Web site:
Category: Games
Sub-Category: RPG, Sport
Platform: Nintendo
License: Proprietary
Interface: GUI
Wikipedia: Tecmo Cup Soccer Game
First release: April 28, 1988
Tecmo Cup Soccer Game (Captain Tsubasa in Japan) – a soccer/RPG video game published by Tecmo in 1988 in Japan and in 1992 in the United States and Europe for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
It started a genre of games known as “Cinematic Football.” This means that instead of having direct control over the action like a standard soccer simulator, the game has a cinematic angle, with the player having to choose their actions from a convenient list, and the results of these actions are animated on screen.
The game was translated into Arabic and bootlegs as “Captain Majid,” as the program was a huge success in the Arab world.
The title and characters were renamed and replaced, respectively, outside of Japan due to licensing issues.
The game is based on the story of the Captain Tsubasa series, the animated series best known in Latin America as Supercampeones or in Spain as Campeones. In the European and American versions, the characters were changed to Anglo-Saxon names and appearances to enhance their success in those markets. Two examples would be Robin Field (Tsubasa Ozora in Japan, Oliver Aton in Spain and Latin America) or Damon Stark (Kojiro Hyuga in Japan, Mark Lenders in Spain, and Steve Hyuga in Latin America).
The first edition of Captain Tsubasa tells Oliver’s story from his early days in football with the Nankatsu team. All of Oliver’s rivals from the national tournament appear (Kojiro Hyuga, Takeshi Sawada, Ken Wakashimazu, Hikaru Matsuyama, Jun Misugi, Kazuo Tachibana, Masao Tachibana). Nankatsu features all of the players: Paul Diamond, Johnny Mason, Eddie Carter, Victor Takasugi, Jack Morris, Al Jones, Bruce Hapter, and of course Tsubasa Ozora.
The second part of the game takes place during the Junior World Cup. The most notable players are Steve Montgomery, captain of the England Youth National Team, Pierre LeBlanc, and, at the end, Karl Heinz Schneider, in which we can choose Genzo Wakabayashi as goalkeeper for that single match.
