WARNING: Winning Eleven:UE, like Burnout Legends automatically updates your PSP firmware in order for it to play – those sneaky bastards!! So if you’d still like to keep homebrew running on your handy handheld (and who wouldn’t) be sure to run WAB Changer 2.5 or HK’s UMD Loader 0.8 before popping in this UMD.

WE:UE starts off with the same intro as Winning Eleven 9 which is fitting as the game engine is a fairly close approximation of its PS2 brethren! Since I’m fond of the point-form/bullet format these Hands-On Impressions I won’t break with tradition and stick with the same.

Graphics

i) Menus – The main menus are pretty much identical to WE9, however, the menus change quite a bit when you get into the tactical stuff as KCET decided not to squeeze both line-ups onto the same (small) screen. As a result you get a condensed tactics menu and have to press Select to see the opposition’s line-up (check out the screenshot below).

ii) Player Models – On the playable camera angles the player models in WE:UE are almost identical to those in the PS2 version. However, when the camera moves in closer you see that the players appear to be composed of fewer polys and the faces aren’t as detailed as WE9. Likewise, from afar the kits (those that are licensed) look pretty damn good with appropriate sponsors, numbers and player names, but when the camera moves in a bit closer things get a bit blurry. All told though, the player models are crisper and more life-like than those in Fifa PSP.

iii) Animations – WE:UE’s animations are easily the most impressive aspect of the game’s animations with a library of mo-capped movements that is almost identical to that of WE9! Even the special dribble moves like Ronaldinho’s ‘Elastico’ are captured brilliantly and watching this game in motion is just as impressive as watching Winning Eleven 9.

iv) Frame-rate – almost perfect, some slowdown on replays but not on any playable angles.

v) Stadia – Here’s one of the areas where KCET really dropped the ball, WE:UE features a grand total of TWO stadiums. Yeah, I said 2. That is bloody pathetic! By comparison, Fifa for the PSP has 30 (THIRTY!!) different grounds to play in! Likewise, there doesn’t appear to be any weather effects either!

vi) TV style presentation – This is yet another aspect of the game that comes up wanting as there's no end of match/half highlights whatsoever. However, my biggest gripe with WE:UE’s visuals has to be with the lack of playable camera angles – there is NO wide angle view, and NO option to rotate the field – you’re basically limited to a super close view, a medium view and a view that follows a specific player. Lame.

Sound

i) NO commentary

ii) Few if any chants

This is totally lame. Again, by comparison, Fifa PSP has a wide variety of licensed music tracks along with some excellent commentary with John Motson and Ally McCoist! Kabira-san where are you?!??!?!?!

Options

i) Game Modes - Match, Wireless, League, and Training. Can you spot what’s missing? Yup, no Master League and no Nippon Challenge. Thankfully, the game does feature all the same club teams and international teams (minus the rest of the Asian nations present in the Nippon Challenge) that Winning Eleven 9 does.

ii) Training Mode – doesn’t feature the mini-games that are in its PS2 brethren.

iii) Edit Mode – I haven’t played around with the editing modes, nor have I tried to sync the game to WE9 on the PS2.

Gameplay

i) Game Engine - In general WE:UE’s game engine is almost identical to WE9’s game engine with a few changes that have been necessitated by the different control schemes.

ii) Control – The controls have been modified for the PSP because of the lack of L2 and R2 buttons. As a result the game features 3 selectable control schemes:

Type 1: Both the D-pad and analog nub can be used to control movement

Type 2. The D-pad controls movement and the analog nub performs analog passes (pressing L + the analog nub does a high pass)

Type 3: The D-pad controls movement and the analog is used to perform tricks

On paper, Type 3 seems to make the most sense (I don’t particularly like the analog nub), however, it’s more difficult to perform diagonal movements on the PSP’s D-pad than on the PS2 D-pad. As a result I ended up having to use Type 1 by default which means I can’t perform some of the more spectacular dribbling moves. I don’t think this is such a big loss but I just wanted to point this out for those who only play Winning Eleven using the D-pad.

The lack of the R2 button mean you can’t perform an intermediate speed dribble (or do the 45 degree dribbles that the R2 button allows you to) which is a loss, ditto for not being able to perform the super-cancel.

Finally, for some reason I can’t seem to be able to allow the ball to run on without touching it – in WE9 and WE8:LE I’d hold down R1 and then push the D-pad (or analog) in the opposite direction to an approaching pass and instead of controlling the player would turn onto the ball but not touch it – I can’t seem to be able to do this in WE:UE. Fortunately, the rest of the one-touch moves work exactly like they do in the PS2 version.

Overall (thus far)

Despite the very enthusiastic welcome this game has received in the Winning Eleven online community I’m actually somewhat disappointed in KCET’s first PSP effort – half-assed is a word (or two) that comes to mind. Sure the gameplay is fantastic, but that’s almost a given with KCET games, but the rest of the game’s features (or lack thereof) feel like a slap in the face to Winning Eleven fans.

Only TWO stadiums? Give me a f^#!*@) break!

Lavan Chandran

9/18/2005

Crappy blurred photos by me.