Mario Strikers Charged

"Mario scores a great game once more!"

Mario Strikers Charged is Mario's second foray into the football/soccer area, I bought the game on a whim, picking it up over importing Pokemon Diamond, simply because it's on the Wii and it's online - I'm glad I did.

Gameplay - 8
Initially, new players to the Strikers series of Mario will probably find it a little difficult, but to counter that Nintendo have thought it out well. They added a training mode (going by 'ABC' in game), teaching you the basics of the game and how to score Mega Strikes and control your characters like the pro, this was particularly useful to me because it tells you everything you need to know about the game without being as annoying as 'real' tutorials.

After learning the basics you can jump straight into the offline part of the game, consisting of a few different modes, a VS mode called Domination to play a friendly match against friends or computer, a challenge mode that (as the name suggests) gives you various challenges to carry out with various teams and characters, and there's a main game in the style of a Cup/Tournament called The Striker Cup.

The gameplay mechanics are very fun, and quite different from the average football/soccer game. The rules are virtually non-existent, being that if you score, you score and the ball resets to the middle of the pitch. The game is actually harder than the average FIFA (where you can score about 5 goals in 2 minutes). Matches last about 5 minutes, so you're never stuck in it for too long, and goals can be hard to score (which is a good thing). You will also find various items you can use, such as mushrooms (to speed you up) and blue shells (to freeze your opponents, while randomly bouncing around the stadium).

Gameplay (Online) - 10
After playing online for a short while, I've found the multiplayer to be a brilliant thing. The game's mechanics develop it into a very exciting online game, without being too annoying or frustrating. Instead of the online play being single match affairs, what happens is that you play in a short tournament, one on one, best out of three, this lends brilliantly to the game, because even if you lose one match, you can immediately return to top form in the next game and go on to win the match.

I did notice a few problems with lag, but they weren't anything game breaking, and even then I can just assume it was due to either my or my opponent's connection quality, but when I did experience lag it was slightly annoying and it did smooth itself out after about a minute or two so it was all fine.

Graphics - 9
When I first booted the game up, I was quite pleased with the graphics while being surprised. I wasn't expecting too much, though I was impressed when I first saw the title screen where Mario is stood with a ball lodged beneath his foot, but the in game graphics are obviously what you want to hear about.

The in game graphics are similarly good, and the special effects such as lighting are quite impressive. As you activate MegaStrikes, the characters fly up into the air and the light all darks out and various things (such as lightning and fire) may be demonstrated in the strike, and these are brilliantly done. When Mario does his MegaStrike, his eyes glow all firey and it does looks VERY impressive.

Sound - 9
The game boots up onto the the introduction video, which is accompanied with a rock-style theme, which really sets the pace of the game. This style of rock-ish music is the central idea for the games music - when you go into sudden death at the end of a game it kicks in and raises the tension about the fact one more goal ends it all.

As the ball is kicked around, you can hear the metal clanking of the characters kicking it with their (also) metal boots. Characters yell out to pass to each other, and the characters voices are all how they should be (as in previous Mario games).

However the game is a little limited by the music (usually it consists of only a few songs in-match), but overall it is very good.

Overall - 10
This is a very good game, and even better due to it being the Wii's first online game in history, and not just that, but it's a brilliantly solid experience and all round fun game. So far I have witnessed no problems with the game, no horrible glitches and no online cheating.

If you're thinking about picking it up, I'd really suggest going out whenever you can and have money and getting it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/07