If you've played the original for Gamecube, you'll understand a good deal of basics for Strikers. What Next Level did for the sequel is nothing short of outstanding. They've improved on absolutely every aspect from the original. You can now fully customize your team (unlike the original where you only had 4 different sidekicks to choose from and whichever you picked made of the rest of your team). Not only that, but there are 8 different sidekicks, each with different strengths and weaknesses, adding a great deal of depth where the original lacked. Also what's great is that each sidekick has their own power shot, all awesome and requires different strategies to pull off successfully. Also, the megastrike has been tweaked for team captains. Now, you can send up to 6 balls at once flying towards the goal. However, they aren't as cheap as before. The player now has the opportunity to block the shots via the Wii remote...a cool little feature that makes it a little more balanced than the original.
There are 17 courses total, with all the original courses returning, fully redone graphically, and they all look spectacular. In fact, this is probably the prettiest game on the Wii to date. I gotta tell ya, when you start a match in 'THE VICE' and see a million screaming fans (all mushroom kingdom residents) screaming and cheering, filling the stands that literally stretch 1000 feet above the arena, you'll get goose bumps...it looks absolutely amazing.
Multiplayer is phenomenal (like the original), and really where the game shines. Prepare to put aside several hours if you plan on having people over to play...you'll have to force yourself to stop. Up to 4 players can dish it out at once. You can choose the number of matches played in the series, the time limit, and or goal limit. And then of course there's the online mode....fun fun fun. Now you can play your buddy can play together from the comfort of your own homes, talking trash on AIM after every match. You can also compete on the leader boards against anyone in your respective country and see how well you stack up against everyone else (it's pretty easy to see who has no life...just check the top 20 ranked players).
Now for the bad. Unfortunately, the sever crashes waaaay to much. As more and more people buy the game and start logging on, I can only see it getting worse. I've got disconnected during 4 or so matches (all of which I was winning) which sucks because they won't go on your record. Also, there's no way to communicate with whoever you're playing against (which may be good or bad depending on how much trash talking you do). The lag isn't too bad...I've only found it to be a problem a couple times and it was just for a short while. Luckily, the game lets you know how good the connection is (4 stars being the best). Still, a 4 star connection can see some lag, so make sure you don't settle for anything less.
Still, these are minor shortcomings, and don't detract from the overall experience of the game. It's awesome, fast paced, addicting, fun.
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Back in 2005, Nintendo really knew what it was doing by briinging Mario and his whole gang to the wild and outrageous world of sports on the Gamecube. Undoubtingly, the experiments worked beyond expectations. Mario Superstar Baseball, delivered a fun and entertaing home run with baseball madness that was fun & had some excellent minigames. But what really exploded was Super Mario Strikers, a wild and outrageous soccer game that really brought out so many kicks into the game. It really was a delightful treat for gamers everywhere, that a sequel had to be made for a second goal, and it was worth the wait.Mario Strikers Charged for the Nintendo Wii is the thried Wii title to endure with competing against gamers online through Nintendo's Wi-Fi connection, and the game delivers. The game follows in suit well and brings even more fun that Super Mario Strikers left over. The gameplay includes returning characters Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi, as well as a couple of new playable captains like Bowser, and Diddy Kong. You can also even use your Mii's you've created as captains, as you did before from Mario Party 8. The game includes new arenas that really work beautifully with the Mario experience, ranging from the traditional, to arenas where whomps drop down on you. The control here is a bit different here in the game, as you use the nunchuck controls to move your captain and crew, and you use the Wii remote to block, pass and shoot your soccer balls to score.
There also is a new feature added to the game, a mega strike, where you could shoot as many as six goals at a single time at the goal. There are also new offensive tatics from the players. Wario could let out a foul odor to cause your opponents to hold their breath while your in control for the ball, and Mario could turn into a giant with his new moves. The graphics look wonderful and the gameplay is even more addictive than ever before, but the controls here take a bit to get used to, but once you complete the Strikers 101 training, you'll be able to get the gameplay down easily. There are also a few new characters and trophies that are added to unlock for extra gameplay for exhibition competetions, including Petey Piranha from Super Mario Sunshine, who is making his attempts to score his kicks, but you'd have to unlock certain trophies in the tournaments.
All in all, while there are other great games coming out that have much more hype like Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for the Wii, Mario Strikers Charged is worth the wait for sports fans everywhere. If you've loved the Gamecube edition, than you are really going to get your kicks here. I absolutely love the hype of the game, no red cards here, just all goals!!
