Visuals 80/100

As you’d expect with a Nintendo title the visuals in Mario Strikers Charged are filled with vibrant colors and while the Wii can only output at 480p I didn’t really miss the crisp high definition graphics that you see in 360 and PS3 games.

Teams in Charged are composed of a keeper, an outfield captain (one of the primary Nintendo characters such as Mario or Luigi) and 3 ‘Sidekicks’ (Toad, Boo, etc). There are a total of 12 different captains and 8 different sidekicks to choose from and all are animated wonderfully with different, and very intricate, special moves. The captains also each have different intro sequences and goal-scoring celebrations that are fun to watch.

Accompanying all of the special moves are a variety of pyrotechnics and it’s impressive to see that the frame-rate never takes a hit even when there are a ton of things going on at once.

The real star of the visuals are the different arenas. Including the un-lockable grounds there are a total of 17 different arenas each of which are beautifully rendered and also have unique features that affect the way the game is played. For example, the Lava Pit is based on the Lava/Fire stages in Super Mario Bros and along with an electrified cage around the court there are also random fire-balls that fly onto the pitch scorching the surface and setting anyone in their path on fire!

The final stage in the Crystal Cup has lightning bolts that shoot out from the stands at the beginning of the match that actually take out 3 the players on each team meaning the game becomes 2 on 2!

My favorite has to be ‘Thunder Island’ that takes place on an elevated pitch in the middle of the ocean with a strong wind blowing that affects the ball, no walls surrounding the field (so you can fall off) and my favorite – every once in a while a gust of wind will send a giant cow, tractor or other such farm paraphernalia flying across the pitch knocking players down.

Yes, a cow.

Not everything is perfect with the visuals, however, as the main gameplay angle is pulled back a bit too far for my tastes. There are also some problems with kit clashing and the animation sequence that accompanies Mega Strikes (more on those later) can’t be skipped.

Audio 70/100

The audio in Charged is minimal but what’s there is pretty solid. As you’d expect there’s no commentary (though it might be amusing to hear Andy Gray complain about the referee after a player gets hit in the head with a hammer before being set on fire) but there are some brief voice-overs for the primary Nintendo characters.

The music is actually quite good and the sounds accompanying special effects are solid.

Options 70/100

There are five modes of play in Charged and though they all have funky names they basically boil down to the following; exhibition, training, tournament, scenarios and multiplayer. The training mode is a nice introduction to the game and features 10 different ‘lessons’ that teach you various aspects of the gameplay from Skillshots to Mega Strikes.

The bulk of the single-player game comes from the tournament mode which is composed of three different cup competitions containing 4, 6 and 10 teams respectively. You start off in the 4 team cup (the ‘Fire Cup’) and winning each competition unlocks the next competition. Each cup begins with round-robin play before knock-out rounds and then a final which is a best of three series. Each cup win unlocks different Captains while finishing a tournament with the best offensive and defensive records unlocks various arenas.

The scenario mode features 12 different game situations (e.g. beat Daisy’s team by five goals) and while 12 may not seem like a lot this could, if you’re a masochist, keep you occupied for hours as some of these are ridiculously difficult with the CPU using all kinds of cheap tactics to stop you.

Mario Strikers Charged features online play allowing you to play against friends (if you bothered to get those Friend Codes) and ranked matches against randoms (where general stats are tracked). Online play was solid with very little lag and I didn’t experience any problems connecting to matches – this is much more than I could say for Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (for the PS3 AND Xbox 360).

Gameplay 65/100

Controls are as follows:

Wii-mote Movement – Body Check (when shaking) / Mega Strike Save

Nunchuk - Movement (control stick) / Switch Item (shake)

D-Pad – Deke / Tackle

A – Pass

B – Shoot / Mega Strike (hold) / Skillshot (hold)

Z – Knock Ball Ahead

C – Use Items / Special Move

As you can see from the controls this isn’t your average soccer game…in fact, after about 2 minutes of play it’s quite apparent that this game bears very little resemblance to the sport of soccer.

Matches are 5 on 5 with the game taking place in an enclosed arena and the most goals in one 3 minute half wins the game.

