Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is an Association Football sports video game developed by Tamsoft and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. It is the first game based on the Captain Tsubasa franchise released specifically for gaming platforms since 2010's Nintendo DS title Captain Tsubasa: Gekito no Kiseki released in Europe under the name Captain Tsubasa New Kick Off. This game was released worldwide on August 28, 2020. This makes it one of the few games under the Captain Tsubasa manga series to be released worldwide.
The game tells the story of either Tsubasa Ozora, the main character of the Captain Tsubasa manga, or you, going through an alternate version of the events of the manga.
Taking a Arcade-Style approach to Football, not unlike SNK's Super Sidekicks on Neogeo, the game plays in real time with the player controlling the team member who happens to have the ball. Overall, the game is very action-packed.
The game also introduces new characters, develops characters that were just extras in the original manga, and explores new teams, includng USA and Senegal.
Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions has the following tropes.
- The Ace: Most of the Captains have vastly superior stats to the other players.
- Adaptational Badass: Most of the players are useful, and in fact, you need a somewhat balanced team to win. Even nameless players can be useful if used correctly. Morisaki comes to mind; he is far from being as good as Wakashimazu and Wakabayashi, but he has a luck-based ability that lets him stop any shot with 20% chance, regardless of his stamina.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Carlos Santana and Luciano Leo were first introduced while Tsubasa played in Brazil. Here, they play for the Brazilian World Youth team, with Santana using his adopted name Carlos Barra.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Stefan Levin is notably a lot friendlier than his manga counterpart when introduced, probably owing to his girlfriend Karen still being alive and well.
- Adaptational Wimp: Wakabayashi and most of the top tier keepers aren't as strong as in the manga for balance purpose, though they're still very strong compared to most of the keepers.
- Animal Battle Aura: The Peregrine Falcon for Tsubasa, the Tiger for Hyuga, and the Eagle for Matsuyama, among many others whenever they perform their shots.
- Canon Foreigner: The game introduces many players who didn't exist in the manga. Some notable examples are Cornelius Heine for Germany, Blake Martin and Ryan Ortiz for USA, Leonardo Rusciano for Italy, and Jean-Laurent Pierre for France.
- Cast from Hit Points: The Keepers will gradually use their stamina to parry shots. The stronger the shot is, the more stamina they will use. Without stamina, they're far less effective. Unless the shooter has very high Tec rating, then the shot has a chance of completely bypassing the Keeper leaving him frozen.
- Character Customization: For the New Hero mode, players can create a customized avatar that represents them, and is able to learn techniques by befriending other characters during the story.
- Character Development: One of the things most seen in the New Hero mode is how the Avatar can change some players for the better and how they can teach the Avatar their style.
- The Chessmaster: That's how USA's Ryan Ortiz plays football. He studies the opposite team and only plays on their weaknesses. But once they meet Germany, unless the player can convince Ryan to play instead of just watching, they're defeated; if the player succeeds, they beat Germany and then Brazil to meet Japan in the finals.
- Combination Attack: Par for the franchise's course, many players have combination shots. The player's avatar is able to learn them to perform them as well.
- Notably, the Hanawa DLC for Episode of New Hero has an exclusive ability that can only be done with the player's avatar and the Tachinaba Twins: the Skylab Triangle (a combination of the Twin's Skylab Hurricane used as a pass from above, then the player finishes with a kick to the goal).
- A Day in the Limelight: The upcoming DLC includes a new story mode called Episode of Rising Stars, where you can follow the story of some notable players. The first batch will include Misaki, Matsuyama and Schneider, with six more to be added in the future updates.
- For Want Of A Nail: The Episode of New Hero mode is an alternate story where the Sub-16 World Tournament in France is cancelled, so the USA decides to host a new tournament. It also gives the player the chance to join the Toho, Musashi or Furano teams (with Otomo, Hanawa and Hirado added in the DLC updates) with the goal to defeat Nankatsu in the finals. Alternately, the player can join Nankatsu (again, in the DLC updates) to become the team's main pillar while Tsubasa recovers from his injuries sustained in the Nationals.
- Improbable Sports Skills: Goes with Captain Tsubasa. Some players can shoot the ball and give it very weird effects.
- Loners Are Freaks: Carlos only plays Football for himself, he'll only pass the ball to Leo once in a while and it's because of this that Germany beats them...that is, unless The Avatar teaches him the power of friendship; then he starts using teamwork, something Germany never expected.
- Power Copying: The Avatar can learn any technique or passive ability from anyone as long as he is good friends with them.
- Spared by the Adaptation: A scene with Stefan Levin shows the player avatar eavesdropping on a phone call he's having with his girlfriend, implying that she didn't suffer her tragic fate from canon.
