Virtua Striker 4

New Player Card Technology lets YOU be the Manager…

JP release: 27th October 2004
EU release: 2004
NA release: N/A
Developer: Smilebit Div
Publisher: Sega
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

The GameCube port of Virtua Sticker 3 must have sold quite poorly for it to not get a home console port of Virtua Striker 4. Especially as the game was built for the GameCube based Triforce based arcade system.

The game follows the typical arcade structure for sports games. You pick a team, and have to win four matches to beat the tournament (totally not the World Cup). The teams themselves are licensed with player names, and the graphics do the job.

The gameplay itself is decent. There’s something nice about the simplicity of the game, making it a lot of fun. That said, the lack of control (sometimes your players pass to an absurd position) can be an issue against the later teams. It’s an enjoyable football game and one of the few Triforce exclusives.

In the actual arcades, you could also use a special card to unlock some bonus players (no Sonic this time) and modify your own team, you can scan the card into a cabinet to load your team onto a machine. This was also the last Virtua Striker game, although it did get an update in 2006.

Fun

Yhe game they released was as good looking as ever, controls were better and more responsive, animations were refined and the camera angle was finally more human… You had the chance to shield toe ball to some extent, and sometimes you’d see players pulling each other while running. They even introduced a “dash” button! But for me, the game had lost its soul. There was little-to-nothing left of the Virtua Striker legacy in there.
miguelsr, Liberto

Remake or remaster?

A collection of Sega’s classic sports arcade games with fictional teams would be nice.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get Virtua Striker 4.