As mentioned before, each team is composed of a keeper, a captain (one of twelve primary Nintendo characters such as Mario or Donkey Kong) and then 3 ‘Sidekicks’ (outfield players chosen from 8 different accessory Nintendo characters such as Toad, Shy Guy and Boo). There’s a certain degree of strategy when selecting your line-up as each of the captains and sidekicks has different abilities and special moves.

The Captains’ special moves are character specific and vary from Mario’s ability to grow into a giant and trample the opposition to Wario’s ability to…er….fart thereby rendering his opponents dazed. Likewise, the ‘Sidekicks’ have character specific ‘Skillshots’, my favourite being Hammer Bros’ tossing of (what else) hammers that knock down opposition players before firing a shot on goal.

There are also a bunch of Power-Ups that are gained by either body-checking players without the ball (performed nicely by shaking the Wii-mote) or by taking a charged shot on net. You can hold two power-ups at each time and you can select between either one by shaking the nunchuck. These power-ups include things like banana skins, different colored shells (to knock down opposing players) and invincibility stars.

Goal scoring comes from a variety of avenues – sure you can try trudging up the field, aiming for an open corner of the net and taking a shot but that’s not very likely to result in a goal. Instead, if you string together several consecutive passes the ball changes colour to white and when that happens any subsequent shot has a much better chance of going in. Likewise, ‘Skillshots’ by your team’s ‘Sidekicks’ have a much better chance of going in but these are position and situation dependent (for example Boo’s ‘Teleport’ move will only work a certain distance from the goal).

The biggest bang for your buck, however, comes from ‘Mega Strike’ shots that can be taken by your team’s captain. To perform these shots you have to hold down the shoot button for a few seconds, at which point a two click meter (similar to that found in golf games) appears – the first click indicates how many shots on goal you want to take, the second click determines your accuracy. Following this you’re treated to a animation sequence where as much as 6 consecutive shots fly onto your opponent’s goal! As a result these ‘Mega Strike’ shots can create up to a six goal swing in just a matter of seconds.

Mitigating the effectiveness of the Mega Strike is the fact that it takes a while to charge up (during which time you could be body-checked), that you have to be accurate using the 2-click meter, and that when a human player is facing a Mega Strike (either from the CPU or a human opponent) you actually get a chance to control the keeper via the Wii-mote to make saves from a first-person perspective! All three of these factors, particularly the latter, help stop the Mega Strike from ruining the game.

When you combine the different special moves, the body checking, the multiple-goal Mega Strikes, the power-ups and also arena specific hazards you get an hectic experience that’s part hockey, part Speedball, part fighting game and absolute madness. Most importantly, however, it’s actually kinda fun. Once I got over the fact that Charged has pretty much nothing to do with the sport of soccer I found myself enjoying pummeling the opposition, setting them on fire, throwing hammers at them and every once in a while sticking the ball in the back of the net.

Unfortunately, the primary aspects of skill and strategy in the game come from applying the various power-ups and special moves – there’s no real strategy in passing the ball around or finding the open man (or monkey, walking mushroom, ghost or…Wario) and as a result the gameplay does get old after a few hours. There are also some problems with the balancing and while you can stop Mega Strikes by checking the shooter there several special moves that can knock out almost an entire team leaving you completely free to shoot. Likewise some of the ‘Skillshots’ are almost unblockable.

Replay Value 60/100

While there are three cup competitions and a variety of scenarios, playing against the CPU gets old after a few hours when you realize that the same tactics can be used over and over and the novelty of the special moves wears off. The 3rd cup competition and some of the individual scenarios are definitely challenging but most of the challenge comes from shameless CPU cheating which will make you want to toss your Wii-mote across the room…..if it weren’t latched to your wrist.

Charged’s surprisingly robust online play helps to increase the replay value, however, at the end of the day what little depth the game has revolves around those special moves and again it gets boring fairly quickly.

Overall 65/100

It’s important to note that while Mario Strikers Charged bears little resemblance to the beautiful game that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun and I had a blast with the different power-ups and special moves. That said, both single player and multiplayer get old quickly and as such I can only recommend this game as a solid rental.

