Captain Tsubasa won’t be an anime franchise that’s on the identical ranges as juggernauts similar to My Hero Academia, Dragon Ball, or One Piece, however this newest video game within the collection with Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions undoubtedly leaves its mark and is ready to surpass various anime entries at the moment available on the market. Creating an arcade-style soccer game that’s closely devoted to the anime whereas incorporating an in-depth nicely of mechanics, this title is certainly one which followers of each anime and soccer ought to try if you happen to’re searching for a breezy approach to move the time.
The game itself comes with quite a lot of modes that will be commonplace for many arcade sports activities games that you’d anticipate, with Captain Tsubasa differentiating itself with two story modes that put you into the place of the titular soccer star or has you making a star that’s all your personal as you navigate by means of this anime world. The gameplay differentiates itself out of your commonplace soccer fare due to its reliance on particular photographs and combos that do nicely in displaying off particular person characters’ distinctive talents whereas on the sector.
Captain Tsubasa’s reliance on its anime origins is each a weak point and a energy right here, in that the gameplay is ready to ratchet up the epic moments with gamers leaping excessive into the air to ship a ground-shattering purpose and even be accompanied by an eagle fabricated from vitality to assist ship a purpose, however the story mode is considerably missing for newcomers to the collection. Before diving into this game, I hoped to be reminded of a film like Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer in that it may revel within the sheer outlandishness of its premise, however examples of this are few and much between. The story mode has lengthy cutscenes diced between the matches themselves and through the “season,” which had been harking back to the Ultimate Ninja Storm collection for Naruto, however finally lacked the vitality and animation that made that game collection such successful amongst followers.
The artwork fashion takes a little bit getting used to, which is not a lot a commentary on the graphics of the game (that are stellar), however extra on the design of the characters themselves. Captain Tsubasa first premiered within the early 1980s and has continued the story of this younger prodigy as he makes an attempt to overhaul the world of soccer by means of his college’s workforce following a titanic championship run. The character designs can typically go away you scratching your head once you’ll be launched to a participant that merely has one big tooth protruding whereas they discuss, however, once more, that is consistent with the anime franchise itself. While the cutscenes and designs is perhaps lackluster, the motion and fluidity of gamers when a game is in session is most assuredly prime notch.
The gameplay of Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is actually the meat and potatoes of the evaluate right here, and whereas the aforementioned window dressing in its anime aesthetic may use some punching up, the game affords a intelligent “rock, paper, scissors” mechanic system that may have you ever sweating as you make the most of the facility of the “V-Zone” or desperately work to boost your “Spirit Gauge” by performing some well-timed “jukes” in opposition to opponents. In this, I used to be reminded of the likes of NBA Jam and NFL Blitz, the place every encounter over the ball is a tug of conflict and is finally decided by split-second choices. On its floor, the gameplay appears simplistic, however the story mode does a very good job of strolling you thru its tutorial and opening up what you are able to do along with your workforce.
Online play opens you as much as having matches with as many as 4 gamers directly and we by no means encountered too many bugs whereas matching our workforce in opposition to different Tsubasa fanatics all over the world. On a technical degree, the game has just a few minor hiccups in the case of efficiency and there have been undoubtedly occasions the place I felt that just a few touch-ups in the case of total management of the ball had been wanted, however nothing that was ever too noteworthy when all was mentioned and completed.
Regardless of whether or not or not you are aware of Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions, if you happen to’re searching for a breezy arcade-style soccer game that depends closely on its anime affect and has some robust mechanics, this game is value a glance.
Rating: three out of 5
Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is at the moment accessible for Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. A Playstation four code was offered by the writer for the aim of this evaluate.
