We play Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions, the new Oliver and Benji title of Tamsoft Corporation and Bandai Namco for PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch.
One day after receiving the news that Oliver and Benji return with a new video game: Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champion (for PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch) Bandai Namco offers us the possibility of going out to the field and feeling again the passion that many of us felt every time we listened to the mythical introductory song of the anime or watched one of the legendary door kicks of the protagonists of the saga. For a little over half an hour, we were able to put ourselves at the helm of the new title of Captain Tsubasa and then we bring you our impressions in detail.
Presentation of the title, game modes and more: what do we know?
Yōichi Takahashi, mangaka creator of Captain Tsubasa, appears on the screen to introduce the new game in the saga that concerns us. In 1981 he created a series of manganime that would become the favorite of a whole generation and a phenomenon of the 90s. As it could not be otherwise, the football of Oliver and Benji would end up gaining a foothold in the world of video games . After accumulating a considerable number of deliveries throughout its history, the last titles we received were intended for mobile devices. Therefore, the news of the arrival of a new delivery to consoles and PC will please all those followers of the saga, either from its beginnings or from a later point in its history.
Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is an Arcade football title that will allow us to play a Story Mode (of which we still don't know details), a Versus Mode (currently called “Sofa Mode” within the game, with the possibility of gathering up to 4 players locally) and an Online Mode. In our game session we could try only the local Versus Mode (1vs1), in which we faced a teammate in two games in order to determine who won the victory.
The equipment available in the demo were the Nankatsu High School Institute and the Toho Academy. As you know, in the first play the legendary Oliver (Tsubasa Oozora) and Benji (Genzo Wakabayashi), while in the second we can take legendary players such as Marc Lenders (Kojiro Hyuga).
The first thing that warned us from Bandai is that the demo we had at hand was an early build of the title, so there are still many details to add and polish. For example, once we go out to the field and the whistle sounds, we verify that there is no referee that regulates the behavior of our players, so for now we can play more aggressively without worrying about getting a red one.
Despite not having a wide range of options to test all the modes and elements presented by the title, this small test helps us to begin to understand how the title feels playable and to verify that it is a title with various layers of depth. Anyone can take command and enjoy a game, but few will be able to dominate it to the point of being invincible. In order to establish a comparison, we can say that it is something similar to what happens with Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, a fighting title that any player can enjoy but not everyone can dominate 100%.
Gameplay: a realistic-sized field and epic door shots
A detail that is not preserved in the series (and we appreciate it) is the fact of presenting an infinite soccer field. In the game it has a normal size and from the beginning of the match whistle until it ends, we will go up and down without stopping. In the test we could not modify any match adjustment, so the total duration of the match was approximately 14 minutes.
Those who have experience in other football games will notice that this is something simpler and less polished and realistic. Even so, we believe that this is compensated by those points where it stands out and makes it unique: the special movements. Each of the titular players and captains keeps their epic door shots, which we know of the classic anime. The "infernal catapult", the "tiger shot" or the "eagle shot" return and we can assure you that it is very satisfactory to score a goal, especially if we use these techniques.
The animations that Tamsoft has created for the game stand out especially in these key moments of the game, which retain the essence of classic anime while innovating to get closer to the current animation style. Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions does not seek to have a realistic graphic section, much less, but to be a football title with anime aesthetics that stands out for its origins, full of nostalgia and good memories.
As for the controls, we find the usual ones in a football title: left stick for general movements, X for short pass, round for long pass, triangle for pass to the hole and square to execute the shots. We also have R1 for simple dribbles and R2 for stiffening movements and dribbling. As for the D-Pad, it is used to use and modify various tactics.
Beyond this, we must monitor the stamina bar, which will decrease as players get tired while running and sprinting, since if it is underloaded it can negatively affect the effectiveness of our shot. For example, if we have consumed the resistance bar for having made a sprint to reach the area of the opposing team, however much we charge our shot to the maximum we will give the goalkeeper many more options to stop it, since it will not carry all the power that will would grant a loaded stamina bar.
For this reason, strategy is an essential part of each party. Every good fan of this sport will know how key it is to make a direct pass to that unmarked player who has the goal in front, know when the time has come to go on the defensive to ensure the points we have of advantage in the scoreboard and others. Everything we have learned can be used in Captain Tsubasa. As for the most inexperienced players who arrive at the game without having touched a FIFA, PES or derivatives in a time: do not worry. Tamsoft's work will offer many newcomers tools to get used to the controls and thinking of a soccer game like the one at hand.
Before closing the gameplay section we must mention the role of the goalkeepers. In general they will work autonomously and will be able to stop simple shots on the door automatically. Therefore, our control over them is limited to the serves from goal and to those moments in which we pass the ball with another of our players as long as they execute a long pass (which can reach midfield), for example.
Of course, during our matches no penalty or similar situations were initiated in which the goalkeeper has a more relevant role, so we cannot say that these players function fully autonomously also in situations like this. Where we did see the goalkeepers of both teams shine is trying to stop the special shots on goal. Especially when they run loaded to the maximum and from inside the area, they are practically impossible to stop.
Technical performance for polishing and a promising future
During our game session we did not experience any bug or serious error beyond observing strange movements in the players we were not controlling and, in general, a need to polish certain details. Being an early build of the title, we saw several aspects in which the game could improve and others that should clearly be added before launch. An example is the aforementioned referee, which marks the faults we make. We know that it will come, since at the end of the match we can see its statistics such as the ball possession index, the shots made, the completed special moves and more. Here we can also check that "fouls and fouls" appear, so that absent referee will eventually arrive at the game in its final version.
Since it is a demo and there is still the final launch, we hope that from Tamsoft know how to detect those points where the game could improve in order to launch the best possible version to the market.
Once we finished the two games that we could play, we noticed how we dominated the movements in the field better and how we had let loose in the playable as the minutes of the game went by. For this reason, we can corroborate Bandai's promise that the title is more complex than it seems at first glance and that, if we want to dominate it 100%, we will have to spend many hours on the field.
In short, Captain Tsubasa Rise of New Champions left us with a good initial taste. At the end we are left wanting more and with the feeling that the title has much more to offer us. We still have to discover what the History, Online Modes, all aspects of the Versus Mode that we could not explore and, ultimately, everything that was beyond our reach during the demo.
Of course, we can say that the game promises to return to our childhood through a nostalgia shot and proposes that both lovers of the genre and those newcomers go to the field to enjoy some games in good company while the song of “Oliver, Benji , the wizards of the ball… ”sounds in our heads.
