WE9 is great, but just isn't that fun anymore
User Rating: 8.3 | World Soccer Winning Eleven 9 PS2
I have WE7, WE8 and WE9. I played each for many months to the core on the highest difficuly for so much time. After playing the previous two games this one feels unoriginal and bland. The master league mode is the exact same as before and get's pretty boring after a while. Even new comers will notice that the Master league isn't scrap compared to EA's Fifa which despite the unrealstic gameplay, has an amazing career mode that actually tells a story. Even winning a cup doesn;t feel that rewarding because it's the SAME celebration evertyime in WE9. The sound is recycled from the othe two titles and is pretty bad on it's own. The commentator has now idea what he is talking about. When you win 3 to 0 with a team of Juventus against a second divison team the comentary may say "a victory against the odds" referring to you. The audio is really bad and seems to get worse as it goes along. The game is also much harder. The AI can sometimes be very rubbery and often throughout the master league some teams are supercharged and somehow are able to play better than anyone you've faced befor no matter how many times you restarted. In other words, a bottom league team can play as well as Barcelona on match and when you face them later in the season they'll play regular. The AI keepers can be unbeliebly good and save nearly half your penalties and shots that would in real life be impossible to block. It makes the game so much more frustrating because you can have many chances and the kepper stops all of them, and then the opposite team scores with little or no chances. Tht WILL piss you off. However on thing that is improved is the gameplay. The game features some truly realsitic charecter movements and still as fun as hell when the AI is not cheap or when there is a good game. Unfortunately things like the sound and the story don't help and bring this game down't compared to the other installments.
It is really wierd for me to give this game a low score(for a WE game) because I love the series too much. But it somehow brought me too much frustration to deal with and that's what I'm basing the review on. Maybe it's just me getting bored of the series and wanting innovation in the same old master league from season to season. It's still a good game and with online(which i don't have), updaded rosters and improved charecter models and movements it is still probably the best choice for newcomers to the series. But this is what I think, and I just hope that I don't stop playing Winning Eleven series because they are truly on of the greats and are probably one of the best sports series on the planet. if you want a soccer game, reagrdless of these flaws, this game is surely for you. 