[Screenshots from www.ign.com ]

Visuals 80/100

As you’d expect with a Nintendo title the visuals in Mario Strikers Charged are filled with vibrant colors and while the Wii can only output at 480p I didn’t really miss the crisp high definition graphics that you see in 360 and PS3 games.

Teams in Charged are composed of a keeper, an outfield captain (one of the primary Nintendo characters such as Mario or Luigi) and 3 ‘Sidekicks’ (Toad, Boo, etc). There are a total of 12 different captains and 8 different sidekicks to choose from and all are animated wonderfully with different, and very intricate, special moves. The captains also each have different intro sequences and goal-scoring celebrations that are fun to watch.

Accompanying all of the special moves are a variety of pyrotechnics and it’s impressive to see that the frame-rate never takes a hit even when there are a ton of things going on at once.

The real star of the visuals are the different arenas. Including the un-lockable grounds there are a total of 17 different arenas each of which are beautifully rendered and also have unique features that affect the way the game is played. For example, the Lava Pit is based on the Lava/Fire stages in Super Mario Bros and along with an electrified cage around the court there are also random fire-balls that fly onto the pitch scorching the surface and setting anyone in their path on fire!

The final stage in the Crystal Cup has lightning bolts that shoot out from the stands at the beginning of the match that actually take out 3 the players on each team meaning the game becomes 2 on 2!

My favorite has to be ‘Thunder Island’ that takes place on an elevated pitch in the middle of the ocean with a strong wind blowing that affects the ball, no walls surrounding the field (so you can fall off) and my favorite – every once in a while a gust of wind will send a giant cow, tractor or other such farm paraphernalia flying across the pitch knocking players down.

Yes, a cow.

Not everything is perfect with the visuals, however, as the main gameplay angle is pulled back a bit too far for my tastes. There are also some problems with kit clashing and the animation sequence that accompanies Mega Strikes (more on those later) can’t be skipped.

Audio 70/100

The audio in Charged is minimal but what’s there is pretty solid. As you’d expect there’s no commentary (though it might be amusing to hear Andy Gray complain about the referee after a player gets hit in the head with a hammer before being set on fire) but there are some brief voice-overs for the primary Nintendo characters.

The music is actually quite good and the sounds accompanying special effects are solid.

Options 70/100

There are five modes of play in Charged and though they all have funky names they basically boil down to the following; exhibition, training, tournament, scenarios and multiplayer. The training mode is a nice introduction to the game and features 10 different ‘lessons’ that teach you various aspects of the gameplay from Skillshots to Mega Strikes.

The bulk of the single-player game comes from the tournament mode which is composed of three different cup competitions containing 4, 6 and 10 teams respectively. You start off in the 4 team cup (the ‘Fire Cup’) and winning each competition unlocks the next competition. Each cup begins with round-robin play before knock-out rounds and then a final which is a best of three series. Each cup win unlocks different Captains while finishing a tournament with the best offensive and defensive records unlocks various arenas.

The scenario mode features 12 different game situations (e.g. beat Daisy’s team by five goals) and while 12 may not seem like a lot this could, if you’re a masochist, keep you occupied for hours as some of these are ridiculously difficult with the CPU using all kinds of cheap tactics to stop you.

Mario Strikers Charged features online play allowing you to play against friends (if you bothered to get those Friend Codes) and ranked matches against randoms (where general stats are tracked). Online play was solid with very little lag and I didn’t experience any problems connecting to matches – this is much more than I could say for Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (for the PS3 AND Xbox 360).

Gameplay 65/100

Controls are as follows:

Wii-mote Movement – Body Check (when shaking) / Mega Strike Save

Nunchuk - Movement (control stick) / Switch Item (shake)

D-Pad – Deke / Tackle

A – Pass

B – Shoot / Mega Strike (hold) / Skillshot (hold)

Z – Knock Ball Ahead

C – Use Items / Special Move

As you can see from the controls this isn’t your average soccer game…in fact, after about 2 minutes of play it’s quite apparent that this game bears very little resemblance to the sport of soccer.

Matches are 5 on 5 with the game taking place in an enclosed arena and the most goals in one 3 minute half wins the game.

