Mario Strikers Charged

"Mario and friends earn a no score draw for this one."

Introduction

The first Strikers game was an absolute gem, a shining multiplayer diamond - it was just a pity that it came towards the end of the Cube's life-cycle. But it showed that Mario + sport needn't be a power-up obsessed nightmare, like other games in the Mario franchise, so what does the Wii have to offer this game?

Graphics

The look of the game is pretty shiny, in fact. Residents of the Mushroom Kingdom are as pastelly-hued as always, pitches are varied and have more personality about them this time round, and there's even a few comic touches such as cows, tractors and even fish blowing across the playing field, taking your players with them.

The characters do look meaner than you're used to, and this seems to jar with the family-friendly image that Mario traditionally exudes, as does the box-art; but it's no bad thing for Nintendo to show a little edge now and again, I think.

Gameplay

Here's where it's at! You will most likely get to grips with the controls very quickly indeed. It may seem awkward at first, but I was amazed at how effective the remote/chuck combo could be in a genre dominated by the traditional pad. What I mean is, you can see how easily Zelda fits the new controller, but football? Don't worry, it all becomes second nature very quickly, although I would strongly recommend going through the Strikers ABC tutorial before launching into the game proper.

The game now features megastrikes, where you can potentially score 6 goals with one shot. This may seem like a disturbingly heavy advantage, but in fact, it takes a while to charge up, so you'll only get to use it once or twice a game, and even then, it's perfectly possible to stop every shot when it's used against you.

The setup is simple, choose a captain and three sidekicks (each of whom have different abilities, strengths and weaknesses this time round, which is a most welcome change), then play through three increasingly difficult cup campaigns. This is kind of where the wheels started to come off the wagon, for me at least.

The first cup is actually pretty tricky, so don't expect (like me) to be introduced to the game gently with an easy start. Even with a bit of practice beforehand, the Fire Cup will present a stiff challenge. Nothing wrong with that, I hear you say, and you're right: part of playing games is to test your skill, to be challenged. But when you move onto the second of the three cups (without the option of changing your team) the difficulty ramps up again. If you are doing well, the computer seems to compensate enormously, making it difficult to score, or even get hold of the ball at times. It's possible to get through the first cup with 100%, but there seems little chance of that in the second, even for skilled players. I beat it at last, but it was so heavily weighed against me, I have no desire to move on to the third and final cup.

This is the game's major failing: the single-player aspect has no longevity whatsoever. There's very little incentive to go solo and it's just not fun. The wi-fi is there to compensate, but more on that later. With four players, or even just two, the game takes on new life and is a worthy purchase if you can get some friends around on a regular basis, but when you're on your lonesome, it's a different story.

Sound/Music

Nothing much to write home about, I'm afraid. Sound effects are pretty good, standouts being Boo's laugh when you evade a tackle with him and the SSBM-style music when you initiate Giant Mario mode. The music is forgettable (although it's nigh irresistible not to 'beat' the remote and nunchuck in time to the drum music while a game is loading) and non-existent on the pitches that return from the first game, which makes them seem like lonely places to be.

Wi-Fi

Much has been made of the fact that this the first Wi-Fi enabled Wii title on EU shores, so how does it stack up? I'll say at this point that I've never used Xbox Live, or the PSN and my online experiences are limited to a few games of BFME2 on the PC, so I've not much to compare it to.

Which is probably a good thing, as the online mode is not very spectacular. You get matched against a player of similar ability and then play a best out of three mini-tournament. You can't play just a single game, so when you want a quick blast of the game, online is not your friend. You can't skip any introduction animations either, which just draws it out longer.

Nintendo's focus on risk-free online gaming means there's no communication at all, and this makes for a very sterile experience. You might as well be playing the computer on hard mode for all the difference it would make.

There's a leaderboard, and you only get points chopped off if you disconnect without finishing a game, so even if you get beat, then you still gain a point. If you're anything like me, you will want to get a specially decorated plate made, so that people can hand you your own arse in style: it's all very well getting a point for losing, but it's kind of humiliating to watch your superior opponent's goal tally ratchet up, while you scrabble round trying to get a smell of the ball, just so you won't lose points. When you look at the leaders on the board, I shudder to think how much time they must be spending playing the game in order to rack up such ludicrous scores.

Also, at least in the early days of the game's release, the servers failed to keep a track of the games I'd won and lost...well, mostly the game's I'd won, to be honest, which annoyed me no end. Perhaps they've sorted it all out by now.

In conclusion...

Well, I still have the game, it hasn't made the long trek onto ebay yet, so there must be something in it, but as time goes by, I am playing it less and less, in fact, I don't think I've touched it in the last few weeks at all. If you can play with friends regularly, then I can recommend it. As a soccer game, the mechanics and controls are spot on - there's just not enough depth to the thing.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/11/07