Winning Eleven 7

Publisher: VU Games
Developer: KCET
Genre: Soccer Sim
Release Date: Apr 9, 2004
ESRB: EVERYONE

Customization: Editing Tools
Offline Modes: Competitive, Team Oriented
Number of Players: 1-2

It may have official FIFA PC licensing; it may have dominated the genre for the better part of a decade; and it may have climbed to such a lofty position of strength that it's driven away virtually every contender. However, Electronic Arts' celebrated FIFA Soccer series may not have the PC footie market cornered after all. Fresh off its 2004 revision, in which the game's producers have once again shown a disturbing recent penchant for sitting idly upon the throne, the FIFA series is also now in the midst of taking a full-on broadside from an exciting newcomer. With World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International, Konami brings its console soccer hit to the PC for the first time and, in the process, proves that EA's reign is suddenly as shaky as the San Andreas Fault. Whether it's superior overall to the durable EA franchise is open to interpretation, but one thing is clear: Winning Eleven 7 is a superb game that sounds great, looks impressive, and gets the most important element--playability--just right. No true PC soccer fan should buy into the EA FIFA machine this year without first investigating Konami's superb alternative.

As the title suggests ("Winning Eleven" stands for the number of players on a soccer side and "7" stands for the number of annual revisions in the game's history), Winning Eleven 7 is far from a brand-new series. In fact, it has existed in the console realm since 1996. Granted, North America didn't get its first taste of the game until 2003's Winning Eleven 6, when Konami released it for the PlayStation 2 crowd. But this is the first time we've seen it in PC form, and it's not a moment too soon.

When EA's FIFA Soccer rose to prominence in the latter part of the last decade, it did so with a solid combination of presentation and user immersion. Featuring full FIFA licensing--which allowed EA to use all the real-world players, teams, and stadiums--and EA's masterful 3D graphics and animation technology, FIFA's visuals simply blew its competitors away. Its lengthy roster of user options certainly didn't hurt, nor did its gameplay experience, which represented a clever balance of detailed team management and coaching decisions, as well as an ever-growing inventory of player actions and moves. Still, recent editions have not exactly been filled with innovations, especially in terms of the product on the pitch. What had once seemed like amazing gameplay back in the late '90s began to feel arcadelike and fanciful. Could real-life players pull off the moves you'd see on a FIFA Soccer pitch? No. Could one real-life team completely dominate another in every facet of the game and outshoot and out-chance them by the widest of margins, only to ultimately lose because some unseen force wanted it that way? No. Did an EA game really feel like the pass-happy, calculated, and sometimes plodding experience of a real-world FIFA game? Not usually.

Conversely, Winning Eleven 7 plays very realistically indeed. In all truth, very casual PC soccer players may not notice much of a difference between the two approaches. Moreover, those who prefer a fast and more-whimsical game that often keeps things interesting by maintaining an undeserved tight score may even prefer the EA game. Nonetheless, Konami's latest soccer extravaganza will most likely satisfy those serious soccer students who've grown somewhat disenchanted with the EA methodology.

Minimum System Requirements
System: Intel Pentium III 800MHz or equivalent (Athlon/Duron/Celeron) or equivalent
RAM: 128 MB
Hard Drive Space: 640 MB
Other: Nvidia GeForce 3 or ATI Radeon 8500 video card; DirectX 8.1-compatible sound card

Recommended System Requirements
System: ; Intel Pentium IV 1.4GHz processor or equivalent
RAM: 256 MB
Hard Drive Space: 1200 MB
Other: Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti, ATI Radeon 9600 or higher video card; DirectX 8.1-compatible sound card

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