Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions: the legend kicks again!

Captain Tsubasa is a cult! Bandai Namco grabbed the license of the football series from the 90s and created an arcade game for all fans. Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions floods our heads from the very first moment with nostalgic memories of the carefree childhood when we always watched the series after school.

The ball must go into the goal. This is probably the simplest description of football. In spite of the (complicated) offside rule, falling back and Co., it is only important in the end that the round is promoted to the square. The top dogs of the sport, FIFA and PES, have been showing how this works as a video game for years. Both depict football as realistically as possible – every year anew with even better graphics and the current leagues, teams and players.

Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions takes a different path. Football knowledge, FIFA skills or experience are not required: After a short familiarization phase, Captain Tsubasa develops his fascination as a game for fun afternoons on the couch. Because Rise of new Champions can not only be played alone in the campaign or online with friends, but also in the cozy multiplayer mode on the sofa. While you usually only play against a human opponent online, the four of you fight in local multiplayer mode for the ball, with two players cooperatively in a team.

Nankatsu vs. Toho

Sounds good? We think so too and that's why we dribbled at Bandai Namco what it could do. A few days ago we were allowed to try out the first playable version and tried our luck against both AI and human opponents. The developers did not want to show us any of the story at the moment, but the game should be very much based on the TV series and put its characters in the foreground. Nankatsu Jr. High School competed against the Toho Academy in our trial game. With it are many iconic characters such as the title-giving Tsubasa Ozora, his best friend Taro Misaki and of course adversary Kojiro Hyuga, the best player of the Toho team.

The games were short and crisp: We quickly decided on one of the two schools and off we went, the round had to be square! With three buttons for different pass variants and a shot button with loading bar, it worked quite intuitively. Even if you've never played a FIFA before, you should have no problems rushing towards the goal. Anyone who knows a Mario Striker's Charged Football will quickly feel at home anyway.

Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions – Announcement Trailer

Captain Tsubasa, the Japanese football hero from the 90s, is back. Bandai Namco has announced its new game, Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions.

With different passes, the ball could be moved more or less precisely through their own rows, of course with the aim of finding a good position for the striker. The shot can then be charged in front of the goal so that the kicker kicks the ball with full force. A small video sequence shows whether the goalkeeper is holding the shot, which adds additional excitement.

Like in anime

Anyone who knows the anime knows that some characters have a special shooting technique that not only means an almost certain hit, but also lives up to their name through crazy animations. The Hyuga tiger shot, for example, is elegantly displayed with a roaring tiger in the background. That was fun even in front of the TV screen and will create a whole host of nostalgic delight in the game.

Whistle, you whistle!

So far we have only been able to examine the basic aspects of the game. According to Bandai Namco, many features will be added until the final version. So far, the matches were completely free of fouls. That was not because of our flawless ability, but simply because the referee didn't whistle any violations. Squeezing the opponent badly into the barrel brought us a big advantage several times during audition – that will probably be much more difficult in the finished game.

With various offensive and defensive actions, the game should also get more depth, but remain accessible to everyone despite simple arcade controls. We are excited to see which characters and moves await us. Captain Tsubasa should appear in 2020 and bring cheers to old and new fans on PS4, PC and Switch.