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GC

North America

Virtua Striker 2002

by Bakudan Yoshinoya - September 19, 2002, 12:09 pm EDT

Sega's Virtua Striker for the Triforce arcade platform was running full speed on the TGS floor. Impressions inside.

After being disappointed by Triforce’s lack of presence at the Namco booth, I made my way towards the Sega booth. Luckily, they did not disappoint as they had two rows of Virtua Striker 2002 -- the first arcade game that utilizes the Triforce hardware. Surprisingly, the game did not draw much of a crowd, and I was able to play in a matter of minutes.

Virtua Striker 2002 is the latest installment of Sega’s arcade soccer series. Improvements over the previous version include a larger selection of countries (64 instead of 32) and stadiums (13 instead of 7). The latest version also features a new stamina system where a stamina meter hovers near the players, supposedly factoring in fatigue. I find that a bit ironic since the game does not allow substitutions. The game is also said to boast more goal animations than the previous versions, but I've only seen a couple thus far. One animation shows player grabbing a Sega sports bottle and drinks it like a Gatorade commercial. Overall, I do not really think the goal animations were that impressive.

The first thing you’ll notice about the game is its speed. Compared to Konami’s International Superstar Soccer, this game moves relatively fast and smooth. The speed is comparable to Soccer Slam, but the field is much larger. Unlike Soccer Slam, rules are enforced in the game, which means you can receive yellow cards and red cards. When the offside violation is called, the game switches to a bird’s eye view and draws a red line to illustrate where the offside took place.

While playing the game, I had no time to pay attention to the backdrops and the stadium since the action was so fast. However, when watching another player, I noticed that the backdrops and surroundings were pretty good. The lighting and shadowing was nicely done. There were rotating banner advertisements of companies like as Coke, and of course, Sega and Nintendo. The crowd wears the color of the home team, and some of them swing their country’s flag.

The animation is all nicely done and varied. Players use their heads and chests to receive passes. The replay feature is executed very smoothly, setting in when you make or miss a shot. You get to appreciate the animations of the striker and the goalie during these replay sequences. Unlike most sports games where the replay breaks the game flow, the replay here actually adds to the game.

The control is simple with only three buttons. While on offense, the three buttons basically serve as short pass, long pass, and shoot. On defense, only one button works, and it is used for slide tackles. While connecting passes and pulling off plays is easily done, controlling the defense is where I found difficulty. It seems like you get full control of your defensive player only when you’re really near your opponent. When you approach your opponent and try a slide tackle, there seems to be a lag between the moment you press the button and when your player slides.

Overall, the game looks like a whole lot of fun, especially when you play against your friends. I am assuming that it will come to GameCube in the near future since it is built on the Triforce hardware. The game looks great, and if it does get ported, let’s hope most of it is still there.

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Genre Sports
Developer Sega
Players1 - 2

Worldwide Releases

na: Virtua Striker 2002
Release May 20, 2002
PublisherSega
RatingEveryone
jpn: Virtua Striker 2002
Release Feb 14, 2002
PublisherSega

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