Virtua Striker 3 - GameCube Review (Virtua Striker 2 (DC))

Member Name: ps2update

Product:	Virtua Striker 2 (DC)
Date:	03/12/02 (132 review reads)
Rating:

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When Sega decided to call it a day with the Sega Dreamcast they went on to produce games for their previously rival companies such as Nintendo, and Sony. Since Sega has been producing titles for these consoles they have arguably had the most success since the Sega Megadrive reeling off an array of quality titles for the gaming public including the likes of Crazy Taxi, Virtua Fighter 3, Sonic, and other various gems. If one casts their mind back to the days of the Dreamcast and Saturn one should remember Sega’s Virtua brand, a series of Sega games with Virtua thrown onto the front of the name. These games were not too dissimilar to the Actua series from Gremlin that appeared on the Playstation, and although both Virtua and Actua brand games were large in quantity, they were all of good quality. Virtua Striker then…a game that may have kept you busy down the arcades, fumbling into your pocket for a pound coin for just one last chance to beat your mate…now however you can play your mate or the computer as many times as you like for no more than Forty-Five British Pounds. For those who remember this from the arcades and spent many an hour playing it Virtua Striker will come as a godsend, but will it be enough for the hardcore football fans looking for another Pro Evolution Soccer, ISS, or Fifa?

GRAPHICS

Virtua Striker is a game that really does please the eyes. The visuals are brightly coloured as with most arcade games and although being slightly cartoon-like the graphics surpass ISS’s visuals and match Fifa’s. Although Sega have not acquired a Fifpro license there are certain similarities between the games players and their real life counterparts, for example David Beckham wears his trademark white boots whereas Edgar Davids has his stunning black glasses with the orange centre. There are also various gems in the edit a player option that the game has included, notice how Robbie Fowler doesn’t have that small whi
te nose strip? Well Sega have conveniently placed it in the edit a player option so that you can add it. The crowd on Virtua Striker are a level above other games as they wave their arms about and look a lot livelier than the cardboard cut outs we are used to. The crowd clearly don’t all look identical but they do add to the atmospheric look of the game, as do the stadiums of which there are over ten. Everything from the ball to the linesman is a faithful recreation of the beautiful game. This is arcade football but it doesn’t mean that everything is arcade as there are some wonderfully realistic touches such as the tackles as one player cascades into the back of another sending them down to the floor, face flat in the mud.
As far as football games go on consoles this is visually up their with the best of them, although there are no “real” players as such nor “real” stadiums, the game does exactly what it intends to do and that is to be a bright, colourful, arcade experience.
18/20

