| smbhax [sys=PS2; cat=Sports; reg=NA] |
| | | An understated stunner. At first the control feels jerky, the graphics look blocky, the menus seem dense and you can't make sense of the bumbling announcers. But after playing a match or two the feeling of watching, and now participating in, a professional football match really sinks in.
It's mainly the passing I think, or maybe the fact that your teammates actually seem to know what they're doing (while I'm the ball-hogging blunderer). You can't just pound the ball downfield arcade-style here, it'll get taken away immediately and not only that, they'll probably counter-attack and threaten your goal pretty severely. Also, you can't hack away on defense--I managed two red cards on my first two slide-tackles. Darn floppers! =P
There's an amazing amount of depth here and I've quite literally only skimmed the surface of the menus (the only-semi-interactive tutorial mode sucks, however). I can only imagine what an 8-player multiplayer match would be like.
Pity that they don't have the license to use the real club and player names (darn FIFA) but if you care enough you can, of course, customize those in the Edit mode. |
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| | | This and 7 seem to be the highest rated on PS2 these days (and the PS3 ones don't run so well in RPCS3). Quite cheap on eBay now (some later ones are $$$) (I sold my old copy years ago); 7 doesn't have a widescreen patch in PCSX2 so I went for this one. Also apparently https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/562479-world-soccer-winning-eleven-6-international/reviews/167356 the last one with announcer Peter Brackley, who later passed away, and I guess he was good?
I actually like that they don't have the official licenses for big leagues and some players, makes it feel less FIFA-ish. You can just jump in, set a random easy match, and have some good fun knocking the ball around if you want. |
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| | | | This one also has a rather offbeat and colorful menu system. |
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| | | | Konami is still in the game with free-to-play eFootball on Steam these days but they use AI in development so I didn't try it. |
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| | | | Later J-only release (there were 4 versions of 6 on PS2?) "Winning Eleven 6 Final Evolution" (also came to GC) has roster & gameplay updates, but as far as I can tell doesn't actually have English-language announcers, or an English menu text option--and it doesn't have a widescreen patch in PCSX2. |
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| | | | Looks like Zidane is still playing in this version ; ) so he's in all three footy games I'll have here that all feel like they're from different game eras: Sensi (see entry 1478), Sega Worldwide Soccer '98 (see entry 2066), and this one. |
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| | | | Ah those user scores summaries on GameFAQs were from Gamerankings and were actually cross-platform so that could have confused things. PS2-wise people seem to say "PES6" was the best, which in the States (that was EU) is Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007. I looked at that one but it's definitely more sim than arcade, whereas World Soccer Winning Eleven 6 International (PES2 in Europe) is way more arcadey--players move less haltingly, are bigger on-screen, etc. And I like the arcade style a lot more. |
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| | | PES1/WE5 (EU/J) was "ESPN MLS ExtraTime 2002" in the States. ; D MLS clubs (& Disney logo!!) rather than EU ones, only US stadiums, American announcers, camera zoomed in a bit TOO much, much more awkward to control.
Of the early PS2 ones it's only WE7 without a widescreen patch.
7 feels very smooth but in that sense is losing a fraction of the arcade dash. 8 starts the zoomed out, jerkier sim style.
The first game was "Goal Storm" in the US--released before J actually--and is totally arcade, nutty graphics and really hard to control. The later PS1 titles are kind of remarkable for the graphics they put out, but probably a tad slower than the PS2 versions. |
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| | | | Per MobyGames, Shingo Takatsuka--often credited as SEABASS Takatsuka--directed and served as main programmer of the series through Winning Eleven 6. He held non-main programmer as well as supervisory roles in many of the later games, and was often credited with "Original Conceptualisation." |
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| | | I've seen mentions that there's a bug in 6 that causes the two commentators to talk over each other--which I was surprised to read, because I don't think I ever noticed it.
Checking now, the actual mentions I find of it are from what seem to be UK players. The game came out 4/25/02 in J, 10/25/02 in EU, and 3/11/03 in US--could the bug have been fixed for the US release? I'll have to keep my ears open. There's a good chance I just didn't catch it.
(I looked up a bit more on Peter Brackley, whose last edition this turned out to be before his death, and read a few mentions of him being considered one of the best all-time sports commentators--so another reason to keep an ear out.) |
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| | | Download added: 00_renderbass.jpg (19620 bytes)
"From the back of the case"
The bottom left corner of the main area of the back of the case says
~~~
Developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, Inc.
Producer: Seabass Takatsuka
~~~
in very tiny letters under the bottom screenshot. There's a small "renderware" logo to the right. |
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| | | | Ah whoops that's "RenderWare." ^ _^ |
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| | | Club key (adapted largely from https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/562479-world-soccer-winning-eleven-6-international/faqs/25189):
Celt = Celtic
Connacht = Rangers
Aragon = Manchester United
London = Arsenal
Liguria = Chelsea
Europort = Liverpool
Yorkshire = Leeds United
Lake District = West Ham United
Highlands = Newcastle United
Dublin = Aston Villa
Cataluna = Barcelona
Navarra = Real Madrid
Andalucia = Valencia
Cantabria = Deportivo de La Coruña
Provence = Monaco
Languedoc = Marseille
Normandie = Paris
Medoc = Bordeaux
Rijnkanaal = Ajax
Noordzeekanaal = Feyenoord
Flandre = PSV
Marche = Inter
Piemonte = Juventus
Lombardia = Milan
Umbria = Lazio
Emilia = Parma
Toscana = Fiorentina
Abruzzi = Roma
Westfalen = Dortmund
Anhalt = Bayern Munich
Ruhr = Bayer Leverkusen
Rheinland = Hamburg
Peloponnisos = Olympiacos
Byzantinobul = Galatasaray
Maramara = Dynamo Kiev
Valdai = Spartak Moscow
Selvas = Vasco da Gama
Mato Grosso = Palmeiras
Pampas = River Plate
Patagonia = Boca Juniors |
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| | | | This was the first PS2 Winning Eleven in the States--5 had been in Europe (PES). |
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4:26 - "International Cup"
12:09 - France v Senegal (Group stage)
27:48 - France v Uruguay (Group stage)
42:36 - Denmark v France (Group stage)
56:39 - Thierry gets put-back
Zidane & Thierry! = D
A whole TWO stars difficulty this time since I'm such a tuff guy. 'p' Still a bit too easy so far, I wonder if it'll get tougher as the Cup continues. Although I seem to stink in the 2nd half of the matches--I guess that's players getting fatigued? But I don't want to take my stars out. ; D
They don't seem to have had a World Cup license here so you just gotta plug the teams in yourself. ; D They've got all the nations that were in the 2002 WC plus some others. |
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| | | Uploaded my 600 dpi scan of the manual:
https://archive.org/details/world-soccer-winning-eleven-6-international-ps2-manual-us |
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