Mario Strikers: Charged Review

N

Nessquik

Banned
Mario Strikers: Charged takes all of that is fun about sports games, throws away all the bad of sports games, and creates an amazing experience for soccer fans or non-soccer fans alike. From great arcade style game play, to nice graphics, to online capabilities, this game is the best Wii game on the market since Twilight Princess. If anyone here has played Sega Soccer Slam, this was created by the same guys, so the game is extremely similar at its core. From the hard hitting slide tackles, to insane power ups and shooting animations, half the fun of Strikers is just watching all the awing special effects. My friends were immediately impressed by the game with a single megastrike, and instantly wanted to challenge me to a match. The visuals in this game are simply really cool, no better way to describe it. From the holographic image of the player at the beginning of the match, to the slow motion matrix-like kicks, the wow factor of this game is incredibly high for a Wii game. If you're looking for some good visuals, this is where it starts, and is enough to draw people in to play with you. The game play is basically the definition of arcade sports. This game is so unlike soccer you can despise the sport and still love this game. You kick a ball into a net, and the similarities end about there. There are so many techniques and little tips that make this game easy to pick up and play, but very hard to master. You need timing, strategy, hand eye coordination, and general gaming skill. You slide tackle by pressing on the directional pads of the Wiimote, if you can land one of these on someone you steal the ball and sometimes send them flying. This is an essiantal part of Strikers and works brilliantly. Nothing like some sweet revenge on someone by knocking the living crap out of them. Once you have the ball you can press the directional pad again to do an offensive move what is called a deke. For example, when a Hammer Bros has the ball you do his Deke and he slams a hammer into the ground. Lets just say you don't want to be underneath that. Another gameplay feature is what is called a Mega Strike. If you can charge your kick with your team captain long enough, a bar will appear. Stop on the orange both times and you can unleash an insane flurry of up to six balls at crazy speeds. This can turn a game around. Obviously, these are very hard to pull off without the help of items. You get items when either the opposite team slide tackles you when you don't have the ball, or if you kick a half charged up kick. Items range from bananas, to ice shells, to team captain specific power ups. Bowser's special power for instance is breathing fire, if you can burn everyone around you you might have enough time to unleash a Mega Strike. To defend a Mega Strike is where the Wii sensors come into play. You are the hands of a goalie on a screen, and balls fly towards you. Simply click A on the to block them, and if you miss, its a goal. This is easy to do if the Mega Striker isn't well charged, but if someone gets it perfectly, its nearly impossible to get all the balls blocked. Of course there are other elements to the gameplay, such as getting the ball in prime kicking condition by passing around the ball a lot, or lofting the ball into the air for someone to fly up and kick it mid air, confusing the goalie. All of this combined makes for a fun, fast paced, thrilling game that isn't based on luck like some of the other Mario Sports. Single player mode is enough to keep you busy for a little while, and great for training before you hit WiFi with the real pros. There is an array of single player modes such as Strikers 101, Road to the Strikers Cup, and a couple others. Strikers 101 is basically the tutorial, you pretty much need to go over this as there are a ton of special techniques, as I went over above. Even still, I'd strongly advise also checking out the manual because there are a lot of advanced moves not covered in the tutorial. There is also a mission based mode where you complete challenges with each character. If you've ever played Mario Superstar Baseball, its very similar to the Bowser Jr. challenges. It can also compare to Event mode in Super Smash Bros Melee. Road to the Striker Cup is the meat of the single player mode. The main goal is to reach and defeat the Striker Cup, the most difficult challenge in Single player mode. There is a hard mode and a normal mode. Normal mode gets progressively more challenging, where as hard mode is always the same level of difficulty. The issue is that the AI doesn't get better, it gets cheaper. Still, if you can manage to win this mode, you're a pretty decent player. If you like unlockables, there are a fair amount here. There are two unlockable characters, which I won't spoil. There is a good deal of stages to unlock, and most of them are very fun. All the classic stages are available from the start, and you have to unlock most of the new ones. There are also player cards to collect, fairly pointless but still fun. The most attractive thing about this game is the multiplayer. If you don't plan on playing on WiFi or with friends, this game is not worth it. The single player has your standard versus mode, a tournament mode where you try and win the cup, and a series of character specific challenges similar to Super Smash Brothers Melee's Events. Overall, though fun for awhile, isn't nearly enough. The heart and soul of this game is multiplayer and WiFi. Nothing like jumping out of your seat in excitement because you kicked the winning goal with less than five seconds left on the clock. WiFi is WiFi. Its nothing special, its nothing amazing. You still have to use Strikers specific friend codes, you still have to do random searches, you still can't chat. The only thing this has over say, Mario Kart DS, is that it rarely lags and you can see which friends are online and send them an invite. The ability to invite friends is quite cool, and very useful. There is also a very limited ranking system that displays who the top WiFi player is. It does what WiFi is meant to do, deliver an online gaming experience, nothing more nothing less. Even still, its incredibly fun playing people online, especially people at GameFAQs or any other online communities. There seems to be considerably less disconnectors then on the DS, and the cheap strategies are always easy to counter with a little bit of know how. Its very pleasant and is a highly welcomed feature to this game. The sound in this game really isn't worth mentioning, but theres nothing annoying and it all fits. The whooshing sound of soaring into the air while unleashing a mega strike is nice, the clicking of the ball being passed and the vibration of the wiimote is all great. Even Daisy isn't annoying, and thats an accomplishment. You don't need to like soccer, you just need to like games.
 
It's not that the review was bad, it's just that you might want to use paragraphs next time.
 
[quote name='Rozz']It's not that the review was bad, it's just that you might want to use paragraphs next time.[/quote]

QFT. Make it easy to read.
 
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