Virtua Striker 2002 Preview
We go hands-on with a playable version of the next iteration of Virtua Striker.
Like the sport of soccer itself, the Virtua Striker series is somewhat of an enigma. The series has received high praise in Japan for its detailed graphics and simple gameplay mechanics, but at the same time, it has been collectively rebuked or ignored by the North American gaming audience. When Virtua Striker first made its way to North America via the Dreamcast, the few who actually played it were surprised by the lack of extra modes and the inability to control player movement while on defense. Recognizing at least part of the series' weaknesses, Amusement Vision has added a surprisingly robust franchise mode to Virtua Striker 2002 for the GameCube, which seems to go a long way in adding some much needed depth to the strategic element of the game.
The franchise mode--or the "Road to the International Cup," as it's called in the game--lets you build any of one of the 64 international teams from the ground up. When you select a team, you'll be brought to its headquarters, where you can make adjustments to your on-field strategy, the roster, as well as position and formation settings. You can also designate which skill your players will learn when they enter training camp. For example, if you want one of your forwards to become an excellent striker, then you click on that player's name and select the striker icon. Some of the other skills that players can improve include speed, stamina, slide tackling, and passing, but obviously, you'll want to train players based on their position on the field--for example, the goalkeeper doesn't need to be as proficient in slide tackling as other players on the field.
For players to learn their designated skills, you have to schedule some training camp time via the schedule menu in the franchise mode. This screen gives you a week-by-week breakdown of the events that you have planned over the course of the four years leading up to the international cup. At the start of the mode, each week is empty, so it's up to you to fill it with training camps, exhibition matches in your home stadium, or overseas matches. Each of these three options costs a certain number of points, which depends upon the number of weeks you schedule for training or the quality of the opponent, but since you'll have around 2,000 points to start with, you won't have to worry too much about cost in the early stages of the game. However, if you schedule too many training camps or lose too many exhibition games, the number of points you have will rapidly dwindle down to zero, leaving you with very little chance of progressing on to the championship. There are advisors in the franchise mode who help explain some of the basics to you, but none of them seem to offer any insightful hints or at least information that would help in case you were in some dire need of extra points or if you needed to know which skill a particular player should train.
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- Sega
- Amusement Vision
- Soccer Sim
- Release: May 20, 2002 »
- ESRB: Everyone
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