I have to give Konami credit for attempting to bring their soccer game to the Nintendo DS. Since the DS is the most popular hand held out there, it only makes sense. However, with the cartridge format there’s only so much you can do here and let’s face it – soccer doesn’t really need a dual screen.

The game does have some depth: there’s an exhibition mode so you can play a quick regular or penalties match, a world tour mode, a training mode, and the Konami Cup. The master league, the mode that everyone loves on the consoles, is conspicuously missing. There is a network mode that allows you to play online against anyone in the world.

The mode with the most depth is the World Tour. In this you take your user created team and play the worlds best. As you progress you can win coins which allow you to get new (better) players to help you play through to victory.

If you’ve played WE on a console, you’ll be familiar with the layout of the game itself – strategic formations and player choices haven’t really changed very much on the DS.

What has changed, of course, are the graphics. The on screen gameplay will make you yearn for the days of the Sega Genesis as the graphics are a pixellated mess and downright ugly. The graphics seem almost cartoon-ish . The camera angle for set pieces like free kicks and goal kicks are field-level and don’t look nearly as bad as the side scrolling game play, but the players still aren’t very well defined.

The top screen is where the actual game takes place. Apparently Nintendo has some requirement that makes all DS games use the touch screen and here the bottom screen works as a map showing the player configuration and their stamina levels. You can also use the stylus to adjust player positions from attacking to defending. This is done on the console with a button press, and the idea of requiring you to get out the stylus for this one thing is just plain lame.

The bottom screen also operates as a touch screen for replay controls after a goal. Again, it seems like a waste. I think for a game such as this to run on such limited hardware, perhaps it would have been better to have a Sensible World of Soccer “blimp” mode camera and show the whole field over the two screens. The format as it is in this game just doesn’t work.

If you can get over the graphics, the gameplay isn’t bad but certainly not up to the standards you would expect from the Winning Eleven series. The controls will be familiar to WE players – however, with two less buttons, some sacrifices had to be made (such as moving the player positioning to the touch screen). All of those little extra touches that make WE such a great game are also missing from the DS version. The referee only comes on screen when issuing a card (he’s not on the pitch unless there’s a foul) and the linesmen are also nowhere to be found. Instead of starting the second half clock at 45:00, the clock starts at 0:00, which is contrary to the way the game is actually played..

The audio is sorely lacking. I believe there was more audio on a Sega Genesis FIFA game than there is here. I’m guessing that because of the cartridge format, this was one of the sacrifices that had to be made. It’s a real shame as one of the selling points of WE was the ability to hear the commentary in English or Spanish. The only audio in this version of the game is seemingly one horrible .wav file that plays “GOAL” when you get a goal. There isn’t very much crowd noise but it does seem to pick up when your team is threatening for a goal.

There are some good points to Winning Eleven; especially with multiplayer. The game allows download play via a single card. Be forewarned – the download of the game to a second DS takes about 3-4 minutes, but once you do that, you can play a full match. (One may have thought all that would be available is a PK shootout, but you can play a full game). Play was lag free, but although the manual doesn’t mention it, the DS without the game pak did not have any sound whatsoever.

If you don’t have two DS units, don’t fear because this is one of the first non-Nintendo games that support their Wi-Fi infrastructure connection. Although it sounds great, I tried multiple matches, and although I always found someone ready to play, the lag was awful. The game played like it was sending burst packets – it would be great for 5 seconds, then lag, then be great for 5 seconds, and so forth. I was unable to complete an online game because of the lag.