Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions

Captain Tsubasa’s biggest strength is its touching story about friendship, rivalry, and the love of football. Unfortunately, I’m not talking about the game. The narratives of both story campaigns in Rise of New Champions are boring, full of clichés and poorly written dialogues. That’s not the biggest problem though. As soon as a match starts, the abysmal gameplay turns the game from okayish to awful.

Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is not a perfect game, and it's not the most mechanically dense game, but thankfully, it doesn't have to be. Its strengths lie in its unhinged, over-the-top on-pitch action and its delightfully silly presentation. If you're looking for a football game that lets you focus on all the fun aspects of the sport while ignoring almost everything to do with tactics and strategy, this is the game for you.

While the anime story grated on me, Tsubasa‘s gameplay kept me hooked since the animations are smooth and flashy, and it’s easy to pick up and play. Those who want a sim may not get the same joy out of this arcade-style soccer interpretation, but for me, it scratched a very specific itch that I didn’t realize needed to be scratched.