A very mediocre port to Dreamcast, but its Virtua Striker 2! Try it!
When you buy this game for Dreamcast you should expect arcade style soccer and nothing close to simulation style soccer. That means this game has only three action buttons and a 8-way movement, not analog controls, no advanced control buttons, not even a sprint button.
Therefore this game must not be compared to other soccer dreamcast games.
Although the experience from the real arcade Virtua Striker 2 is not well ported to Dreamcast, it just brings you the sensation of fast paced, action packed soccer in your tv monitor.
Speaking of the graphics i think this is the strongest point of Vs2.
This game is years ahead of its era, with solid hi-res modeled players, clear and fluid animations, a lot better than Fifa series and Pes series.
Also i find that the ball is the most impressive till today, being very hi detailed (adidas tricolore) with astonishing physics, bounce, roll and general movement. Its comparable to today's soccer games.
Concerning sound, the game has the original arcade sounds, without commentary, surreal sound effects in the pitch, and classic Sega music during menus. That is to augment the arcade sensation of this game.
Control is the biggest drawback, as you can hardly select which player you want to control making gameplay quite frustrating. It happened many times, a selected player running towards the ball and just before he touches it, another player is selected automatically, losing therefore the control.
At this point i would like to mention that only two player mode in addition to single player is supported, due to very close camera, and the overall arcade pace of the game.
All in all, virtua striker is a genre itself, it is an arcade port to DC, providing tremendous visual arcade experience, but falls short when it comes to play it.