Hey, look! My japanese cousin! Oi, itoko, boringu ni ikou yo!
He's wearing no pants, as usual...
Japan is a curious land, and on the matter of sports, it is no different. While there's the sumo wrestler in the room, Sumo, their national sport with probably the most ceremony of all sports on earth, as well as other martial arts with somewhat less of it, other imported pastimes have landed in the eastern island nation: Baseball is another very loved sport, probably more loved than in the States, and the place has its share of motorsports that don't involve delivering tofu. Of course, as you could tell, Soccer is another one of the big J's favorites.
Japan is home to the J.League, their national soccer league, and as Japan likes to do, they make vidya gaems based on the competition. The one we'll be talking about today is Pro Striker 2, released in 1994 for the Genesis. On the surface, it is just another soccer game in a platform with more than 6 already released, so how does it stand out? Simple: By being a good game.
All other soccer games on the Genesis had this loose feeling where sometimes you just couldn't do anything but a forced mistake, and while eaten inputs on this one are still a thing, they are far less common. You feel in control almost always. The game movement is stiff, but for a good reason: To stick to the ball. The game doesn't let you veer off course if you're dribling the ball, which means you can only turn when the ball is in your feet. This makes movement jerkier, but far, FAR more reliable.
Yeah, other games did this already by 1994, but Pro Striker 2 goes above and beyond to make it as smooth as possible. The game is fun, and makes you feel like mistakes are yours, instead of the game being cheap, eating inputs and just controlling badly. The AI can be dumb sometimes, and the crowd sound is harsh, but after trying so many soccer games, I can safely say this one is on the top 3 so far!
Here's a little collection of nice plays I recorded for you, my most esteemed SaSuers:
. Finished it the day before yesterday and managed to avoid spoilers and get the good ending altogether. It's a really fucked up game psychologically, but I maintain that it was, in a weird way, comforting. I was already biased toward it because I love rpg maker games. Also, I deeply related to Sunny with the whole white space and trying to hide from guilt thing. I guess different people react differently to the game. All in all, I hadn't been drawn to a game like that for a long time. Kept wondering why was Basil acting so weird toward me. Found out
