With "Captain Tsubasa: Rise of new champions", "Olive and Tom" finds a faithful adaptation to the cartoon of the years 1980-90. Clearly betting on nostalgia, the video game allows you to relive the adventures of the heroes of the green rectangle. A pleasant title but boring in the long run.

"Olive and Tom, they're still in good shape…": this catchy tune, refrain from the famous cartoon Olive and Tom marked all the children of the 1980s and 90s. And more than 30 years after its first broadcast, the flame is reborn thanks to a video game:  Captain Tsubasa: Rise of new champions  (on PS4, Switch and PC). This new adaptation of the adventures of apprentice Japanese footballers, edited by Bandai Namco, is very faithful to the original work. What to thrill fans of the shooting of the eagle, failing to offer them a truly successful title.

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First precision, the game uses here the names of the manga and not those of the French adaptation of the cartoon. Olivier "Olive" Atton thus becomes Tsubasa Ozora and Thomas "Tom" Price is Genzô Wakabayashi. They play for the team of Nankatsu (the Newteam), rival of the Toho (no change) of Kojirō Hyūga, alias Mark Landers. And if the menus are in French, the whole atmosphere is in Japanese, from the dialogues (subtitled) to the match comments. The purists will be delighted but we say that a good French version would have been the icing on the cake. 

Simplified football and special shots

Let’s enter the lawn now. Not surprisingly,  Captain Tsubasa  is very arcade-oriented and therefore light years away from the realism of a FIFA or a PES. The physics of the players, shots and tackles are fanciful, just like the cartoon. Do not rely on penalties and free kicks to score because… there is no fault! As for the races, they are very random since they depend on the energy level of each player: Tsubasa can sprint from one end of the field to the other, but he is the only one. Everything is quite simplistic: one key to pass the ball, one to shoot, one to dribble and one to tackle, with some possible combos.

But beware: an ordinary strike will not allow you to score because the goalkeepers stop them all! To beat them, you have to use the special techniques of the main characters. And they're all there: Tsubasa's dead leaf shot, Nitta's hawk shot, Hyūga's tiger shot, the Tachibana brothers' hellish catapult ... So many techniques that are fairly easy to perform (just hold the button of shooting a few seconds without being tackled) and which provide a real pleasure. Note that a successful special shot does not always ensure a goal scored because the goalkeeper can stop it if his energy gauge is sufficiently filled.

An immeeeeeeense land

Anyone who has devoured the Olive and Tom cartoon has only one expectation when starting  Captain Tsubasa  : Does the pitch look endless? To our delight, the answer is yes. This specificity of the cartoon (18 kilometers long according to a study) is here intelligently reproduced thanks to the conjunction of several tricks: a close-up camera which prevents seeing the goals before approaching the penalty area; a sprint bar that empties very quickly and therefore slows down progress; and defenders faster than attackers which therefore prevents going straight to the goal from the midfield and requires more passes. Result, reaching the goal is a battle!

Timing trumps technique

Whether for strikes, dribbles or tackles, the game therefore gives pride of place to timing, more than to technique. And let's say it: it's often frustrating. It is not uncommon to exert superhuman efforts to even manage to get into a shooting position just to have his streak annihilated by an ill-anticipated opposing tackle before being crucified in two passes and a special shot. You have to be patient to really have fun, to learn to master the passes and technical gestures.

If  Captain Tsubasa  therefore opts for a resolutely arcade style, the game's background is nonetheless very tactical. It is tempting to chain matches without worrying about the team in front, like a FIFA . Big mistake! Each team has stars with special characteristics: powerful shots, laser passes, inevitable tackles, swaying dribbles… It is essential to spot these key players so as not to leave them free to play. Do not hesitate to take a look at the composition of the opposing team before the match.

A friendly adventure mode

On the content side, nothing very innovative. In addition to the ability to play matches quickly,  Captain Tsubasa offers a two-part adventure mode. The first allows you to relive the great moments of manga, from regional high school tournaments to international youth competitions. The hero is obviously Tsubasa Ozora and we find with pleasure his friends, his mentors and his rivals. It's just a matter of playing matches but it's fun. The second part, titled "New Hero", consists of creating your own player and advancing them to glory in an original story.

This double adventure should occupy you about thirty hours. And that's enough because, in the long run, the game can get boring. The lack of depth of the gameplay and the very repetitive aspect of the matches do not necessarily encourage spending more time than necessary on the title. Nice but limited, this adaptation of Olive and Tom  will undoubtedly appeal to those nostalgic for manga and cartoon, but should struggle to convince other players.