With its simplicity, grace, and innate ability to unite fans from all over the world, it’s no wonder that association football, aka soccer, is known as The Beautiful Game. Still, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s why studios have tried to find ways to make its portrayal in popular media more exciting for the common viewer, with films like Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer or anime/manga series such as Blue Lock and Captain Tsubasa.
First serialised in Shueisha’s shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump between 1981 and 1988, the Captain Tsubasa manga series isn’t just widely considered to be the most influential sports manga and anime in history – it was also instrumental in transforming football from a niche, secondary sport in Japan to a national passion, paving the way for the J.League’s formation and inspiring generations of global football icons.
With this in mind, and considering the fact that football games have already been a huge part of sports gaming culture, with genre juggernauts like EA Sports FC (formerly known as FIFA) and eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer, it’s no surprise that the Japanese icon has been adapted into various video games over the years, with the most recent and popular last seen in 2020’s Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions.
Taking the tried-and-tested football game formula and imbuing it with a healthy dose of anime superpowers was a match made in heaven, not just keeping the action on the pitch fresh, but also appealing to fans outside the sport, thanks to its simplified, more arcade-like systems and heavy action focus.
Now, publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment and developer Tamsoft Corporation are aiming higher with their sequel, Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters, which is set to up the ante while simultaneously reducing the learning curve. Geek Culture was able to spend around two hours with a preview build of the game and with its easier controls and more explosive anime action, we’re confident that this sequel could outscore its predecessor in almost every aspect.
The preview offered us a glimpse at the game’s three main modes – Practice mode, which provides players a stress-free environment to get to grips with its various systems, the standard match mode vs CPU opponents, and three main missions in the game’s campaign, which saw us taking on Thailand, China, and Saudi Arabia teams as main character Tsubasa and his team.
Jumping into Practice mode is a great way to experience Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters’ more intuitive control scheme, alongside its updated and new systems. Unlike its predecessor, which featured more complex controls and required simultaneous presses of multiple buttons to perform certain actions, the sequel largely delegates every action to a single key.
From the start, Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters is extremely easy to pick up and play, even if players have limited experience with football games. The basic foundation of passing the ball between players while approaching the opponent’s goal remains the same here, but that’s about it when it comes to similarities with the actual sport.
In essence, Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters poses the question of what would happen if football matches were played out without the notion of fouls. Everything is fair game here, so players don’t have to worry about tackling their opponents when they have possession of the ball, and even charge their tackle to slide further and with more force.
Of course, the opposing side isn’t completely vulnerable, as they are able to perform stylish dribbles to counter tackles or just get around players in their way, with every dribble depleting a chunk of the player’s stamina bar. When dribble and tackle are pitted against each other, the result is then determined by the stamina of the player in possession of the ball – having sufficient stamina allows players to counter the tackle, while depleting it after a dribble leads to a failed move and opens the player to a tackle.
In this sense, fighting for possession of the ball becomes a game about timing and managing the player’s stamina, knowing when to pass and when to dribble. This becomes even more important thanks to the sequel’s new Max Action system, a unique move where players can unleash a more powerful dribble or tackle after a brief wind-up time.
This move can’t be countered by regular ones, only by the opposing team’s own Max Action. When two Max Actions collide (dribble vs tackle), the one that’s activated last will win, making it another test of timing but with higher stakes, as an opposing team only has a split second to counter before their move is rendered ineffective, and getting Max Action tackled will also cause that specific player to be out of commission for a while.
And then there’s the act of actually scoring goals, and once again, it’s no longer about positioning like in your standard football game, but instead about reducing the opposing goalkeeper’s HP to zero. Every shot takes out a chunk of this HP bar, and once depleted, it will cause the goalie to lose control of the ball, resulting in a point. Attackers can also try their luck at charging their shot to a more powerful version by holding down the button, which depletes even more of the opponent’s HP.
In this sense, Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters feels more like an action game guised as a football game instead of the other way around. Admittedly, having to land shots multiple times just to break down a goalie’s defence can become repetitive, something that was one of the main criticisms of the first game, and that’s why the sequel introduces a new Goalkeeper’s Tactics system.
Now, when players shoot their shot, they have a limited period of time to aim the ball in one of six directions using the right control stick, with the goalkeeper of the opposing team also doing the same. Essentially, the goal here is for attackers to guess a direction that’s not the same as the goalkeeper.
Picking the same direction as the goalie results in a Perfect Save, which reduces the HP damage done; picking one direction away results in a normal save with standard damage, and anything further away leads to a Bad Save, which still does not guarantee a goal, but does major damage. With this in mind, this offers a more unpredictable scoring system where skill and blind luck can come into play, which does help to shake up the flow of matches.
Things heat up further once Super Moves come into play. These powerful abilities operate on a cooldown time, with each player’s position offering them unique skills. Defenders, for example, can unleash a powerful tackle from afar that can’t be countered, midfielders have a super dribble move that can get past multiple opponents in a row or a super pass that can home in on a teammate from afar, and strikers can perform a power attack that deals massive damage to a goalie’s HP.
Since these moves have a cooldown, they are usually only unlocked during the second half of the match, which ups the intensity of the late game by making things far more chaotic as both sides activate the most powerful skills in their arsenal. Still, it’s all good fun, and most importantly, it truly embodies the spirit of the manga/anime, letting players live out the pivotal final moments of a match where scores can easily shift on a whim.
Finally, Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters introduces two new elements to the fray – Miracle moves and the Chain System. The latter acts as a pseudo-combo system for a player in possession of the ball, with every successful dribble raising the Chain count by one. Raking up a high enough score can dramatically improve a player’s performance, resulting in much faster shot charging and improved damage.
Miracle moves, as their name suggests, present the ultimate wildcard during matches. Essentially, these are hidden power moves unlocked when a player’s team performs specific actions, with every team in the game possessing a different move, as well as different ways to perform it. Some examples include Tsubasa’s team, who can come together to perform a flashy finisher where they all charge forward into an opponent’s goal and guarantee a free point, or Miracle saves, which allow the goalie to prevent any HP damage from being dealt.
Put this all together, and you have a football game that’s fit to carry the name of its source material, with matches boiling down to a barrage of spectacular abilities as each side battles to gain and maintain possession of the ball. Things get even crazier when playing the game’s campaign mode, which introduces special events mid-match to further increase the odds a player has to face.
The match in the preview against Saudi Arabia, for example, saw Tsubasa’s team up against a massive specimen of a man on the opposing team. This juggernaut, much like the namesake character in Marvel’s X-Men, possessed the ability to automatically counter any tackle, even Max Actions, meaning once he had the ball, it was almost impossible to counter, and this, combined with his own powerful Super Move shot, meant an unavoidable goal.
While the preview only offered a taste of such unexpected moments in the main campaign, it’s clear that the game is saving its best cinematic moments for players to discover in its full release, ones that will probably test their tactics and reaction speeds.
Still, the preview was enough to show just how much Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters has improved over its predecessor. Flashy super moves aside, the many changes to the game’s systems and controls allow it to be much easier to pick up and play, while the intensity and unpredictability of each match mean players can still hop on and have a blast even if they have limited time to play.
Of course, the big question now lies in whether the game’s campaign can provide enough curveballs to get players hooked, but that answer will just have to be answered when the game launches on 27 August 2026 for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
