- Title: Winning Eleven 2007
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Publisher: Konami
- Developer: KCET
- ESRB: “E” for Everyone
- Genre: Soccer
- Pros: Great gameplay; plenty of features and modes; good achievements; $50 pricetag
- Cons: Doesn’t look as pretty as FIFA; lack of licenses is annoying; lower difficulty levels are way too easy
Features and Modes
Winning Eleven 2007 offers up several modes including a number of different tournaments to play through as well as the amazingly deep Master League mode where you take control of a team and try to work your way up through the ranks to the top tier of teams. Online play is well implemented and works fairly smoothly. All in all, there is enough to do here that you’ll be playing for months.
Where WE2007 stumbles, however, is in the lack of licenses. This has always been a problem with the Winning Eleven series, but this year it really stands out as an issue when you compare it to EA’s offerings. Some official clubs and players are represented, but most of them aren’t and what you get is an odd mishmash of real teams and phony ones that may or may not have real players. One particularly disappointing thing is that the United States national team does not have the real players, which just seems incredibly odd to me.
You do get over the lack of licenses fairly quickly, thanks to the great gameplay, but it continues to be a sore spot in a series that is otherwise as close to perfect as you can get.
Gameplay
One thing that is worth mentioning is that you should not play this game on the lower difficulty settings. It is an absolute joke. I was just going for easy achievement points and playing through tournaments with the Italy national team on the lowest setting, and not only did the CPU never score, they never even got a shot off. You can run the ball all the way up the field with the goalkeeper and easily score goals with him on the lowest couple of settings. Do yourself a favor and start out somewhere in the middle difficulty. You’ll appreciate the game all the more.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically, Winning Eleven 2007 looks nice, but it isn’t quite on the same level as the FIFA games. Similar to the license issues, the graphics have always been a step behind the competition in the WE games. What it lacks in visual detail, however, it more than makes up for in the sheer number of animations and the lifelike way the players make their way around the field.The sound is adequate, but not great. The commentary team of Peter Brackley and Sir Trevor Brooking do a good job of calling the action and they don’t repeat themselves too often.
Bottom Line
