Football/soccer (depending upon your preference) fans haven’t had much to look forward to lately when it comes to arcade games which involve their favorite sport but thanks to Konami that void is at least partially filled. Fans are probably already familiar with Winning Eleven (known on the consoles as Pro Evolution Soccer) and thanks to Arcade Belgium, we have a couple of brief teaser spots showing the game off. It was released in Japan back in February of this year and while I have not heard of it showing up anywhere else yet, I know that some European venues would carry it as they have carried other football games before such as Sega’s WCCF. AM-Net lists kits for about $3700 but I don’t know how much a full unit is going for at the moment. Videos via Arcade Belgium’s youtube channel.
I do wonder how a game like this could fare in the US. While the sport is traditionally less popular here than in pretty much every other part of the world I have noticed that interest in soccer has increased quite a bit over the past couple of years. Even yesterday I caught a live broadcast of a soccer game on TV while channel surfing which you don’t normally see and the last World Cup was broadcast on standard TV as well (I was in Brazil the last time they won a cup, which was 2002 – I’ve never seen a national party quite like that before or since). Anecdotal evidences aside, I doubt it would be a top seller by any means but depending upon the location and the local demographics, the game itself could do well.
