Mario Strikers Charged

Review from Cav - Saturday, 11 August 2007 @ 7:33pm

I, for one, have always been a fan of the Mario games, with the Nintendo 64 really cementing my like for the plunger wielding hero and his cohorts. We have seen the occupants of the Mushroom Kingdom involved in all sorts of activities over the years: holidays to Delfino Island, games of Basketball, cleaning up Haunted Houses with a machine that Godfreys would be proud to market, punching on with each other and folks from other titles, having a hit of tennis or golf, or just getting together and having a good ol’ party! This is not their first outing on the soccer pitch (I actually failed to purchase the Gamecube debut. Yes Mr. Hinch, I hear you: ‘Shame, shame, shame!’) , but this is certainly up there in the Mario series of ‘sporties’.

Now what would a Mario title be without a spectacular intro? MSCF fails to disappoint even on the Wii Channel select screen, with the intro jingle having an upbeat, funky feel on it. A great little montage shows all cast members and a little sniff of their on-field abilities. The music is great, although all my assumptions of Luigi and his, how shall I say it: ‘chosen life path’ are solidified, as he’s got some real ‘Ricky Martinesque’ tunes supporting him. There is even some cool elevator music when you hit pause to access the menu.


The intro leads you to the main menu, where your first point of call should be the handy Strikers ABC tutorial, just so you can get a feel for what the Wiimote and nunchuck attachment has to offer this time around. A quick series of short tests that run through the basics sees you ready for a game. You’ll learn to pass, shoot, hit opponents with a special attack, charge the ball and use your ‘Megastrike’ – a move that gives you the opportunity to have multiple shots at goal at once by charging your shot, then timing button strikes, as you would with old golf sims, trying to obtain maximum potential from you shot . If you are on the receiving end of a Megastrike, this brings forth the point’n’click aspect of the Wiimote, having you defend this multiple attack, by aiming at oncoming balls with the Wiimote and hitting the button. The number of balls and varying speeds depend on the timing of the attacker. It’s really sad to say that the Megastrike looks great and can score you a lot of points, but you’ll find that you won’t be able to use it that often, as opponents are able to interrupt your shot too easily. A clear space is required to pull this feat off.

Once the lessons have been mastered, the best option would be to delve into a match in the Road to Strikers Cup. From here your aim is to, of course, win as many games as possible and claim the Cup, of which there are three. There are also minor trophies to be won, but they are not necessary to see you to the end. On the other hand, if you have friends around and don’t want to be accused of snobbing them for your new game (and that has never happened to me), hand them a Wiimote and nunchuck and play Domination mode. You can choose versus or co-op then a single game or a series. There is also an option called Striker Challenges, which apparently recreates are scenarios from Mario Strikers history. Successfully completing these gains you marks on the Player Cards in the Hall of Fame, awarding you with cheats with each completion.


And now (insert drum roll) ... the moment you’ve all been waiting for ... (insert cymbal crash) ... the debut of Wii Online Play! Oh yeah! It’s here! Jump right in and find your friends and start playing! …… well maybe not. Nintendo have employed the concept from their handheld wonder, the DS, being the ‘Friend Code’. Now personally, I thought it would have been easy to use the Wii Console sixteen digit number found when you make contact with mates to exchange Miis, but no, this is another number all together! This is a twelve digit number that must be exchanged between friends, in order to compete against each other. If you are like me and have no friends who have this game (message me if you wanna hook up!), you can opt to play against some little punk who has played eighty matches in the past five hours and …. oh, sorry… as I was saying, you can play against some random person over the net, in a ‘best of’ series of games. Remembering that you will only be playing against people in Australia or New Zealand – online play will only work with people with PAL copies of the game. Rumour has it that you can play against friends in Europe, but there may be a little lag involved. I cannot confirm or deny this statement as I am struggling to find friends to play here let alone half a planet away! There is also an online leaderboard so you can claim bragging rights amongst your friends. I am impressed that there is virtually no lag. So far I have only experienced split second moments of delay. Don’t let anyone tell you that you must have a wireless connection for this to work, as I use the Official Nintendo LAN adapter and ten metres of cable and everything is fine. I can cop a beating at this game just as easily as anyone with a wireless set up!

Summary

Overall, this is an enjoyable title, either online or off, with or without friends. The graphics are what you expect of the Wii, nothing more, nothing less. There is probably about a fifteen minute learning curve, as players are offered almost every button between the Wiimote and nunchuck for in game use. Like most sport sims this is one that you will be able to throw on in years to come and still enjoy it as much you would now. It may get a bit repetitive, but just like Wario says: ‘I Gotta Win!’

Pros

Online play with people runs smoothly, but as this is the Wii’s first online outing, so it’s hard to make a negative comparison. Good level of difficulty, not too hard, not too easy.

Cons

Friend codes. It won’t stop you playing online, but playing against friends takes a little more organisation than desired.