World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International

A model for realistic sports across the board, with physics, player behavior, and animations that raise the bar. Seriously hard-core sport is rarely this accessible and fun.

The level of quality it has maintained is remarkable. In terms of gameplay and depth, there's no question that Winning Eleven 7 is the soccer game to own. [Mar 2004, p.82]

The gameplay engine is brilliant, not only for its attention to detail, but also for its perpetual challenge. I don’t think I can categorize the gameplay as “easy to pick up, but difficult to master” but I never think I’m being cheated by the CPU.

Everything from the animations to the character models and textures to the cutscenes and the facial expressions on the players themselves have significantly improved. The new graphic engine is also faster, enabling those new animations...The gameplay is still the best in the business.

It's reawakened my passion for the world's most popular sport, and it's seized my attention more completely than any video game since "ICO." Konami receives my foot-funk-free Golden Boot for this amazing effort.

The difficulty level has arguably been cranked up a notch, but with a little patience and perseverance, the game is a joy to play. Add to this a new graphics engine and an even more engrossing Master League, and winning becomes the operative word in the game's title.

A solid technical effort from Konami, but mainly only serious soccer fans will want to lace up their digital boots for this one.