Although I’d immediately deny any accusations of being sporty in the real world, I’m at least happy to play sports video games. Admittedly I might lose interest if it leans too far into the simulation side of things, but I could play over the top silly sports every day and never get bored. Thankfully the wonderful medium of video games is always happy to provide this, but it’s not the only one. Anime and manga have been making sports more dramatic and entertaining for generations, and we could learn from their greatness. Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters is a glorious anime football game that long-time fans and newcomers alike will enjoy, with plenty of ridiculous ways to score goals.
I didn’t play the first Captain Tsubasa game back in 2020, but this game apparently takes place immediately after that game ends. Now a little older, our soccer hero Tsubasa is aiming to play footie as a pro in Brazil. As he’s trying to rise up in this environment there’s also a world tournament on the horizon, where he’ll be needed to lead Japan to victory. All of this takes place in the World Youth arc of the anime, and you’d better believe being based on an anime leads to some wild moments and characters. An early antagonist is a footballer who upon winning a tournament revealed his true name from before he was adopted by an evil business man, and never smiles when he scores a goal. The story is a glorious soap opera that doesn’t let up, and it was one of my favourite aspects of the game.
Although the narrative of Captain Tsubasa 2 follows Tsubasa himself for the most part, you actually technically play as a custom character you create. My idiot avatar had a chubby face and pink glasses, and happily stood in the background of scenes while all the drama played out. It’s a bit of a weird choice to put you as the central character while giving you no personality, but it’s at least somewhat amusing.
It’s weird to talk so much about the story in a sports game, but in the campaign you actually end up spending more time reading than kicking a ball. Even outside of the main story there are loads of side stories and character moments you can check out at your leisure, which give you insights into the different wild personalities of the game. If you’re looking to get stuck into the action and don’t care about anime drama this frankly isn’t the game for you, but you do get to play ball occasionally.
If you’ve played a video game based on football before (and it’d be weird if you hadn’t) then you’ll feel fairly at home with the basics of Captain Tsubasa 2: World Challengers. At a core level you need to pass the ball around to dodge rival players and get towards the opponent’s goal to score, but there are flashy moves you can use to make this go smoother. Once you take your shot you’ll choose a direction to aim the ball into the net, and depending on where the goalie chooses to dive you’ll take off some of their health bar. Once this runs out you score a goal, and can feel like all your favourite West Ham(!) strikers.
It’s not just how striking works that’s different in Captain Tsubasa, it’s also how you keep possession. There are various ways to dodge incoming players, and by timing skillful dribbling you’ll dodge their advances and build a chain that improves your striking power. All these rather unusual systems and abilities are explained rather well by tutorials too, so don’t worry too much about this sounding overwhelming.
More important than all these regular skills your players have though are the super moves, which are just outrageous. I’ll never forget the first time I activated a super tackle and had a player slide halfway across the pitch to get the ball, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Some of these moves are even special team wide skills, with players coming together to launch feats of gymnastics to fly the ball to the back of the net. If you thought Super Mario Strikers was daft, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
When you first start up Captain Tsubasa 2 it feels a bit barren, but as you play more of the game you unlock plenty of different modes on the main menu. Lots of these involve custom creation or team editing for those who want to get in-depth, but there are also custom and online match options for those who just want to compete. I can’t really imagine wanting to play this online against randoms (and there aren’t a lot of options if you do admittedly) but it’s nice it’s included.
No Captain Tsubasa review would be complete without mentioning the visuals, which are gorgeous. The anime aesthetic is as wonderful as ever, but even beyond that it’s the character designs and style that turns it up to eleven. The players look like dodgy nineties footballers with slightly shit hair, and it’s beyond charming.
I enjoyed my time on the pitch with Tsubasa and the gang, but I have to admit it’s not quite the perfect sports game. Some of the systems are a bit clunky and don’t lend themselves to a fast and skill based game, which means you’ll likely have played better virtual matches of football. The sheer amount of story will be a bit much for some too, and even I sometimes felt the balance of reading to matches was a little off.
Captain Tsubasa 2: World Challengers is a great anime football game for those more excited by story and flashy moves than serious soccer, with some unique mechanics and plenty of drama. It absolutely won’t appeal to everyone who buys EA FC every year, but the real sickos (like me) will love it.
