Mario Strikers Charged

"It's Chaotic, but in a good way"

Ah yes, Mario Strikers Charged
I was a huge fan of the first game for the gamecube, so when I heard there was a sequel I literally jumped for joy. The first time I put it in my wii I had the best expeirence I had had (note: this was years ago and I have played better). But I bet you would rather listen to what the game is about rather than my ramblings, so let us start the review (another note: this is my first review)

Mario Strikers charged is your basic arcade style soccer game, you basically try to get the ball (thats the round thingy) into the goal. However, in truth, this is really the only similarity to real-life soccer. There actually aren't really any rules beside that. You can brutally slam opponents into the electric fence that surrounds the pitch (field) to get the ball, there are many different trick shots to pull off, which are all very hectic, not to mention the various items messing up the little normallity thats left over. And You think to yourself..."aww yeah!"

This game can be really hectic but also really fun, firstly because of all the different player and team combinations there are in the game. There are 12 captains and 8 sidekicks (basically genric teammates) to choose from, and they are grouped into 5 catogories: Balanced, Playmaker, deffensive, Offensive, and power. Balanced characters are not good at anything, but not bad at anything either, and are great for begginers. Playmakers are you're speed demons who can set up teammates for the perfect shot on goal. Deffensive arwe also fast, and they can hold their own on deffence (as the name suggests). Offensive is basically the opposite of that, where there slow, but are second-to-none when it comes to the upfront run of pass, pass score. Finally, power types are big lugs who not only destroy the ball with their shots, but also destroy the opposition There is seriously a team to support every play style out there.You can go with Mario and a few Koopas for some balance, or you can just destoy everyone in your path with DK and an appropriate crew. It's really that hectic.

OK, so you've got your team, now it's time to choose a field, and this time, the stage selection actually makes a difference. The classic fields are still there if you need a break from the hecticness of the new stages, abd there are a lot of gimmic stages for you to have some fun with. As an example, in Thunder Island, the normally prensent electric fence has been replaced with a giant cliff you can knock players (opposing or not) and temporarily remove them from the game, whilst at the sand tomb there is sand on the sides that slow you down to half of a snail's pace. And there are a lot more, too. So many you will spend quite a lot of time enjoying the various stage effects that there are to offer. Once your in the game itself items and other tricks (such as the allmighty multigoal megasrtike and the deviously helpful skillshot) will make this game a real slaughterfest of soccer

There are 4 main modes to choose from: Strikers 101 (aka basic training), domination (aka quick play), Striker challenges (aka missions), and Road to the Striker Cup (aka story mode/season mode). By going through striker challenges you can ulock various cheats for use in domination mode, and some offer a pretty unique challenge. Training isn't really anything special, simple tasks that help you learn the game that's really it.

Road to the Striker cup is a very interestin mode indeed. You play as the same team trying to make it through 3 tournaments, basically simple. The first cup is rediculessly easy, second is sorta hard, and the last is rip your hair out cheap. Or you can choose to have it be rediculously hard to go through the whole way. Your choice. The extremely cheap AI here docks 1 point of the total score, but other than that, the story mode is great, for a Mario Sports Title.

Now we get to the best part: the sounds and music. The voice acting is outstanding (and there is some pretty funny dialouge as well) during the celbrtory scenes and the music (which is different for each captain/sidekick) is seriously flawless.

Strikers is an outstandin game, but it does get old fairly quickly, (unless you have someone to play it with) but that shouldn't stop you from at least renting it. strikers is a great game and I am proud to own it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/09

Game Release: Mario Strikers Charged (US, 07/30/07)