GAMEPLAY

As with all football games the initial objective is to score as many goals as you can against your opponents (fairly obvious really). Despite being a “Virtua” branded arcade game Virtua Striker 3 stays faithful to the rules of football with offsides, sending offs, bookings, penalties, and free kicks. The only thing Virtua Striker 3 doesn’t include is the option to dive (an option only seen in This Is Football 2002 thus far for the PS2). Following the arcade theme Virtua Striker is very in your face when it comes to decisions, if there is a replay to be shown some music will kick in and you will see the replay, if it is offside music will kick in and a replay will be shown. The clever thing with Virtua Striker’s offside rule is that a red line is drawn going directly across the pitch so that there can never be any dispute about who was and wasn’t off-side (unlike UEFA Striker when player
s appear not to be off-side and decisions are still given!).
There is one factor that will determine one’s enjoyment when it comes to this game, and it is simply did they enjoy the arcade version? If you were one of those gamers that went down to your local arcade putting pound after pound into the machine just to get one more game at this then this is definitely for you because for Forty British Pounds this can be yours, yes that’s just Forty British Pounds for an unlimited amount of games. Not bad really if you love this game, however if you didn’t enjoy the arcade version than in short this most certainly isn’t for you as Virtua Striker 3 is almost a perfect conversion to the GameCube from the arcade.
If you’ve never played this game before it is a bit of a hit and miss title. This is the ultimate arcade football game because it simply is pure arcade rather than mixing any elements of simulation as Fifa and ISS has. When playing Virtua Striker 3 there are a few main controls, you can do all your usual lobs, shoots, and passes, but at the same time you can select whether you’re going to be playing offensively, defensively, or normally. This can be altered throughout the game by simply pressing one of the back buttons; this means you can alter from normal at the start to offensively when you concede a goal, to defensively once you have captured the lead. Alternatively you can go full out when you have scored playing offensively to rack up huge 8 – 0 scores or you can start defending once you concede to make sure you don’t concede anymore, it really is all up to you. Sadly when playing you cannot sprint, this means that at times Virtua Striker 3 can prove frustrating as it is almost always better to pass the ball than to run around somebody as it is damn near possible to run past players that stand in your way. On the positive side this can lead to some great set pieces but it does however mean that youR
17;ll never get any runs from midfield to score David Beckham style!
When trying to tackle your opponents there is only one control to tackle, although it is possible to give both a stiff nudge and a slide tackle, it all depends on how hard you hit the tackle button. This is a fairly good system as it is realistic, for if a player was trying to get the ball if he was calm and relaxed he would go for a simple prod to move the ball away, but if frustrated and pushing hard he would go full out with a slide tackle. This system does however mean that there are a lot of cards in Virtua Striker 3 even when it comes to the computer’s team. It is not unusual for there to be five sending offs in one game, and sometimes the computer team can shame itself as far as to get five cards itself in one game. When the pressure gets on the cards get flying as the players definitely overstep the line.
The real problem in singles player mode is that scoring goals just becomes trivial, lob or pass the ball up to your striker then let him take a shot whether it is front outside or inside the box, chances are if it is hit well enough it will go in and you will be treated to a replay. Difficulty is always something that developers have had to concentrate on and sadly I don’t think it has quite been mastered here, and baring in mind that you can’t have long runs the game can lose its novelty rather quickly.
Although the game has its flaws, and it may not be the best title for replay value considering the repetitive nature of the game it does shine when it comes to its career mode, and when it comes to multiplayer. Multiplayer ultimately does lead to frustration but at least the intelligence of your opponent is better than the AI (…well in most cases). As for the career mode it really is very mighty indeed! Not only do you get to qualify for the Euro tournaments, you get to play the Euro tournaments, then to qualify for the World Cup, and to eventually
play in the World Cup! This is a career mode that spans over four years, and on top of that there is a cash system, the more money you have the better teams you can challenge to play friendly matches against, beat the team and you get yet more cash! The mode has been thought through well and in terms of football season modes it last a rather long time.
On top of the career mode you have your usual, penalty, friendly matches, custom made tournaments, and multiplayer options.
Virtua Striker 3 is well worth looking at but unless you are a die-hard fan of the original it will be nothing more than filler till the next Fifa or ISS comes along.
16/25

SOUND

Virtua Striker 3 has what can only be described as traditional arcade music at the title screen and at the replay screen – very Sega. The sounds are very arcade orientated, gone is the commentary from Alan Hansen you would expect in simulations and in is an arcade voice from a P.A. system not too dissimilar from that of the voice of Sega’s Crazy Taxi. The voice doesn’t provide commentary more obvious comments e.g. referee books a player – “yellow card”, referee calls for a penalty – “penalty kick”, referee calls for a throwing - “throw in”. As you can tell the voice isn’t the most informative or useful man doing voice over but at least he tries, and adds to the arcade feel. The fans cheer a little but it doesn’t quite feel atmospheric enough, as for the smashes of the balls they are standard, but again nothing to set the pulse racing with excitement. The sound simply delivers what is necessary for an arcade football game, nothing more, nothing less.
15/20

LIFESPAN

Virtua Striker 3 will last you a while in the career mode, and it will be a game you will play a little on multiplayer although it doesn’t quite match up to ISS or Fifa. It is well worth giving a spin for a few days but do
n’t count on it lasting you too long. Of course there is all the time it takes to edit the players names to their correct ones if you feel the urge. There is nothing more to really do after completing season mode, which is a shame, as it doesn’t have enough to keep the gamer coming back to it, time and time again. You will come back to it, just not that often…

16/25

ORIGINALITY

It is fair to say that there are not many arcade football games about that are full on arcade such as this one. Although career modes have been created similar to Virtua Striker’s in the past there has not been one that has gone into as much detail as this one. The edit a player feature is a nice touch and although they have no FifPro license they have managed to sneak in all the essentials to recreate the teams in their glory. One thing that amuses me is that the have the whole Japanese team in with their full names! Yes that means you don’t even have to edit that team because Inamoto and the Japanese crew are there in their entirety, just a shame they couldn’t put the England team in, but since it was released in Japan I am sure they felt their Japanese fans would enjoy the likes of Kawaguchi more than we would enjoy Seaman, oh well…

6/10

OVERALL

Virtua Striker 3 is a perfect conversion from the arcade version, and credit is due for this. Sadly Virtua Striker 3 isn’t quite up there with the likes of Fifa, ISS, Pro Evolution Soccer, and This Is Football but given a few tweaks the Virtua Striker series could soon rank up there, we’ll just have to see what Virtua Striker 4 will bring…

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