Virtua Striker 2002

Win the Road to International Cup, and create your own best team.

Virtua Striker 2002 is a home port of the arcade football game Virtua Striker 3. Unlike many arcade ports, this has a lot added to it – including a comprehensive 4-years “road to International Cup” management mode where you have to train your players, play practice matches and try to make it to the next totally not World Cup. Get a high enough score in the ranked mode (or download a save file) and you can also play as some fun bonus teams, and there’s a really good training mode there as well.

What really lets the game down, though, is the gameplay itself. You don’t have full control of the game, as the CPU “helps” you a lot, from always choosing your selected player, deciding on the strength of your tackles, and sometimes doing stuff on your behalf. To make matters worse, controls are stick, partly due to the lack of full analogue controls as players only move in 8 directions, and passing feels disjointed. There’s also some annoying arcade “features” still in the gameplay, such as only giving you a few seconds to decide on how to take a free kick.

One strange oddity is that the AI gets extremely aggressive towards the end of the match, getting their players sent off. Although with how footballers like to big up any tackle against them, it was amusing to see Amy Rose grab her leg, get up and carry on after a vicious tackle from England.

This is all a shame as clearly a ton of work has gone into all the modes and features, but the matches themselves are just frustrating to play, as it feels like you’re fighting your own team more than your opponents.

Fine

Arcade games are supposed to be fun – Virtua Striker 3 isn’t. It’s slow, unrewarding and incredibly frustrating. Even in multiplayer games, the CPU seems to have too big a say, tackling and outpacing opponents for you.

NGC Magazine #69

Remake or remaster?

A Sega arcade collection would be great.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to play Virtua Striker 2002.

GameCube Games by Date

2001: Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2002: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2003: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2004: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2005: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2007: Mar, Jun, Aug

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