[Wii] Mario Strikers Charged Football

Introduction

Mario hits the football pitch in an all-star team. Most characteristibly acknowledged as the first Nintendo Wii game to be given Wi-Fi capabilities. This game pursues the concepts of football in producing a rugby-football mix. No knowledge of football is needed for this game... All that is needed is a lack of understanding of the rules in football, and you wont have to question a thing.
Before beginning a match you are entitled to choose your captain, which will have different skills and properties. Some of these captains include the all-time favourites in the Nintendo world such as, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Waluigi, Wario, Petey, Princess Peach, etc.
It is criticised for being just another GameCube veteren, which has been re-made on to the Wii. Nintendo persuade them that several major changes have been made.

Single Player

This Mario game, undoubtedly and lawfully, hosts Bowser and Bowser Jr. as the villains in this game. In order to beat the game, the player must work his way through the lower leagues to win the cups. Then eventually with ever more growing difficulty in each round, you must defeat Bowser in order to win the Striker Cup.
A frustrating game to be generous, it requires a winning streak in the knock-out stages for a successful cup win and if you have the "pleasure" of loosing you will be inclined to start from the beginning. The Storyline politely offers a newspaper article, which appears after every game sending messages such as "Mario defeats Luigi in last minute gasp". This effect works well, and gives the player something to look at during the loading screen.
The whole game we are aware and cautious of the dreaded "Mega Strike", a strike which produces 6 more balls from the thin air and if carefully controlled (landed on orange speed setting) it could mean bad news for Croc the goalkeeper. A very random special move, but effective in Single Player. By the time you enter Multiplayer people learn to save them, which is evidently quite easy.
As you progress through the game, you will stumble upon the different Stadii (plural of stadium) across Mario's world. Each stadium will differ from the next, often you can be knocked off the pitch in some stadii and your "tactics" must be played out carefully. I stress the tactics word as the majority of this game you will find yourself button bashing the shoot button.

Multiplayer

Ok, so the long awaited first online multiplayer game on Wii, as expected the hype produced by all forms of Nintendo propaganda mounted in it's masses. As an excited fanboy, I was certain it would be one of the all-time greats, and as Nintendo have continued to do, crushed my hopes. The online works perfectly until you are in-game. Then all hell breaks loose, the lagg is unplayable, the motion is not smooth because of this, and if you push a button you will be lucky if it does what you say in the next five minutes.
Astonishably poor online, the game is actually quite pleasant to play just with another player next to you. The two-player mode is actually quite good, you can get some laughs and have some fun, without the wicked online lagg which feasts on those with weaker than 16MB internet connection. I always thought the game is at it's best during non-online multiplayer. Though the game does get boring quite quickly. Not enough variation in the play to keep the player bound.
As a first for Nintendo, it's difficult to criticise, but as we've seen this poor online capabilites here, we've also seen it in their most recent games. A let down for Nintendo in this section.

Gameplay

As I have mentioned early, there is not enough variation in the gameplay. You can either go as this or this, no in-between. I struggled to find a good team, which worked efficiently. There are not many side-kicks available, and each captain only has his one special move. There should have always been more modes of play in the game, as there is only the one mode. Sure, you can set the time limit, but that is completely irrelevant.
The button bashing can get annoying, especially if you are on the receiving end of it. When this happens there is no sense of tactical or skillfull play, therefore ruining the game. LUCK, there is too much luck in this game, like ALL Nintendo made games, why cant they eradicate this feature, they are doing it on purpose so little five year olds can have there time in the limelight.
This game makes your Wiimote and Nunchuk your arch enemy, as it entices you to button bash, then makes you look like a fool when you concede a goal. Quite ridiculous gameplay, to say the least, but I can not make this a rant, there are always good things to a game.
The way that you have to charge up the ball by passing it before you shoot to ensure a goal is interesting and unique. Especially when you take ages to charge it up, then the opponent steals it and scores, yeah that's great fun. Frustrating, even when mentioning the good things. This game is annoying stay clear if you have a high blood pressure and high cortosol levels.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics are cartoony, and this is good since if they weren't Nintendo would make some sort of third rate porn movie. The physics is neat, and tidy. Smooth motion and well adapted sound, when not lagging. Characters hardly speak, which in my opinion would liven up the game, but I'm not the Nintendo genius. The fans are poorly made, you can hardly see their faces, and when it zooms up it's like eating maggots then puking them out, then watching them. You may think that's random, but it describes the crowd almost precisely.
The sound is all cheery and happy! Which is great if you are on anti-depressants but believe me, I cant stand it after twenty minutes. No-one speaks like I state again.

If only the graphics were like that ^^

Summary

This game is great, if you want to have a little bit of fun, but it is frustrating and irrelevant to football. If you are a football fan stay away, please, it's for your own good. This game murders the concepts of football with a knife. Each game is like stabbing the FA officials.
There is no reason to get this game at the moment, it's too old, and not that good.
If you want a football game get PES or FIFA, if you want a Mario game get SSBB or MKW.

+ Cool Newspaper articles post match
+ Interesting way of playing football
+ Cups are shiny in the cabinet

- Worst online lagg/play/everything ever.
- Interesting way of playing football
- Too much luck, not enough skill

. Don't buy/rent.

Try and center the images if you can, they look much better in this I'd say. Also, great job mate. Really, really in-depth and well written review.

Nice review, nice choice of game too. I've had many of hours of fun on it !

RAWR! Try and stick to the guidlines exactly, no colons and underlines in the titles!

I'd give it 80%. It's probably the most stressfull game on the Wii, but I remember rushing out on launch to get it and playing for hours on end. The online is pretty hopeless though

I couldn't get into it. G and Reza said it was amazing but I found it realy bleh.