Graphics: A-
Sound: A-
Control: B+
Fun & Enjoyment: B for solo players; Afor multiplayers
Overall: B+
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Mario Strikers Charged needs no introduction; the Wii-iteration is largely based on its Gamecube predecessor but takes this last-generation concept and its respective execution to a new level with increased interactivity, challenge, and connectivity, not to mention a myriad of graphical enhancements, new arenas, side-kicks, and Mushroom Kingdom madness that only the geniuses at Nintendo could provide! In a word, Strikers is brilliant; without question, it stands as one of the Wii's strongest first-party titles, one which gamers will undoubtedly enjoy throughout the duration of the innovative console's lifetime.Graphically speaking, Strikers can be described as one of the Wii's most attractive no, downright visually stunning recent endeavors. With all of the PlayStation 2 software ports currently available on for the system, many gamers have grown disillusioned with the gaming world's publishing houses as well as with the Wii's allegedly 'inferior' graphical abilities (when compared to other next-gen consoles). Thankfully, Nintendo and Next Level games longtime toiled to ensure that Strikers defies this overarching criticism the game is truly of next-generation make. Mario, Peach, Bowser, heck, the whole cartoon crowd, has never looked or moved better; animations are ridiculously smooth whilst textures are deep and high-resolution. Particle explosions, crowd movements, and lighting effects also aim to please, seeing as all of which have been pain-painstakingly developed so as to appear "wow-worthy" on-screen.
As far as gameplay goes, what makes Strikers a winner is Nintendo's unique ability to push a somewhat generic gaming genre (action sports) beyond its usual restrictions and in doing so, create a title as chaotic as it is frenzied fun to play! Acting as the Mario Kart for soccer, Strikers Charged takes an athletic core concept then radically reforms it into a surreal platformer/party/sporting experience. Matches are short and sweet, lasting just around three minutes time. During your 180 seconds of gameplay, innumerable obstacles (like flying cows, turtleshells, banana peels, bombs, chain-chomps, etc) explosions (lava rushes, artillery fire), special moves (ground-pounds, character enlargements, periods of momentary invincibility or increased agility), and environmental nuisances (think tornadoes and lightning) will plague your efforts to bring home a win. So much action occurs simultaneously that at times, one can hardly determine who's who and to where the ball has disappeared but within the confines of such confusion lies the heart of Strikers; the game is about as bombastic as athletics can get in a fantasy land where nothing is as it seems and little, if anything, goes according to plan.
Lastly, one cannot chronicle this game's successes without describing the microcosm that is the Strikers WiFi Community. Being one of the Wii's first truly "online" gaming titles, users nationwide (the game currently restricts international play) can compete against each other in live, lag-free internet-based matches. The WiFi configuration is especially intuitive and takes less than a minute to auto-select a rival gamer, confirm settings, and launch the match. For online gamers, this is nothing less than unbridled bliss~
If you hold even an acute interest in Mario-based gaming, buy this title; if you somewhat enjoy online gaming, buy this title; heck, even if you customarily loathe sports games, buy this title.
You truly will not be disappointed.
PROS -
+ Beautifully rendered cinematics & in-game graphics; for perhaps the first time on the Wii, the visuals leave absolutely nothing to be desired.
+ Music and sound effects are fitting and succeed in delighting gamers, not annoying them.
+ Action is fast-paced, frenzied, and all too fun; replayability is especially high.
+ Making use of the Wii's WiFi Connection, gamers can now battle online with friends and foes alike.
+ A myriad of gaming modes allow for extended or abbreviated play, depending upon what one's time allows and his or her gaming preferences.
CONS -
-WiFi matches lack voice or text communication capabilities so although you may challenge your friends, verbal or textual taunting remains absent.
-AI difficulty settings sometimes radically change without reason; one can win a given cup with little to no effort but then during a reprise, can fail to even reach the elimination round.
Honest reviews on Mario Strikers Charged
I am not a fan of sports games I don't like football, soccer, baseball, etc games on a game console. However Nintendo has managed to make this particular game very fun to play. It will be too "arcady" for real sports games fans, but for people who just want fun gameplay this is the game for you.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Mario Strikers Charged
Mario Strikers Charged is a vast improvement on its original predesesor with more strategy, better Mega-shots, improved sidekicks, and stadiums that fight back.the basics from the original are still here. you got your captains with their Mega-shots, the sidekicks, tournements, and stadiums but each one is tweaked slightly. for one, new captains are introduced and new sidekicks come into play, each with their own skill rating that adds onto the strategy of building the perfect team. each sidekick also comes equiped with their own little powershot that can have an array of effect and the Mega-shots can now shoot up to six times which means if your the goalie, you have to quick with your pointer to stop the oncoming balls.
another cool feature is the ball, which changes color the more times you hit it or charge it. purple being the lowest and white being the highest, which means you have a better chance to score.
a very cool bonus feature is the inclusion of Wi-Fi, so you can play other players online. great add on but make sure your opponent has a good connection otherwise the game play becomes very sluggish and you could lose connection. other then that, great new feature!
and just like before, you have your tournements composing of the Fire cup, Crystal cup, and Striker cup. this is where my one complaint comes in. while the first two tournements are pretty simple to get through, the Striker cup is near impossible! for one, the enemey AI goes up drastically, not giving players a chance to adjust to the sudden change in gameplay. but what really frusturates me is not the enemy AI but the knock-out round of the competition where one lose and you have to start the tournement all over again. it is so frusturating when you make it to the final knock-out round, only to get sent packing and having to start the tournement all over again! and what makes it worse is you can't simply restart your Wii, otherwise its an automatic lose.
so kudos to the makers for improving the game but they could have at least made the Striker cup a bit fairer, i mean, i don't remember the Star cup being this difficult.
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