Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions Review - The Beautiful Anime Sports Game

I like my sports video games similar to how I like my anime: engaging, exciting, and most of all fun to watch. And that’s something that I usually try to find in every sports game nowadays. Video game franchises like FIFA or NBA 2K are all about the usual roster updates here and a few gameplay tweaks there just to keep the fans interested in their 20XX game. Sometimes you’ll even get an interesting Career Mode tucked in with all the Hollywood flare the developers would try to include.

But with all these added features in franchise sports games, what always matters is how realistic and authentic the game is. Because that’s the important thing in a sports game, right? Thank the gods Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is here to prove us all wrong as it shows that it’s okay to sacrifice a little bit of realism and suspension of disbelief to actually make a football/soccer game a joy to play.

This Ain’t Your Average Game of Football

Based on the beloved manga and anime series of the same name, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is an arcade football video game that doesn’t shy away from its source material’s insane action and extravagant moves. The core gameplay is fast-paced. The rules of football still apply but with the hilarious exception of fouls done on the field. That’s right, there are no refs here to give you yellow and red cards, but they will blow the whistle if you commit an Offside penalty. 

The controls are simple enough for any uninitiated sports fan to enjoy a game of football. Aside from the usual pass, shoot, tackle (as in, players shoulder tackle others to death),and dribble moves; players can execute special moves like Tsubasa’s famous Drive Shot or Hyuga’s Tiger Shot. Pulling of these moves are such a delight since the game will transition into mini dramatic cutscenes that showcase said moves in pure anime fashion. And before anyone gets worried, these cutscenes aren’t too distracting in-game and it actually elevates the overall experience thanks to the game’s visuals.

Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions’ overall presentation is actually not too bad for an anime-licensed game. The number of stadiums featured are all rendered colorful and vibrant while the in-game models stay true to the manga and anime’s art style. The soundtrack however is a mixed bag. While I felt that most of the game’s soundtrack can get pretty old the more matches I play,  there are wonderful audio tracks that play during key moments that gets you in the mood - from the warm and cheery music that starts during the first few minutes after taking the kickoff, to the dramatic hero-esque track that plays when you activate your team’s V-Zone or during the last few minutes of the game.

After playing a few exhibition matches, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions felt really good. I’ve played a few FIFAs and Winning Elevens before and while I appreciate how those games stick to emulating the authenticity of association football, I find myself enjoying soccer more at Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions. The players move faster, the tackles look like they really hurt thanks to the omission of fouls, and key characters really stand out thanks to their special moves. And all these features get to shine more during the game’s story modes.

Rise of a New Burning Hero

Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions’ features two separate story modes letting players experience a portion of Tsubasa’s journey. The first story is called Episode Tsubasa, and plays like a straightforward story mode that lets players a summary of what happened during Tsubasa’s story as middle school football club Nankatsu’s star midfielder. Episode Tsubasa isn’t a complete origin story however, as it starts during Nankatsu’s attempt to win their 3rd youth national championship (a three-peat!) and ends as Tsubasa leaves for Brazil. 

The second story mode, which is called Episode New Hero, is vastly different as you get to create your own football kid and experience an original story inside the world of Captain Tsubasa. The story starts off with your character’s school/football club of choice participating in a junior youth league that ends up hiring you as a prospect for the All-Japan Team that will compete in some sort of World Cup for kids called the World Jr. Youth Challenge. It opens up with more stuff to do since you need to develop your player-created character by befriending other characters in the game as well as participating in friendly challenges that will reward you with special moves from the friends and mentors you meet.

Episode New Hero is somewhat challenging from the start since like most “Career Mode” experiences you get in sports video game titles, you start off as a jobber with average stats. But as soon as you finish your first 2 matches you’ll get enough stat points and a few skills and items unlocked to make your character competent enough to stay toe to toe with your opponents. Matches also grade your character and overall team performance. Playing very well and earning a high rank after a league match will net you more stat points to further develop your character.

Story progression as well as completing matches will earn you currency that you can use to buy customization items for your custom team or created characters. It also lets you buy “Booster packs” found in the game’s store. These booster packs contain a total of 15 random “cards” that either give you training items to be used in Episode New Hero, customization items, and last but not the least Friend Cards that can be used to raise the friendship level between you and a character from Captain Tsubasa.

I had a blast building my virtual football dude to get some of the better special moves and passive abilities in the game by befriending multiple characters from different schools and positions/roles. The appeal of making sure your character is competent enough on all aspects is quite important as it will determine if your next game will net you an easy victory, or a ludicrous display that your opponents (and friends) will have a laugh at.

Both Story Modes are probably where you’ll spend your time in this game the most. As someone who hasn’t watched or read the source material, Episode Tsubasa does a good enough job introducing you to the world of this middle school football anime and its characters. And if you do want to learn more about the story, progressing through the story mode rewards players with a hefty amount of movie clips that summarizes certain events in the Captain Tsubasa universe. From Captain Tsubasa’s origins to what is Kojiro Hyuga’s deal and struggles leading to the Youth National Championships. 

The Road to a New Kind of Sports Game

Aside from quick games and the meaty Story modes you can check out, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions also has an online mode where you build your own custom dream team (with complete control on how your logo,uniforms, and your roster will look like) can play with or against people in ranked league and private matches. Although the game is fairly new at the time of this review, I’ve played a few ranked matches and so far multiplayer is fun and serviceable. Since default matches are set to 5 min. halves, games are fast and lag tends to not be an issue for the most part. 

So is Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions “pitch perfect”? Far from it. But it is a good blueprint to check out when you’re looking for a good anime-licensed sports game. Heck, I would say it’s also a good formula to follow when it comes to making a good sports video game. The core gameplay is fast, entertaining, with controls simple enough to make it friendly to players unfamiliar to the sport. And it’s great to feel that the players in your team matter thanks to their unique moves and skills. And lastly, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions’ approach in making a compromise to the sport’s actual rules in order to make this Captain Tsubasa game stay true to the look and feel of the source material was a good touch.

While it is important to cover and show the accuracy and authenticity of the sport, Captain Tsubasa’s secret to success is that it puts the spotlight on its beloved characters and their unique abilities to tell a great sports story. No matter how ridiculous or unbelievable they are, it works as long as it entertains and inspires their audience. And that is something that sports video game developers should also consider when making their next big project.

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7/10

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Highlights

• Core football gameplay is fast paced and entertaining

• The dramatic in-game cutscenes are always a joy to watch and execute

• Unique story modes that let you relive and become part of the Captain Tsubasa story

• Not a complete experience of association football thanks to the omission of misconduct cards and fouls. But is that really a bad thing? 

• Game soundtrack can get old. 

What I’ve Played

• An addicting arcade style football/soccer game with special moves and dramatic sequences!

• Shoulder tackled countless middle schoolers to their oblivion without getting penalized.

• Played a couple of ranked online matches using a custom team.

• Finished both Story Modes.

[This review is based on a PS4 review code provided by Bandai Namco.]

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