Sport sims are always about putting you into the professional player’s shoes and experiencing the atmosphere of the matches. EA’s Fifa series has been running for a fairly long time now and at the same time, Japan’s Winning Eleven has managed to gain a fair share of fans too. So lets see how Konami’s latest “World Soccer: Winning Eleven DS” fairs.

By default, settings are set at the beginner’s level with the CPU switching players automatically so that you can supposedly catch up with the opponent. It actually does a fairly poor job at it because I found that very often the CPU would suddenly switch players whenever I finally caught up with the ball. Thankfully, I could switch to manual player changing under options.

Controls overall are fairly slick although this varies depending on your player’s stats. Along the bottom of the screen, you can adjust how offensive or defensive your team formation is. The only problem I had about it was the passes. Sometimes it feels as if you players only give a half-hearted kick at the ball. It ends up in front of an opponent before you can switch players to react.


World Tour has over 50 teams to play against.
There are quite a few standard modes to enjoy including the standard Exhibition and PK Match where you can pick two preset teams to compete. Then there’s the World Tour which, as the name suggests, allows you to travel around the world challenging various teams with your very own custom made team. It’s quite a long run depending on your settings with over 50 different teams up for a match before you complete the tour. It’s not as long as the leagues presented by the recently released Fifa 2007 unfortunately. Next up, there’s the Konami Cup which allows you to pick between 4, 8 or 16 teams to compete in a knockout competition. If you don’t know what teams to pick then don’t worry because there’s a randomiser to help you quickly sort it all out.

No matter what mode you play, you can set the difficulty just before a match and at hard, the AI is aggressive enough to give you a fair challenge. It’s always onto you so you never have time to stand around.