I never expected to buy Mario Strikers Charged Football … video games based on sports aren’t really my thing, and while soccer games aren’t the worst of the bunch, when I initially heard that this game would be released it didn’t excite me one bit. I changed my my mind when I realized that Strikers Charged was the first Wii game to feature online play (sorely lacking in other Wii titles). Also, most early reviews were reasonably favourable; I took the plunge and bought it for AUD$65 at JB Hifi about six months ago, and have been playing it on and off since then. It’s generally a fun and playable game, and I think it will take me many more months of play to hone my skills. Mario Strikers Charged reminds me a lot of the classic game Speedball 2 (Bitmap Brothers) on Amiga and PC. The ball is made of something metallic, there are no referees, no red and yellow cards, and thumping other players (with or without the ball) is all just part of the game.

Here is my review, without ratings, after allowing a cool-down period to judge the real long term appeal of the game. Read on for the pros and cons of Mario Strikers Charged Football, six months on.

Control scheme

My guess is that Nintendo / Next Level Games experimented with a lot of different control schemes for this game before settling on the final controls this title ultimately shipped with. What they have come up with is certainly playable, and although the motion sensing functionality of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck are used, the main controls are still button and analogue stick driven .. there are no real groundbreaking innovations here. Bashing with the WiiMote to thump other players is a fairly natural action, and crazy-arsed shaking of the Nunchuck to throw off the opponents Megastrikes adds a fun element to the gameplay. There is no option to reconfigure the controls, this isn’t a big problem since the setup is already decent.

Characters and gameplay

You can play as (and against) the usual array of Nintendo characters. It really doesn’t matter who they are (you can look here, if you must know), what matters is their abilities. Each character has a balance (or imbalance) of Speed, Defense and Offense, as well as a special “powerup” ability (eg Mario turns into giant Mario and stomps all over the field flattening everyone in his path). Choosing the right player for your play style can be critical, so it’s worth experimenting … I usually like Bowser Jr. because of his fast passing and good shooting, but sometimes an all-rounder like Mario or Luigi can be more successful if you like to run a little more. It’s a soccer game, so essentially gameplay resembles … well, er … soccer. The difference is that as you pass the ball around it gains ‘charge’ (indicated by it’s colour, going blue to purple to red to yellow and finally hot white). The hotter the ball, the more powerful your shot at goal will be, and the greater your chance of scoring. The defenders can try to intercept passes by stealing (down on the D-pad) or bashing other players (bash the WiiMote). The sidekick players (eg Boo, Shy Guy etc etc) can perform almost-unstoppable Skillshots if you hold ‘B’ to shoot on the spot for long enough without being tackled. Captains can pull a similar move called a Megastrike which fires multiple balls at goals at once, forcing the defender to deflect the incoming balls in a mode a bit like “Duck Hunt”.

Online Play : Nintendo Wi-fi Connection

After doing the initial ten ‘training’ sessions, I dived straight into some online play … and was brutally beaten. Matches are 3 mins long, the match winner is the first to win two games. The short matches really keep things moving, and there is no time for your attention to wander (forget trying to eat which holding the WiiMote and Nunchuck and concentrating on Strikers Charged … tried it … doesn’t work). Initially I thought there was some real imbalance in the game, where any opponent with a Hammer Bro sidekick was able to score goal after spammy goal using his hammer throwing Skillshot. Turns out, my skills just weren’t up to scratch … you learn to defend against this type of goal scoring with experience; it’s aspects like this that really give the game depth.

The Strikers “Leaderboard” lists the rankings of the top players for the day, and the season. A season goes for one week, starting each Monday. Players get one point for each goal, ten points for winning a game, and one point just for playing. This scoring system essentially means that the top ranking players are those that play the most, not those with the most skill (ie win/lose ratios don’t matter). When you enter a “Leaderboard” online match, you cannot choose who to play, matches are lined up by the Nintendo servers “at random”. Actually, I get the feeling that it is not random, and it seems like some attempt is made to match players of similar ranking. I have found that during ‘peak’ online gaming times (eg the evening) I usually get matched with someone close to my rank, while at off peak times (8 AM in the morning), when only the Strikers Charged obsessed are online, I usually get matched to play against one of the top ranking players (and always get thrashed).

Lag only rarely seems to be a problem, and a ’star rating’ for connection speeds at the beginning of a match allows players to back out of any match they anticipate will be too laggy. I have had one or two matches disconnect and end without warning … this can be really annoying if you are winning, but this is just the nature of realtime online games … the network cannot be guaranteed to stay up 100-percent of the time.

You can also play Friendly matches if you exchange Friend Codes with someone. Early reports (and .gasp. the instruction booklet) indicated that PAL players cannot play with NTSC region players, and vice versa. I have tested this, swapping Friend Codes with an NTSC player (”phil”) (I’m on PAL), and while their name and Mii appear in my Friend Roster, “phil” never appears as ‘online’. So, I believe the instruction booklet is correct. If it did work, the lag is likely to be horrendous anyway.

Single-player mode

By no means easy. There are various “Cups” to complete, where you play a tournament of matches against the usual suspects. I’ve completed the first Cup but haven’t really bothered to go further … not that it isn’t fun, I just primarily got the game for two player and online play. There are also a bunch of ‘cheats’ or alternate game modes that can be unlocked for completing challenges of increasing difficulty (eg come back to win the match from 6 points down and don’t concede a goal).

Minor gripes

I find that the players are a little small on my old 55 cm TV, and initially I found myself moving very close to the screen so I could properly see the action. Online play can take a long time to connect and tee up a match. All those damn 10 year olds keep kicking my butt !!

Overall, I’m still having fun with it after six months, but it’s not addictive enough to get me playing every day. In fact, I probably haven’t felt the need to play it in about a month now. The long term re-play value is good due to online play, however, and it’s the type of game I expect to pick up once or twice every couple of weeks for the next few years.

If anyone wants to play me, my Friend Code is:

047 348 631 555

Tell me yours in the comments.