"Not your traditional soccer game, but it works"

There have been a bunch of soccer games out there, from FIFA World Cup to Winning Eleven to the slightly more obscure Sega Soccer Slam. There have been a bunch of Mario spin-off sports games, too, from Mario Kart, Mario Golf and Mario Tennis to the recent Mario Baseball. Like many great ideas, this one combines two earlier formulas for success, creating a great party game that will entertain you and your friends for a while to come.

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics look pretty good, but aren't anything special. Good detail on the character models, and the Super Strikes look great, especially when perfectly performed. A large problem, though, is the extremely noticeable slowdown when Bowser crashes onto the field. When he's rampaging, and there are items being thrown everywhere, the lag can get pretty debilitating.

Controls: 9/10
Nice, crisps controls that are easy to pick up. Although there might not be a better solution to the problem, too often a double-press of a button will hurt the player. If one double-taps the A button to pass, the receiving player will immediately pass the ball - which could be good if it happens on purpose, but happens all too often by accident. Maybe I just need to be more careful, though.

Sound: 7/10
Nothing really stands out here either way. The roars of the crowd sound nice, and the sounds of the game all come through pretty well. Music is good, if repetitive.

Gameplay: 8/10
I thought long and hard about splitting this up into two sections, multiplayer and single-player. They really deserve two different scores, but I'm sticking with my formula. Single-player does the job, but it seems like it was just thrown in at the last minute so there could be unlockables. It's not a major problem, but having to play through everything with hardly any story can be a chore just to unlock an unbalanced team that your friends will probably ban you from playing. Another complaint is a lack of differences between characters. It's well balanced, but I'd like more variability between, say, Peach and Wario. The differences are minor, but there, such as DK's obvious power and Yoshi's ability to seemingly jump over checks while charging his Super Strike. There should also probably be more of a difference between the sidekicks. People still haven't figured out the real difference between them, though it's obvious that Toad is the fastest and the Hammer Bros. are the roughest. But that's enough of the bad. The Super Strikes manage to be game-changing without broken, taking time and skill to pull off, and adequately rewarding the player with 2 points (and a sweet animation). The gameplay works will with single-player or multi-player, and the adjustable AIs work well. The cpu-controlled goalies manage to keep up a pretty good skill level. It might seem like they block too many shots, but if you fire them at him over and over, he'll get stunned and give you a good opportunity to score. Overall, it's well-balanced gameplay with a nice learning curve for single-player.
It's probably somewhat important to traditional soccer game fans to know how the game plays relative to real soccer. The Super Strikes, as I said, add a nice spice to the game without being unbalanced, as do the Items. Bowser can get pretty frustrating at times, but he's also made me emit many a sigh of relief for squashing an enemy player just when they're about to score. To be honest, though, I'd say that this game plays more like hockey than soccer. The lack of out-of-bounds and the small field both contribute to this, but what really makes it seem like hockey is the checking. Checking is well balanced in that you can't retain the ball like a successful slide tackle would, and you get items if the opposing player checks your man without the ball, but it really doesn't seem like part of soccer. If you came to this game expecting to see play similar to Man. U vs Chelsea, I recommend Winning Eleven instead. Still, though, it's great fun to play this game, especially the multiplayer.

Replayability: 10/10
This is where the game really shines. Get 3 of your friends together and prepare to have tons of fun. Although there's no difference between the stadiums (other than the looks), it's nice to be able to change it up once in a while. The length of the game and setting of the AI difficulty work well for a quick game, or a longer marathon. The way it keeps track of stats like best goal-scorer, most frequent checker, and others is pretty cool. I'd be content to play this game for years on end, as long as I had 3 friends.

Overall: 8/10
The stellar multiplayer isn't enough to make up for the lackluster single-player, and the slowdown that occurs when the field gets too busy cripples the game. Sound doesn't really help or hurt the game, and the graphics are good, but not standout. Overall, like I've said so many times throughout this review, it's a great party game with surprising multiplayer depth. Get it not for the single-player missions, but to have a good time with your friends.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/06