The beauty of World Soccer Winning Eleven 9 lies in how rewarding the game is, regardless of the level of play. Beginners will be thrilled with the most basic of controls, battling for possession of the ball with just the simple shoot, pass, slide, and pressure commands. Even just starting out, it's hard not to get caught up in the excitement of the game, the thrill of an interception, the frustration of a missed goal.

While it's one thing to breeze through Training mode, it's an entirely separate thing for the player to implement those moves into their pitch repertoire. As the more advanced moves take lots of practice to master, not just in execution, but also in their proper use, this mastery brings about a greater understanding of the game itself. In other words, the more time one puts into Winning Eleven 9, the more fulfilling it becomes.

That's a major part of Winning Eleven 9's charm, as there's always room for improvement. There's always that one move that needs to be mastered or that one technique that would have proven beneficial. But because the game is enjoyable from the get-go, this challenge isn't needlessly frustrating or tedious, instead serving as a motivation for further play and practice.

So it's a good thing there's a lot to do in world of Winning Eleven 9. In addition to the afore-mentioned and extensive Training mode, Winning Eleven 9 features Master League, League, Match, Cup, and Online modes of play. In terms of gameplay, League, Match, and Cup are essentially the same thing, the main difference being the number of total matches.

Master League, on the other hand, adds another layer to the gameplay by requiring the player to manage their team. It's no longer enough to be a skilled player on the field, the player must now be a skilled manager as well, analyzing data, negotiating trades, training and conditioning players, designing uniforms, and so forth. The decisions of Master League mode are often difficult, especially when deciding between established stars and those that merely have potential. Sure, the established stars are, well, established, but they also cost a lot more than the potentials and have a tendency to burn out earlier. Since money, earned after each match, is integral to Master League mode, it's an important factor in these decisions. Run out of money and it's game over, but since a sub-par team that consistently loses will likewise bring about a game over, the trick is to find some type of middle ground.

Gameplay in these modes also earns WEN credits, which can then be used to purchase additional features in the WE Shop. Players, teams, stadiums, uniforms, challenges, ball types, and camera types, among others, can be purchased there, providing further incentive to keep the player motivated.

Meanwhile, Online mode is as playable as one would hope. The matches I played were free of lag, retaining the fast-paced nature of a regular match. However, the online setup is rather basic, limited to Quick Match, Optimatch and Create Match. The lack of online tournaments is a bit disappointing, as is the voice chat missing from the PlayStation 2 version.

Unfortunately, licensing issues have prevented Konami from including several well-known teams in Winning Eleven 9, such as Manchester United. Instead, Konami has created dummy teams, in this case, Man Red, full of dummy players. While this doesn't affect gameplay, it can be frustrating, especially for those hoping to play as their favorite team. Luckily, dummy teams can be edited to reflect actual teams and players, but the process is rather time-consuming and edited teams cannot be used online.

I also had a small quibble regarding the animation of the player's faces. Though the players themselves are well-animated and expressive in their movements, their faces remain oddly static. The contrast between the faces and movements is an odd one, as it's obvious when a player is excited about a goal, but their facial expressions just don't match up.

Likewise, there are some minor problems with commentary. Occasionally, the game will repeat a phrase a few times per match. While I'm certainly understanding towards this, it's just odd hearing "bad pass" repeated in the same pitch and tone, especially when the last comment was the same "bad pass" piece.