremely difficult to score with a long shot. The game encourages gamers to play their way through the opposing defence, but sometimes it would be nice to pound the ball into the back of the net from 40 yards out. That would also add another strategic element to the gameplay, as it would force defenders to pull forward to block a possible long shot. Another flaw is the lack of real club teams, such as Real Madrid, Juventus, Man Utd. Instead, players choose between cities: London, Dublin, Amsterdam, and so on. It must be a licensing issue, but it definitely takes away some of the authenticity.

Apart from these minor issues, there’s very little wrong with Winning Eleven. At the end of the day, the real question is, should you import this game? Well, you don’t really have a choice. The chance of seeing it outside of Japan is depressingly small, particularly given its poor sales performance thus far. Konami won’t risk it. Fortunately, Winning Eleven 6 is quite import-friendly. Even though all text is in Japanese, the menus are easy enough to navigate, especially if you’re an ISS veteran. The commentary is also in Japanese, but it’s highly enjoyable to listen to because the commentators are so enthusiastic. What’s more, there is an extensive and addictive training mode that, very pedagogically, teaches you the fundamentals as well as some of the special moves. It’s a brilliant training system that makes the language barrier that much easier to get past. If you have the means, soccer fans should seriously consider importing Winning Eleven 6.

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Genre Sports
Developer Konami
Players1 - 4

Worldwide Releases

jpn: Winning Eleven 6: Final Evolution
Release Jan 30, 2003
PublisherKonami
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