Just over a week ago Winning Eleven 9 finally hit the Americas, finally joined the online revolution, and the results are, on the whole, impressive.

At its very core the game is pretty much identical to the Japanese version of WE9 I reviewed last fall. After playing the superior JL-WE9 for a few months it was a noticeable step backwards in realism upon returning to the original WE9 engine. The faster game speed and increased player abilities are immediately noticeable. That said, it’s still a fantastic game engine and, since WE8:FE wasn’t released in North America, it represents yet another major evolution in the Winning Eleven game engine. You can read more about the specifics of the game engine in my review. [LINK]

Unfortunately, WE9:International is also pretty much identical to the versions released in Europe and Japan when it comes to team rosters and licenses. Squads are a mess as some transfers that occurred just before the September 2005 transfer deadline are present, while others aren’t. For example, Liverpool (er…Merseyside Red) have Peter Crouch, but they also have Milan Baros still in the team. Another problem occurs with the ratings of players that had breakout seasons in 2005/06 – for example, Barcelona’s wiz-kid Messi is woefully underrated in the game.

WE9: I doesn’t feature licenses for the EPL, Ligue 1 and the Bundiesliga. A few teams outside of the licensed leagues do have official kits and names (e.g. Chelsea and Arsenal) but for the rest you’ll be playing as Merseyside Red until you change the names. River Plate and Boca Juniors are still, regrettably, absent.

While this is indeed a disappointment it’s nor surprising given Konami’s track record of bringing games over to North America (it takes them several few months to do absolutely nothing). Bizarrely, it appears that the European version – Pro Evolution Soccer 5 is Xbox 360 compatible while the WE9:I ISN’T!

Fortunately, my ire at Konami USA is tempered by the fact that WE9:I has finally made it online and what a crap-load of fun it is! I’m only online with the PS2 version and it’s a really enjoyable experience. The game doesn’t support a USB headset (though the Xbox version does) but has USB keyboard support which facilitates chatting in the lobby. In-game you’re able to text chat before and after the match and at half-time. During the match you can select from 8 or 9 pre-set text-comments (you can customize these) which you can make during instant replays. I like the way Konami have arranged the online experience for the PS2. You get points for wins and draws, bonus points if you win with weaker teams and furthermore, you also have points deducted if you lose. At the end of each match these points accumulate and go towards your overall ranking. At the end of each week players are then ranked into divisions based upon their points/record – there are 4 divisions in total.

Performance-wise I’ve had generally good experiences online. The vast majority of my games have been lag-free. When I have experienced lag it usually only lasts for a single half (don’t ask why) and, while annoying, its never made me want to disconnect mid-game. Speaking of disconnects, I’ve only encountered one player who disconnected on me in just over a 100 games and I think that was a hardware/software problem on his end as I was only leading 2-1.

The vast majority of matches are 10 minutes long which is a perfect length – any shorter and you can’t get into a rhythm, any longer and you’re racking up rugby scores. The people online are pretty friendly (it almost helps that there’s no voice chat like in Xbox-Live….I still shudder when I think of the shit that’s said by 12 year-olds during Halo 2 on XBL) and there are some pretty damn skilled WE’ers online! On a side note, I think it would be interesting to pit the best PS2 Winning Eleven gamers versus the best Xbox ones.

It almost goes without saying that this game should be in the library of any soccer gamer worth his salt. Even if you have the Japanese version I’d still spring for WE9:I just so you can experience the online experience which is far superior to anything the AI can offer.