This is a genuinely comprehensive mode that is only really held back by the fact it is on Virtua Striker 3. With all the time we’d spent making sure our training schedules were meticulous, the warm up friendlies allowed us to experiment with our squad. That feeling when a country that doesn't exist any more is selectable, but Wales aren’t.

It was difficult to score and red cards seemed to be dealt out for the most innocuous of challenges, however, slowly but surely, we went from ironically enjoying ourselves to becoming addicted. It didn’t come easy though, and it took us hours and hours trying to trawl our way through the comprehensive campaign mode. We needed to make sure our fake named players like Budisa and Vukavic fired us all the way to International Cup glory. It even has scouts looking for potential members to join your international side as you progress through qualifiers. This mode in particular houses a number of features that have only recently made their way to FIFA’s career mode, such as the ability to set individual training schedules for your players and organising your own friendly tours.

Picking a team was tough, but in the absence of our home nation Wales we had to settle for the last team that knocked England out of the last World Cup- Croatia.ĭespite its janky game play and dated graphics, there are aspects to this game that are actually ahead of its time.

Instead of playing against each other we had a pop at completing the game’s main campaign “The Road to International Cup”, an obvious spin on the World Cup as they wouldn’t have the naming rights. Most normal people were binging Tiger King, but we wanted some rainbow goals in our lives. In 2020, mid-pandemic and being bored out of our brains, my brother and I decided to download a Gamecube emulator so we could to jump onto Virtua Striker 3 and recapture some hardcore nostalgia. I kind of wish more sports games would embrace daft stuff like this, there is definitely a time and a place for some silliness even in a game like FIFA. You could only unlock them by some convoluted method that I’ve forgotten now, but none the less this was a type of arcade madness that has been unfortunately lost to time. There was one team though, “FC Sonic”, that allowed you to play as Sonic, Tails & co in matches, making this already bonkers game even weirder. Despite the obvious lack of realism, I remember it being fun at the time it was out, You could only play as an international side, but the Gamecube port has a variety of modes to keep you entertained.

Virtua Striker 4 Dolphin