Mario Strikers Charged Football
Nintendo Wii
Rating: 4/5
Nintendo has entered the world of online gaming with its Mario-themed soccer game, Mario Strikers Charged Online.
The follow-up to the little-known Gamecube title Super Mario Strikers, Mario Strikers Charged improves upon its predecessor in many ways, most notably its inclusion of an online multiplayer option.
Nintendo has always had a philosophy of bringing gamers together in a living room, offering a very strong multiplayer experience in games such as the Mario Kart series, but keeping it exclusive to the same room.
While it has dived into the online gaming market with its Nintendo WiFi connection for the handheld Nintendo DS console, Charged represents the company’s first true dig at taking a piece of the online pie dominated by Microsoft’s Xbox Live service.
It pales in comparison to the Live offering, but unlike Microsoft’s service, Nintendo’s is free of charge.
Firstly, Charged is a brilliant game either online or offline, and deserves kudos for producing a style of game play similar to Sensible Soccer, but with even more mayhem on screen.
Players pick a Nintendo mascot as their team captain, then up to three sidekicks from the Mario universe, each with different soccer skills and power abilities.
The mix plays an important part as matches progress in difficulty.
A weak defence will make life hard, while a weak attack will see you tear your hair out in frustration because shots do not find the back of the net.
So striking a balance is essential, and that balance will ultimately be determined by your playing style.
The game is a no-holds barred approach to soccer, so there are no fouls, and tackling is encouraged.
Mega strikes are available to the Nintendo mascots and can result in up to six goals in one strike if executed correctly.
But the game ensures it remains balanced by forcing players to ‘charge’ a mega strike, thus leaving them open to easy attacks that can stop them from achieving a goal flurry.
There is a cup mode that sees the player work their way through increasingly difficult competitions against computer-controlled teams.
There is domination mode – the standard quick play option.
And there is also an intriguing striker challenge mode that places players in scenarios, such as being a number of goals down with limited time on the clock.
The player must defeat the challenges, and is then rewarded with a fun set of ‘cheats’ with which to modify game play.
Online is easy – select the Nintendo WiFi option, and wait about 30 seconds for it to log in.
You can challenge friends, or random players, and you are ranked against the rest of Charged’s players on a leaderboard.
The only downside is that players have to enter a lengthy code to add friends, there is no voice chat or keyboard chat, which means you’ll need a phone to communicate with friends.
And there can be a lack of players unless you choose to play at peak times, including weekends.
