Mario Strikers Charged (Wii)

.../> If anyone has played Mario Smash Football on the Game Cube you will already know what to expect from this game. However, as only about 197 people in the world have actually played the GC original (slight exaggeration, but the game was never a massive hit!)

Mario Strikers isn’t really a Football game. This may sound strange what with the word Football right there in the title and all. Yes, the aim of the game is to get the ball ...
...As this is a Mario game, there are power-ups and objects that can be used the good old red shells and invincibility stars are here to unleash, but that is only half the story.

Each team has an alligator in goal (of course) and you get to choose the other 4 players, each team having a captain and 3 side kicks. There are 10 captains with the likes Mario, Donkey Kong, Peach, Yoshi, Waluigi and Bowser all present. The captains all have ... more

>>> Its A Me Mario!

If anyone has played Mario Smash Football on the Game Cube you will already know what to expect from this game. However, as only about 197 people in the world have actually played the GC original (slight exaggeration, but the game was never a massive hit!)

Mario Strikers isn’t really a Football game. This may sound strange what with the word Football right there in the title and all. Yes, the aim of the game is to get the ball in the net, but that is really where the Football similarities end. The best way to sum up MSCF is football, but with bits of Ice Hockey, Basketball, Rugby and Wrestling all thrown in for good measure.

>>> So what is it then?

MSCF is a five-a-side game, played within an electrified fence! This means that there are no interruptions in play as the ball can’t go out of play. There isn’t even a half time, just 3 minutes of pure action. That is unless you draw, then it’s sudden death Golden Goal, draws are for wimps. This is not the Beautiful game, this is it’s deranged and manic cousin! As such, there really is no comparison between MSCF and games like FIFA and Pro Evo. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The object of the game is to score more goals that your opponent. This is obvious, but it’s the way that you do it that makes this game what it is. Yes, there is passing and moving and scoring goals from well-timed shots, but you don’t score 15 goals in 3 minutes that way do you! As this is a Mario game, there are power-ups and objects that can be used the good old red shells and invincibility stars are here to unleash, but that is only half the story.

Each team has an alligator in goal (of course) and you get to choose the other 4 players, each team having a captain and 3 side kicks. There are 10 captains with the likes Mario, Donkey Kong, Peach, Yoshi, Waluigi and Bowser all present. The captains all have strengths and weaknesses in four areas, Movement, Passing, Shooting and Defence as well as a special move. I think Wario’s flatulence is by far the most bizarre! The Captains can also unleash the Mega Strike, firing 3 to 6 balls at goal at once. The Mega Strike uses a gauge and hitting the B button at the right time decides how many shots you get and how well hit they are. When defending against a Mega Strike you enter a Duck Hunt like mini game where you need to shoot the balls down as they come at your goal.

The side kicks are just as important though and you can choose from the whose who of Mario bit part characters such as Koopa Troopa, Toad, Boo and Birdie. Again, each has strengths and weaknesses in the four areas and each has a special shot. The special shots are much more powerful than your bog standard shot and include things like Hammer Bros. who throw a barrage of hammers knocking out the keeper and hitting in a goal. All of this adds to some pretty bizarre goals, some frantic action and some massive score lines!

>>> Gorgeous!

This is the Wii and there aren’t stunning life like graphics. Although, how you would have realistic life like graphics or a 500+ pound ape smashing a metal ball past an alligator in a crash helmet is another matter! The graphics are cartoon like and actually quite detailed. The stadiums are well created and have plenty of detail. No top of that each Captain has their own animations from entrance to scoring goals, and some of then are quite amusing. Waluigi has by far the funniest goal celebrations of the lot. Add to that some pretty weird voices for the characters (DK seems to be related to Scooby for some reason!) and the presentation of the game is well polished and although it doesn’t test the Wii’s abilities it is pleasant to look at and does the job perfectly well.

>>> What does it do?

All the menus on the game are controlled with a simple point and click. There are 7 options from the main menu:

<>Domination Mode
The games (non WiFi) Multiplayer mode, where you can play using up to 4 Wii-motes or simply practice against the CPU. There are plenty of game options including the choice of 17 different stadiums (all with distinct hazards, such as Thunder Island where cows and tractors are blown across the pitch taking out anything in the way!)

<>Road to Strikers Cup
This is the main single player part of the game and is your standard cup competition. There are 3 cups to start with, Fire, Crystal and Strikers and as you complete one you move on to the next and each one gets harder. Each cup starts as a league then the top teams go through to knock outs and then a best of 3 final against the current champion.

<>Striker Challenges
12 different challenges with 5 levels of difficulty, each one that you complete will unlock a cheat to use in the Domination Mode. Each challenge puts you in a set situation with a specific goal, such as win the game by 3 or more goals or win the game but don’t concede a goal. They start off easy and get insanely hard!

