Captain Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions

Captain Tsubasa has been around for nearly 40 years. Initially appearing as a series in the best-selling manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump in April 1981, he’s seen numerous comics, animated series, movies and, yes, video games over the years. It’s one of the most well-loved series in Japan and is credited with contributing to the growth of football’s popularity in the country.

The main mode is The Journey, which is not to be confused with the FIFA story mode of the same name (because this one actually made it to the Switch, for starters). There are two different storylines to choose from here: the first follows Tsubasa as he tries to guide his Nankatsu school team to their third consecutive youth national championship, while the second has you playing as a created player (more on that in a second, though).Buy theCaptain Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions Best price online from CELLULAR KENYA,Nairobi

The Tsubasa story is fairly short, and you’ll have it beaten in a couple of hours. The second story is a little longer and has more meat on its bones. You get to create your own character, then pick one of three other teams to put him in – Toho, Furano or Musashi – as you try to win the hastily-arranged Junior Hero League and earn a chance to play for Japan in the Junior Youth World Challenge.

Whereas the first storyline is more or less a linear affair, this second one regularly gives you dialogue options to choose from and grades you on your performances, levelling-up your stats in the process. You can also select players to form friendships with, and as you play together and build these friendships you’ll learn some of their special moves and skills. It makes things far more compelling and there’s ultimately a reason for it all: once you finish the storyline you can register your character – upgraded stats and all – to your custom team for online play.

If dribbling feels unlike most other football games, shooting may as well be a different sport. You have to quickly come to terms with the fact that, short of a freak deflection or bug, your normal shots will absolutely never go in – the keeper will save them every single time. This even goes for many of your super shots, the massively over-the-top moves that have to be charged by holding down the shoot button and result in the sort of thing that wouldn’t look out of place in Shaolin Soccer. A lot of times, they’ll still be saved, too. So what gives?