With the 2026 World Cup happening now, it’s perhaps the best time to look at Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters. This is the sequel to Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions, which was released in 2020, and it promises to deliver similar football action that features even flashier moves.
Recently, I got to try out World Fighters for a bit under three hours during a media preview. Before jumping into the game, I was a bit concerned about how I’d do in this new Captain Tsubasa game, given that I’m probably the most casual football fan there is (mostly because basketball is king in the PH, and football isn’t particularly popular). While I’ve been following the World Cup and am familiar with the big names like Messi, Mbappe, and Haaland, I only know the basic football rules. As such, I don’t have much knowledge when it comes to strategies, formations, and the intricacies of each position.
I’ve also haven’t fully watched or read Captain Tsubasa. While I’m familiar with the main character and some parts of it since it’s such an iconic Shonen Jump manga, what I know of it isn’t enough to give you any sort of story rundown. Even with my lack of football and Tsubasa knowledge, I was surprised by how quickly World Fighters got me hooked, at least when I was able to understand how the gameplay worked.
Fast and Arcade-y Football Action
Most football games are simulation titles, but Captain Tsubasa 2 is far from a serious sim game. Instead, this is a ball-to-the-wall experience where your goal is to get the ball in the goal with some flashy passing and shooting.
For controls, if your team has possession, you move the player with the ball with the left stick. You can then pass to another player with X (on PlayStation), which is something you should do quite often, especially as the defending teams will be out to tackle you to get possession. Yes, this game is quite a tackle-fest, meaning if you’re defending, you should look into tackling ASAP to get the ball back (you can do so by pressing Circle). All the while, there’s no need to worry about fouls here, as there are no fouling mechanics, similar to Rise of New Champions.
As tackling is the name of the game here, if you have the ball, you should mix up passing with dribbling. With the ball, pressing Circle makes your player dribble, which in this game is essentially a speed boost. This should be used if you see an opposing player initiating a tackle. Along with this, you can dash by moving while pressing R1. Note that dashing uses stamina, meaning you can’t just give the ball to one player and have him run across the pitch.
To make things even more interesting, you can do Max dribbles and tackles. By holding down Triangle and charging, these Max actions result in guaranteed dribbles and tackles. Enemies can counter this by doing their own Max dribble or tackle, giving the game a nice counter mechanic that adds extra things to consider.
If you make it near your goal by passing and dribbling successfully, you can then launch a shot with Square. Holding down Square longer gives you a more powerful shot. This is important, as most of your early shots won’t go in, as they’ll be intercepted by a goalkeeper. In Captain Tsubasa 2, each goalkeeper has a stamina meter, though it’s more like an HP bar that is whittled down the more you shoot.
Because of this, your aim is to shoot as many quality shots as you can to decrease the opposing goalkeeper’s “HP.” Aside from a fully charged shot, having a higher Chain level can make your shots stronger. You get one charge added to your Chain level by dribbling past opponents or linking shot actions, though this will be transferred to your opponent if you lose possession.
When you turn the ball over to the other team, you automatically gain control of your team’s player who is closest to the opponent with the ball. You can manually switch with L1, and this is important if your opponent moves quite fast.
Once you progress through a game (the 90-minute clock runs faster than real-time here), your players will eventually fill up their Super Move gauge, which they can use to do Super Moves. These include long passes, more powerful shots, or a guaranteed block.
While I found the game’s systems overwhelming at first given my lack of football expertise, I quickly got the hang of the game’s flow. It helps that the story mode has a useful tutorial, which introduces each gameplay system one at a time.
In total, it took me just around 15 minutes to learn how the game worked. While I still have much to learn about the best strategies to go with, I can say for certain that the fast-paced football action here is incredibly engaging, all while having a surprising level of depth. All of this while being quite accessible.
What I didn’t get to explore was the differences between the various teams in the game’s roster, as each team is designed to have specific strengths. For the entirety of my hands-on time, I was playing as Team Japan. That’s because I mostly played the early parts of the game’s story mode.
A New Take on the World Youth Arc
World Fighters has a pretty unusual story. In a way, it’s similar to many anime games as it tells a story from the original manga/anime. Instead of being a 1:1 adaptation, the World Fighters storyline is a “reconstructed” version of the World Youth Arc in the manga.
Fans shouldn’t be worried in this regard, as the game’s version of the events is supervised by series creator Yoichi Takahashi. This is likely because players take on the role of a brand-new character whose appearance is customizable, coupled with the fact that this game features more countries.
I can’t make a definitive statement yet when it comes to the story, but from what I’ve seen, the game’s storyline seems promising. It likely won’t be anything groundbreaking, but it should deliver familiar sports anime thrills, with themes of teamwork and rising to the challenge.
Most of the story moments are told via visual novel-style cutscenes, but there are also some story breaks in the middle of a match in Story Mode. These happen during particularly big moments in a match, and they’re often accompanied by flashbacks. This is a pretty creative way to add extra storytelling moments, but given the fast-paced nature of the gameplay, these can feel a bit jarring to experience. Thankfully, they don’t happen often enough to ruin a match’s flow.
As with gameplay, I have not done a deep enough dive into the game’s story, but from what I’ve seen, this should delight Tsubasa fans while being easy enough to follow for anyone who has at least a passing interest in football or sports anime.
Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters – Initial Verdict
It should be quite obvious to say that World Fighters is going to be a must-play for any Captain Tsubasa fan. Not only does its story retell a beloved arc from the manga, but it also takes the gameplay systems from the previous game and makes it even more action-packed.
What is surprising is that there’s a lot going for this game, even for those who aren’t really into the Tsubasa anime or manga. The surprisingly deep action football gameplay is definitely engaging, all while being fairly easy to pick up and enjoy. Thus, this is shaping up to be a fun game even for casual football fans, especially those currently experiencing World Cup fever.
Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch on August 27, 2026. Meanwhile, it will launch on PC via Steam on August 28, 2026.