<>Hall of Fame
A nifty trophy room where you can see how you’ve done in the cups and the Striker Challenges with an explanation of what cheats you have unlocked.

<>Strikers ABC
There are 10 tutorials that teach you everything you need to know about Mega Strikes, passing, tackling and special abilities. A great introduction to the game.

<>Options
The usual Visual and Audio options, useful, but nothing to get excited about!

<>Nintendo WiFi Connection
Oh Baby, this is really what it is all about.! But, to keep the suspense levels up a little longer, I’ll come on to the WiFi part of the game in a minute, as it deserves it’s own little section!

>>>On me head, son!

Here we are again, the all important Wii game controls section! As with the majority of games, MSCF uses the Wii-mote and Nunchuck. Thankfully, Next Level Games who developed this game realised that with such a fast paced and frantic game, there is no need for elaborate or complicated controls.

The Nunchuck controls movement and special moves using the C and Z buttons. The Wii-mote as you’d expect controls actions. The A button passes, the B button shoots, the D pad does a slide tackle or ball trick (depending on if you have the ball at the time) and shaking the Wii-mote unleashes a tackle that Roy Keane would have been proud of!

There are a lot of combinations of these controls that you can use together that add some depth to the moves available and add a level of skill to the proceedings. Putting together consecutive passes changes the colour of the ball and the brighter it is the more powerful it will be hit. At first it looks like the only way to score is using the special kicks and moves, but underneath all the shells and Mega Strikes there is skill and well crafted goals to be made.

The controls work very well. Whether you are passing and moving or smashing someone’s face into the electric fence, the controls are very intuitive and after a few minutes of playing the game you pick it up straight away. The Mega Strike saves are also a great addition as they give a bit of variety to the frantic action and the point and click controls make good use of the Wii-mote.

>>>WiFi

May 25th 2007, the date that the Wii finally got it’s first European WiFi game. Mario Strikers Charged Football has been launched in Europe before the US and Japan. So Europe has it’s first proper online game, Japan has had one in the form of Pokemon for months now and, wait for it, the US is still awaiting its first fully online game, haa haa!

If you have ever taken a DS on WiFi for a bit of a spin you’ll already know all about Nintendo’s Friend Code system. When you go online with MSCF you’ll get a Friend Code, if you want to play against specific people you will need to register their Friend Code and them yours. This adds a bit of security so that you know who you are playing against, but you can get peoples Friend Codes from most forums anyway. That said, there is no communication between players so everyone can play safely with the only danger being getting absolutely thrashed!

There are then two options, a game against one of your friends or a game against a complete stranger from somewhere in Europe. When playing against someone registered as a friend you can choose from all the option in the Domination Mode, including all the cheats you’ve unlocked. The main screen tells you how many or your friend are online so you can arrange a game or wait to be invited.

When playing against a stranger you play in a ranked game. There are no options here, just pick your team and get ready for a best of 3 series in a random stadium. The game has seasons, which last for 7 days, and the points you earn in the ranked games will place you in a league table, with the person scoring the most points in the day shown on the main screen. In these games, points are awarded for scoring goals and winning the match, and thankfully, points are deducted off those who disconnect during a game to make sure they don’t lose, muppets!

The WiFi connection is simplistic, but also very easy to use. You can create an online account for each Mii Character stored on your Wii. This means that if you share your console with a few people you can all have your own friends and individual rankings, which is a nice touch.

The First WiFi game though is not without its teething problems. The demand for the game means that at certain times connecting to the game can be difficult as you keep getting disconnected or receive error messages before you can get online. This is an annoyance, but the online play far outweighs any problems you may have getting online. I also believe that this is an issue that will sort itself out in the next few months, but is not an issue that should put you off buying the game.

>>>Conclusions

If you want a football simulation, you are barking up the wrong tree as the Wii is still awaiting it’s first proper football title. However, if you want a fun and entertaining multiplayer game, look no further. In truth if you have a Wii and a Broadband connection to said Wii, you should be getting this game anyway. This is the first taste of WiFi multiplayer action and it’s pretty good, add to that the madness and frantic action and I think that this is well worth the money.

If this game wasn’t WiFi, I would be writing about how there really isn’t much on the single player game to keep you going for long and that you’d only be playing this game very occasionally. However, as it is WiFi, the fact that the single player modes don’t offer much doesn’t really matter. If you get this game, you will be playing online much more than you play on your own and in all honesty, the game was built with the WiFi connection in mind anyway.

This isn’t football, but it is mad, fun and colourful! Come on where else are you going to get a 6 foot plant with teeth and eyes taking on a dinosaur in a five-a-side match? Nowhere, that’s where!

Leave me your Friend Code and I’ll come and get thrashed by you!! 

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