Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is a sports adventure game available for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PCs. The game is based on the popular Japanese manga Captain Tsubasa , which became known worldwide thanks to the subsequent television series “Champions” , broadcast in many countries during the 1990s. Popularly known as “Oliver and Benji” and loved by millennials around the world, the general nostalgia for this saga has been what has prompted Bandai Namco to release a new video game with which to satisfy its fans.
How is Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions
The players follow the story of soccer prodigy Tsubasa Oozora (Oliver Atom to Spanish friends), a 14-year-old Japanese soccer player who is fighting for his goal of playing in the world championship with his national team . The base game is an arcade-style soccer game: 11v11, pass, shoot, tackle, score (or miss), yet it features powerful moves that are hard to believe in real life soccer.
The game features a 30-hour long campaign that leans more towards storytelling than actual gameplay, followed by another line of play where you create your own character and lead him, rather than Tsubasa, to greatness . The plot is original, in the sense that it doesn’t use any arcs from the existing Tsubasa manga, but that’s the only sense in which it’s original – in everything else, like most sports tales, it follows very similar narrative rhythms. . You won’t be surprised at any point, and you probably won’t even remember much of what’s going on in the story as you play, but the game has an infectious enthusiasm that will engulf players .
Halfway between anime football and FIFA football
The biggest problem, however, is that the game seems to have focused its energy in all the wrong places. Captain Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions stays halfway and does not finish opting for being a soccer game based on anime or a more realistic soccer video game -as it could be FIFA-.
When it leans towards anime, it’s fantastic. Each team’s star player has a special shooting mechanic, in which golden tigers or red hawks are summoned out of nowhere to help propel the ball past the bewildered goalkeeper. The tackles and throws with other players have that point of magic that could be appreciated in the series : for example, throwing someone two meters high with a simple shoulder push is something that does not happen in real life, but that everyone It makes us smile because we’ve seen Marc Lenders do it in childhood a lot of times.
However, not all movements can be like this: instead of being able to sprint across the immense field at the speed of light, the races are too slow and leave you too exposed to those elegant tackles. There is too much emphasis on defense and passing ; And while this makes it more like real life football, it takes away some of the charm.
conclusion
If we take it as a traditional football video game in the Pro or FIFA style, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions leaves a lot to be desired . However, as its own unique interpretation of the sport, and especially when it reveals its similarity to anime, it is an entertaining game that will make a whole generation smile. Play with an open mind and as long as you are not against a game that tries something different, as well as loads of cinematics, you will have fun . And, if you are a fan of Oliver and Benji, you will love it.