As mentioned before, each team is composed of a keeper, a captain (one of twelve primary Nintendo characters such as Mario or Donkey Kong) and then 3 ‘Sidekicks’ (outfield players chosen from 8 different accessory Nintendo characters such as Toad, Shy Guy and Boo). There’s a certain degree of strategy when selecting your line-up as each of the captains and sidekicks has different abilities and special moves.

The Captains’ special moves are character specific and vary from Mario’s ability to grow into a giant and trample the opposition to Wario’s ability to…er….fart thereby rendering his opponents dazed. Likewise, the ‘Sidekicks’ have character specific ‘Skillshots’, my favourite being Hammer Bros’ tossing of (what else) hammers that knock down opposition players before firing a shot on goal.

There are also a bunch of Power-Ups that are gained by either body-checking players without the ball (performed nicely by shaking the Wii-mote) or by taking a charged shot on net. You can hold two power-ups at each time and you can select between either one by shaking the nunchuck. These power-ups include things like banana skins, different colored shells (to knock down opposing players) and invincibility stars.

Goal scoring comes from a variety of avenues – sure you can try trudging up the field, aiming for an open corner of the net and taking a shot but that’s not very likely to result in a goal. Instead, if you string together several consecutive passes the ball changes colour to white and when that happens any subsequent shot has a much better chance of going in. Likewise, ‘Skillshots’ by your team’s ‘Sidekicks’ have a much better chance of going in but these are position and situation dependent (for example Boo’s ‘Teleport’ move will only work a certain distance from the goal).

The biggest bang for your buck, however, comes from ‘Mega Strike’ shots that can be taken by your team’s captain. To perform these shots you have to hold down the shoot button for a few seconds, at which point a two click meter (similar to that found in golf games) appears – the first click indicates how many shots on goal you want to take, the second click determines your accuracy. Following this you’re treated to a animation sequence where as much as 6 consecutive shots fly onto your opponent’s goal! As a result these ‘Mega Strike’ shots can create up to a six goal swing in just a matter of seconds.

Mitigating the effectiveness of the Mega Strike is the fact that it takes a while to charge up (during which time you could be body-checked), that you have to be accurate using the 2-click meter, and that when a human player is facing a Mega Strike (either from the CPU or a human opponent) you actually get a chance to control the keeper via the Wii-mote to make saves from a first-person perspective! All three of these factors, particularly the latter, help stop the Mega Strike from ruining the game.

When you combine the different special moves, the body checking, the multiple-goal Mega Strikes, the power-ups and also arena specific hazards you get an hectic experience that’s part hockey, part Speedball, part fighting game and absolute madness. Most importantly, however, it’s actually kinda fun. Once I got over the fact that Charged has pretty much nothing to do with the sport of soccer I found myself enjoying pummeling the opposition, setting them on fire, throwing hammers at them and every once in a while sticking the ball in the back of the net.

Unfortunately, the primary aspects of skill and strategy in the game come from applying the various power-ups and special moves – there’s no real strategy in passing the ball around or finding the open man (or monkey, walking mushroom, ghost or…Wario) and as a result the gameplay does get old after a few hours. There are also some problems with the balancing and while you can stop Mega Strikes by checking the shooter there several special moves that can knock out almost an entire team leaving you completely free to shoot. Likewise some of the ‘Skillshots’ are almost unblockable.

Replay Value 60/100

While there are three cup competitions and a variety of scenarios, playing against the CPU gets old after a few hours when you realize that the same tactics can be used over and over and the novelty of the special moves wears off. The 3rd cup competition and some of the individual scenarios are definitely challenging but most of the challenge comes from shameless CPU cheating which will make you want to toss your Wii-mote across the room…..if it weren’t latched to your wrist.

Charged’s surprisingly robust online play helps to increase the replay value, however, at the end of the day what little depth the game has revolves around those special moves and again it gets boring fairly quickly.

Overall 65/100

It’s important to note that while Mario Strikers Charged bears little resemblance to the beautiful game that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun and I had a blast with the different power-ups and special moves. That said, both single player and multiplayer get old quickly and as such I can only recommend this game as a solid rental.

[Screenshots from www.ign.com ]