''Pro Evolution Soccer 2'' (abbreviated as ''PES 2''), also known as ''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 6'' outside of Europe, is the second installment of

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

's ''

Pro Evolution Soccer ''eFootball'', formerly known as ''Pro Evolution Soccer'' (''PES'') internationally and in Japan and North America, is a series of association football simulation video games developed and published by Konami since 1995. The series consists ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

video game series. The Japanese release was succeeded by an updated and improved version called ''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 6 Final Evolution''. It was the last game in the series to be released for the PlayStation and the first and only game to be released for the

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

, though it was the Japan-exclusive ''Final Evolution'' update. ''PES 2'' was succeeded by '' PES 3'', which was released in 2003.

In-game content

''PES 2'' features six game modes, including single matches, training, various cup tournaments, and a Master League, in which the player can select a team to compete in various competitions and partake in the transfer market. A total of 40 unlicensed club teams and 56 unlicensed international squads (expect for

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

which is the only fully licensed team in the game) are available.

Peter Brackley Peter Brackley (13 June 1951 – 14 October 2018) was an English football commentator, perhaps most famous for commentating for ''Football Italia'' on Channel 4 in the 1990s, for the computer game series ''Pro Evolution Soccer'' until ''Pro Evol ...

and

Trevor Brooking Sir Trevor David Brooking, (born 2 October 1948) is a former England international footballer, manager, pundit and football administrator; he now works as director of football development in England. He spent almost his entire career at West Ha ...

call the matches in the game's English language version replacing ''

'' commentators Chris James and

Terry Butcher Terry Ian Butcher (born 28 December 1958) is an English football manager and former player. He works as an academy coach for Ipswich Town. During his playing career as a defender, Butcher captained the England national team, winning 77 caps ...

. The commentators in the Japanese version are

Jon Kabira , born , is a Japanese freelance presenter, tarento, radio personality, narrator who is affiliated with Sony Music Artists. He is very popular in Japan having participated in various TV commercials, TV shows, among other Audio-visual-related acti ...

and

Tetsuo Nakanishi is a former Japanese football player. He currently works on television as a football commentator. Playing career Nakanishi was born in Nagoya on 8 September 1969. After graduating from Doshisha University, he joined his local club Nagoya Gra ...

. The opening theme for the game is "

We Will Rock You "We Will Rock You" is a song written by Brian May and recorded by British rock band Queen for their 1977 album ''News of the World''. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it number 330 of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and it placed at numbe ...

" by

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

. This opening theme is also featured in ''

Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 ''Pro Evolution Soccer 2016'' (abbreviated as ''PES 2016'', marketed as ''Winning Eleven 2016'' in Japan) is a football simulation game developed by PES Productions and published by Konami for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbo ...

''.

Reception

The PlayStation 2 version received "universal acclaim" in both regions according to video game

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. In Japan, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' gave both the original and ''Final Evolution'' versions a score of 36 out of 40, and the ''J.League'' version 34 out of 40, all for the same console version. In Japan, ''Winning Eleven 6'' sold units in eight weeks. By December 2002, ''Winning Eleven 6'' had sold 1,115,707 units and ''Final Evolution'' sold 406,234 units for a combined units sold. In total, the game sold a total of 1,799,075 for the PlayStation 2 in Japan. In Europe, ''PES 2'' initially outsold ''

FIFA Football 2003 ''FIFA Football 2003'', known as ''FIFA Soccer 2003'' in North America, and simply ''FIFA 2003'' is a football simulation video game produced by Electronic Arts and released by EA Sports. It was released in 2002. ''FIFA 2003'' is the tenth game ...

'' upon release in October 2002, with ''PES 2'' selling above 1 million units in its first 40 days of availability in Europe. In the United Kingdom, it topped the all-formats chart two days after release. The PlayStation 2 version of ''Pro Evolution Soccer 2'' received a "Platinum" sales award from the

Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is a non-profit trade association for the video game industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Ukie was originally founded as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), and the ...

(ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom. By December 2002, ''FIFA 2003'' had overtaken ''PES 2'' in Europe with sales in the region. In the United States, ''Winning Eleven 6'' sold 59,567 copies. In total, ''PES 2'' sold at least more than units worldwide. ''PES 2'' was awarded Best Console Game at the

European Computer Trade Show The European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) was an annual trade show for the European video game industry which first ran in 1988, the last event being held in 2004. The exposition was only open to industry professionals and journalists, although it w ...

(ECTS) in 2002. According to ''

SPORTbible SPORTbible is a sports focused social media publisher with headquarters on Dale Street in Manchester's Northern Quarter, United Kingdom. SPORTbible is part of LADbible group and describes itself as "one of the largest communities for sports fans ...

'' in 2019, ''Pro Evolution Soccer 2'' was voted the greatest football video game of all time in a poll. ''SPORTbible'' writer Jack Kenmare called it "one of the greatest and most influential football games in recent memory."

Notes

References

External links

* {{International Superstar Soccer/Pro Evolution Soccer 2002 video games Association football video games GameCube games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation 2 games 2 Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Michiru Yamane Video games set in 2002