Famicom sports games

[rezo]

Well, the only three that I know of that were based on comics anyways. They all had one thing in comic. They lose the standard realtime sports gameplay in favor of menus and cinematics. Its curious, but I enjoy them quite a bit.


Alright-

Captain Tsubasa - Tecmo - 1988







Failed translation hack images, but I couldn't find anything else.

Anyways, as near as I can tell, this was the first of cinematic sports games and the series became quite popular. The game features a continuous series of animations, except for when you're selecting a move, running at the top of the screen. You have options such as "shoot, pass, dribble, one-two" on offense, and selecting one of these either allows you to perform the move or perhaps brings up a sub-menu of special techniques. Defense is handled similarly. Its a slower paced game because of this, but, at least, on the offensive side, it increases your tactical options. Each technique eats up a certain amount of stamina and managing this becomes an important part of the game, as useful characters continue to dwindle(You may find yourself with only one person that can score, and he may be able to perform the shot to do so only 2 or 3 times in the game.)

Graphics are rather simple, and unlike the later games in the series, the story is mostly non-existent. There is some attention to details though, such as a mini-adventure game to find a character in France, as well as the sickly Misugi becoming entirely worn out after only moments of play. Also, the announcer and his little ramblings are some of my favorite moments in the game. A really enjoyable character, even if I can barely understand half of what he's saying.

The game was released in the US several years later as Tecmo World Cup Soccer



Captain Tsubasa 2 - Super Striker -1990




Considered by many to be Tecmo's best Captain Tsubasa game, they really improved things for this one. The animations were bumped considerably, and the story scenes are some of the best I've seen in any of them. Small story events are integrated directly into the games now, including the great "Overhead Drive Shoot!" scene:



which I had in my sig for quite a while.
Captain Tsubasa 3 tried to recreate it with the Cyclone, but it wasn't the same. =\


_________________


Dodge Danpei - Sunsoft - 1992










A card based dodgeball game. You have a small set of cards to play(seems I never took a shot of the screen where you select your moves =\ ) that are cycled out as you use them. The regular cards feature 3 numbers on them, the higher they are , the more proficient your attack is. There are also "fire" cards, which have higher numbers, a card for passing , and a "line cross" card, which forces your opponents turn to fail. Four cards must be played out in a single sequence, and if your sequence is thrown off, either by the enemy using a line-cross card, or dodging the ball causing one of your backmen to catch it and forcing two offensive moves on you when you had set up one offensive and one defensive, then its troubling. The game becomes a guessing game of sorts about when to use a special without having it cancelled out, which happens quite often. All of the events play out in a series of cinematics after the cards are selected. Characters have nicely detailed special animations(though only 1 for each) but the regular graphics for passing and the like look rather poor due to palette issues. The game is also pretty short(only 8 matches) but fun in the short amount of time.


Dodge Danpei 2 - 1993












The graphics in this game are much improved, and the gameplay refined a bit. Characters now have multiple specials and the generic techniques have been increased. The "line out" and "pass" cards are gone, and there are only regular cards numbered 1-5, and the "Fire" special card. The numbers once again are the amount of power your technique has, however, this time they can be used singularly, two at a time, or three at a time, provided they are all the same number. If you use three 2s, and the opponent uses two 4s and one 5, they'll recieve full damage. Only 3 like numbered cards can counter it. Also, you can pull off special moves and passes at any moment. Instead of depending on special cards, the game utilizes stamina instead. Defense is also improved, allowing you to have strong characters rush in to protect the weak. Characters also level up over time and the game introduces a simple adventure mode as well. Its all handled rather well and can lead to some tense moments. Its a great game I think, and I wish the games on the 16-bit systems had been done in the same manner.

________________________


Mizushima Shinji no Daikoushien -1990 - Capcom









A simple baseball game, where very little is left to the player. You are led to key moments in a game where you must either save your team in an innings time with a grandslam, or strike out the opponents ace slugger and other such scenarios. Its an interesting premise anyways, but the game is far too simple. Special moves are depicting as stills like you see above, and fielding is handled through menus, like a Captain Tsubasa baseball game with light animations. I enjoyed it, but I think I just sort of favor the style as a curiousity, and probably wouldn't reccomend it to anyone. I love the character art though. Great. They cut holes in their caps to see and such.


______________________________




Where are they now?
____________________



Captain Tsubasa:

Tecmo gave up the Captain Tsubasa license to Bandai after they made part 5, and was eventually acquired by Konami. I have yet to check, but I believe among the recent offerings(a card game on GBA?) a conventional Tecmo style game has been released on the Gamecube fairly recently.


Dodge Danpei:

I don't know of any Dodge Danpei games after part 2 on the famicom.

Mizushima Shinji's allstars:

They're playing against J-leaguers in Sega's recent "Mizushima allstars vs. Pro Yakyuu" or some such.I don't remember the exact title. Its that game featuring the manga style characters with the real ones that came out recently.


___________________________



That's it. Any fans of these games/style?

[epmode]

nice thread, rezo. i was always interested in this type of game (sports + ninja gaiden style cutscenes,) but i still haven't played any of them.. are there decent translations available?

[Ex Ranza]

What a cool thread.. thanks for the info. I've come across a Capcom baseball game on MAME called Dokaben. It looks similar to the baseball game above, but I'm not sure if it too is based on a comic.

Card-based dodgeball.. that's awesome!

(Seriously.)

[Johnny Undaunted]

Actually, there were a few more Dodge Danpei games for the Super Famicom, Mega Drive and PC Engine.

Anyway I believe Mizushima Shinji was developed by Status, the Capcom team responsible for Street Fighter 2010.

[NeoZeedeater]

Cool thread. This might be my least played of all the 8-bit subgenres. I would like to try whatever games have been translated.

[Tigana]

Failed translation hack images, but I couldn't find anything else.

God that hack of Tsubasa was hilarious, I think Frogacuda could give you more screens.

edit: At least I thought it was that game, the crazy version was Tsubasa Five for the super famicom. I get the dunce cap.

[rezo]

Yeah, that one was a hong kong translation or something. I think it was called "Boy's Cup Soccer".



Its the first scene in the story mode.

Actually, there were a few more Dodge Danpei games for the Super Famicom, Mega Drive and PC Engine.

I know, but they all came out before the second famicom game~

Cool thread. This might be my least played of all the 8-bit subgenres. I would like to try whatever games have been translated.

I don't know of any translations for any of the games. I thought there might have been some for Tsubasa at least, but nothing came up. However, the japanese is very simple. pretty much all of the menu commands amount to english words written in Katakana. Same goes for Dodge-Danpei. If you can at least read that much then you shouldn't have too much trouble.