Nintendo Wii - Mario Strikers Charged Football Recommended

Format
Nintendo Wii
Publisher
Nintendo
Developer
Nintendo
Country of origin
US
Genre
Sports

Mario Strikers Charged Football

By Shabbir
28th May 07

Mario Strikers Charged Football is the first Wi-Fi game for the Nintendo Wii. While many critics have hyped it as being just that, I believe it is a major distraction from an otherwise solid and enjoyable game.

Mario Strikers Charged Football, or just Strikers for short, is just like it sounds - a football game with characters from the popular video game franchise Mario. It is indeed that, but the developers, Next Level Games, have taken it a step further and really created a great gameplay system that is unique and can only be done with the characters involved.

A little history first. This is the sequel to the somewhat popular GameCube title 'Super Mario Strikers.' I never did play the game, since I never had a GameCube, but I feel that it's not worth making comparisons as this game has been redesigned from ground up in terms of gameplay. While reading into the mechanics of Super Mario Strikers, it's clear that there are a lot of differences between that and Mario Strikers Charged Football. Therefore, it's unfair to draw similarities between the two, and just leave it at that.

For those who do want to know the similarities and so on, the main two things taken from Super Mario Strikers are some characters and the arenas/pitches. Both of these elements have been built upon in the new Strikers game.

From the very opening sequence, you know that this isn't going to be your ordinary football game. The sequence is smooth and crisp and introduces you to all the characters as well as giving you an idea of what the game is about - fun and wacky football!

The simple idea is 5-a-side football, but each character involved has unique abilities. Firstly there are captains, these are the main characters that are generally involved in Nintendo games: Mario, Peach, Donkey Kong, Waluigi, Luigi, Wario, Bowser, Yoshi and Daisy. There are also three unlockable characters. Each of these characters has a move called MegaStrike, which when charged, allows a team to score multiple goals at once. While this may sound unfair, if one is hit against you, you have the chance to block it with your goalkeeper in a small mini-game, where you can test your reflexes by hitting each ball as they fly your way.

Next we have sidekicks, who are the other players in your team. The sidekicks available are Koopa, Toad, Dry Bones, Boo, Birdo, Hammer Bros., Monty Mole and Shy Guy. Again, when each of these character's shots are charged up, they produce their own abilities. For example, Hammer Bros. throws some hammers to knock anyone out of their path and take a shot! On the other hand, Toad takes a shot that creates an explosion when the ball bounces, and each other character has a different ability.

The emphasis that has been put into each character's ability really does make it into a team game, rather than using your captain to pull off a MegaStrike in the hope of scoring as many goals as possible. If that's your thought, then you'll be surprised how quick the AI (artificial intelligence) will react to block or tackle your shots before you get the chance to unleash them.

The game offers a variety of modes: Strikers ABC, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, Domination Mode, Road to the Striker Cup and Striker Challenge. Each mode is fairly self-explanatory, but here's a short summary for each one.

Strikers ABC: A nice tutorial for getting into the game. There are ten tasks that you should complete before attempting other parts of the game. These are enjoyable themselves and really help you learn the basics and controls of the game.

Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection: Um... take a guess! This is where you go to connect up through the Wi-Fi connection and play against human opponents. The main problem with this that I found, is that you must have the friend code of the person you wish the play against in a friendly match. I'd prefer it to be like Mario Kart DS, just enter the game and connect up to someone random, and off you go!

Domination Mode: This is actually the multiplayer part of the game, against other opponents on the same console. You can also play against the computer through this mode and arrange friendly matches in series.

Road to the Striker Cup: The main chunk of single player action takes place here. This is the part you play through to progress and win trophies. It's very entertaining since there are rankings and tables, just like real life football. There are two modes you can choose here, normal and tough and the enemy AI adjusts accordingly. Normal is enjoyable enough to provide a challenge, but not be too difficult. As you can imagine, tough is for those who really want to master the game.

Striker Challenges: There are a set of challenges that you must complete to earn bonus items, such as come back from being 2-0 down and win the game, etc. As you progress, there are harder challenges.

The menus are nice and clear throughout the whole game and very basic. They allow for pretty quick access to the game when you want to play, but beware since there is loading in this game. Although the loading isn't too long, it is still there. However, if you've played a PSP, then you should find this more than acceptable.

Now to move on to a very much debated point about all games on the Nintendo Wii - the graphics. These are by no means high definition graphics, but then again they don't need to be. These are... Mario graphics. They are colourful, bright, sharp and clear. There is no need to try to stretch it out. Even though the console has its limits, I doubt Next Level Games would have attempted to make this game HD just for the sake of it.

The gameplay is smooth and there is no loading while playing a match. Here, the graphics remain the same throughout the whole game - no slowdowns, glitches (as far as I could tell) or choppy frame-rates. This is how a game should be ideally for Wii games, a nice blend of enjoyable gameplay backed with solid graphics that aren't over-the-top.

A major difference from other Mario-related games is the music in this game, and this really expresses the whole theme of the game. The music is more funkier and provides an atmosphere that is relevant to football - full of energy. You get this idea right from the beginning intro, where each character appears more aggressive. The design for each character also compliments this, all wearing metallic armour and the football being made from metal too!

Strikers provides a good enjoyable gameplay experience with a decent amount of depth. There is a fair amount of replay value here, with the challenges and various cups to win. When that gets dim, there is the Wi-Fi mode to play and gain higher ranks. This game doesn't really get boring at any time since the gameplay is high paced and always keeps you going. The length of each matches, which can be one, three or five minutes, feels perfect to just drop into the game for both short-term and long-term fun.

The arenas/pitches are well made and provide their own unique characteristics. For example, there are more muddier pitches, which obviously means that passing along the ground will be slower. There are also other arenas where wind may blow across, causing some of your players to actually fly off the pitch for a short time. Each pitch has its own advantages and disadvantages and you get used to this as you play the game more.

The controls are extremely simple too. The Wii remote is used to pass and take shots with. The A button is for passing and the B button being for shooting. Holding down the B button allows for stronger shots, or holding it for a certain amount of time allows for the special shot/ability of each character. The arrows allow for tricks for each character, and if you don't have possession of the ball, allows for tackles.

The nunchuk is used to move your character around with the joystick, while the C button uses the ability through power-ups you collect during the course of a match and the Z button allows for chips. The Z button can be combined with the B button to take a chip-shot. I was pleased to see that Next Level Games did not attempt to use the motion sensor controls, since it really does seem unnecessary, as these controls work fine. The only place that they have been used is to barge players out the way, done by waving the Wii remote slightly.

If your player has been barged, then you will earn items that can be used by pressing the C button. This adds a lot of enjoyment, since you can first red, green and blue shells, drop bananas or use the captain's special abilities. For example, Mario turns into a big Mario like in New Super mario Bros. and is also to stomp on anyone to get them out the way. However, this is not indestructible and he can still be tackled when he is in possession of the ball.

On the whole, Strikers provides a great amount of fun, and is definitely a good game to play both alone and with friends. The several gameplay modes and things to do during the game will keep you going, but the matches themselves really provide the entertainment and will make you come back for more.

4.5/5

-- Shabbir 28th May 07

Nintendo Wii Mario Strikers Charged Football Images