N-Philes

Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007

Posted March 21st 2007 by Terry Harjanto.

It's been a long time since I've played soccer, virtual or otherwise. Being the atypical geek who avoids physical activity as much as possible, playing Konami's Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 for the Nintendo DS was a refreshing experience that reminded me of my young childhood days when I couldn't afford videogames.

At first the game may feel a little clunky and unresponsive, but this is actually because the game mimics real life physics. Just like in real soccer, a player can't quickly turn on a dime. A player running at full speed with the ball will require a lot of space and time to turn to the left or right. A player can quickly and completely reverse his direction, but this requires both ball and player come to a full stop and results in lost momentum. Shooting and passing are subject to the same virtual laws of physics: simply pressing the shoot button won't cause the ball to instantly fly across the screen. Instead, the player will actually go through a kicking animation before the ball will go anywhere.

The controls work well both in the menu interface and on the soccer field. The touch screen is especially useful for quickly and effectively tweaking the formations. Using the stylus also makes it a breeze to navigate some of the larger menus such as the player roster. The on-field game may feel unresponsive at first because of the "real-life" lag where the players on the virtual field actually have to go through a full kicking animation to take a shot at the net, but the game certainly won't ignore the buttons that you press. You can, for example, press the pass button twice in quick succession and the players will pass the ball back and forth among themselves provided that the ball isn't intercepted.

There's a variety of game modes included in Pro Evolution Soccer 2007. The free-training allows you to get the hang of everything within the game from moving your players around the field, to passing the ball around, to free and penalty kicks. Match games involves you picking a team, an opposing team, and deciding whom is the better team on the soccer field. Also included in the game is a bracketed tournament mode which simply strings together a series of match games for you.

The main attraction, though, is the World Tour mode where your goal is to beat all of the national teams that are included in the game. You first start off with your own original team of generic players. Every time you win a match you earn coins and these are then spent to put players from other teams onto your roster with the intent of boosting your team's performance. These new players, however, doesn't change how the game is played. They may have better statistics, but on the field it's nearly impossible to genuinely notice a ten point increase in passing accuracy.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 also features many other areas in the game which can be customized, but these also change very little about the game. You can draw your own team emblem, customize the players on your team, the player positions, attack strategies, defense strategies, field formations, and even create your own personal formation. But all of this planning and work is mostly superficial or shallow. The overall feel of the game doesn't really change unless you do something completely radical and silly, like putting all your players in one corner of the field.

The graphics and sound are just as disappointing and shallow as the customization features in the game. When you first load up a match you'll find yourself in the only soccer stadium available in the game which looks fuzzy due to highly compressed textures. All of the players share the same character models and their animation has a mechanical look to them. The only thing that visually matters is the ball and the different jersey colors of the two teams on the field. Overall, the game isn't visually stimulating and it doesn't help when the frame rate takes a noticeable hit whenever a large amount of players are on the screen.

There's also nothing spectacular about the sound. The crowd makes a dull roar which is barely noticeable. The only sound that is clearly audible is that of the ball being kicked around the field and the occasional referee whistle. Every time the ball makes it way into a net the commentator will hoarsely scream out a horribly compressed "IT'S A GOAAAL!" sound byte. The menu interface music is pretty decent, but this isn't a sport team management simulation. The playing field itself sounds as if it's devoid of life.

The menus throughout the game are well organized and nicely presented. The transitions between screens are short and quick. The multiplayer options also add a little bit of length to the game. Playing online means you'll be subjected to lag and but multiplayer matches are kept synchronized and you won't have to worry about players moving erratically around the field. The single cart multiplayer and Nintendo WFC options will also definitely catch the attention of major soccer fans since these two multiplayer features are missing from the latest version of EA's competing FIFA DS game.

Slight Pulse - Good for rabid soccer fans that are too

tired from rioting at stadiums to play the real sport.

The game may mostly be the same no matter what you customize, but it's still fun to play and does a good job of implementing life-like physics. Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 is a decent sports game to play in short bursts if you need to fill in some spare time. This game will definitely appeal to soccer fans looking for an online match, but those who aren't interested in soccer won't be motivated enough to play it for extended periods of time.

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