Captain Tsubasa: The Challenge of the Golden Generation

A fierce tiger roars! A hawk soars into the sky! A passionate shot that pierces the goal!

JP release: 12th September 2002
EU release: N/A
NA release: N/A
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

Captain Tsubasa is a long-running football manga series that has seen a ton of adaptations, such as an anime and a lot of video games, with the first one being released outside of Japan on the NES as Tecmo Cup Football Game. Later releases were released worldwide, but for a while they were Japanese-only.

You can’t play individual matches in this football game, so the RPG mode is the only option. It plays in a very similar way to Konami’s Power Pros story modes, with you selecting training, resting and keeping on top of your stats. You get selected as a substitution option for the Japanese national team after taking part in an entrance exam and accidentally scoring a goal. Every now and then you’ll play a practice match or full match and take control of the squad.

The gameplay is rather odd. When you get the ball, you can move in real-time, but the moment anyone gets close, everything pauses and you select your options from a menu. This usually means dribble, pass or shoot. Once you’ve selected this, an animation plays out with your result. This is all very exaggerated, with the players and ball travelling long distances. It captures the style of an anime really well, but it makes each action feel completely disconnected from the match, especially as animations are the same each time.

The semi turn-based nature of things is certainly an interesting take on football, but I don’t think it quite works.

Fine

The gameplay system is a mixture of Tecmo’s games (lists) for example (dribble, pass, special pass, special shot) and konami’s CT game on the PS1 where events occur in each game such as when Espadas (Mexico’s GK) runs with the ball towards your goal (I dare you to take the ball from his feet!!) :p
For CT fans, the gameplay system is quite fulfilling, where you get to see cool special moves and events, however, what bothers me most is that when the ball rebounds, the CPU seems a lil bit too lucky ’cause the ball always seems to end up between it’s feet -_-
msa1133, GameFAQs

Remake or remaster?

Perhaps a collection for fans of the show.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Captain Tsubasa: The Challenge of the Golden Generation.