Mario Strikers Charged

Mario Strikers Charged Mario Strikers Charged Football
PAL box art
Developer(s)	Next Level Games
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Series	Mario Strikers series
Platform(s)	Wii
Release	EU: May 25 2007 AUS: June 7 2007 NA: July 30 2007 JP: September 20 2007 [1]
Genre(s)	Sports game
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer, Online

Mario Strikers Charged (マリオストライカーズ チャージド, Mario Sutoraikāzu Chājido), known as Mario Strikers Charged Football in Australia and Europe, is a sports video game developed by Canadian developer Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the Wii. This game was announced at the 2006 Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany as the sequel to Super Mario Strikers for the Nintendo GameCube. It was released on May 25 2007 in Europe, June 7 2007 in Australia and July 30 2007 in North America.

The game supports the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, through which players can participate in online matches and tournaments. Upon its European release, it became the first Wii online game to be available outside of Japan.

Gameplay

Two teams battle for the possession of a metallic ball. Players with the ball pass using A and shoot using B. Holding down B will allow the player to charge their shots. The color of the metallic ball can change depending on how often it is passed. A charged white ball has a much greater chance of going into the goal than a purple colored ball. Using the control pad will allow the player to use a deke to fake out an opponent. The deke varies among the captains and sidekicks. Players without the ball can shake the Wii Remote to tackle another player or press on the d-pad to slide tackle. If opposing players are tackled without the ball, the player's opponent will get an item. Pressing A will allow the player to switch between characters. Using the control pad without the ball will allow the player to perform a slide tackle which can gain immediate possession of the ball.

Items

When a player is hit without the ball, or when a player takes a powerful shot, that player's team gets an item. These perform various functions, such as knocking out other players or giving a temporary boost of speed. All items from the previous game, such as the various Koopa Shells and the Chain Chomp reappear, except for Bowser, who is now a playable character.

Each captain can use a special item to create a unique effect, such as removing other players from the field or knocking out all players in a large radius. The opposite team members can also prevent the player from performing a MegaStrike and gain possession of the ball easily.

Mega Strikes and Skillshots

When the B (shoot) button is held, the shot is charged up. If it is charged long enough, the player with the ball will execute a special shot. If the player is a sidekick, he will perform a skillshot. Each sidekick has its own unique skillshot, but all have the ability to either disable or bypass the goalie, making a score much more likely.

If the player is a captain, the shot will be a Mega Strike. The Mega Strike is similar to the Super Strike in Super Mario Strikers, but instead of one big shot worth 2 points, a Mega Strike splits up into 3-6 individual shots which all fly toward the goal at a certain speed. The number of balls and the speed of the balls depend on the timing of when the buttons are pressed. To defend against the shots, the opposing player must target and block the balls with the goalie using the Wii Remote by aiming it at the screen. For every shot the player successfully makes, a goal is awarded to their side.

Online features

This is the second Wii game to use online Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection features. The online modes feature ranked random matches and unranked friendly matches.

Ranked matches puts players up against a random opponent and are restricted to players in the same region in order to maintain connection stability. A billboard showing the player's Mii will be shown along with the "Striker of the Day". The Striker of the Day is the player who earns the most points in one day. Players earn 10 points for winning a match or 1 point for losing a match, and also 1 point per goal scored, with a limit of 10 points extra earned for goals making a total limit of 20 points. Disconnecting from a match will cause players to lose points. The ranked matches do not use friend codes, are region specific, and support 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 player matches.

Friendly matches are casual matches in which players can go up against their friends. Unlike the ranked matches, the unranked matches use the friend code system and there is no point system involved for winning or losing matches. While originally planned to support world-wide play, support for friend-code matches was later restricted to local regions due to concerns about lag and playability. Players are able to import their Mii; each Mii has its own friend code so that each user can have a separate friend list. The unranked matches support 1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, and 3 vs. 1 player matches.

Characters

There are a total of 12 captains and 8 sidekicks to choose from to form a five-player team, which consists of a captain, three sidekicks, and a goalie. All characters are separated into 5 categories: Balanced (balanced in all areas), Playmaker (speedy with good passing ability), Power (good shooting and defensive ability), Offensive (good shooting and passing ability), and Defensive (speedy with good defensive ability). Unlike in the original Super Mario Strikers, a team may consist of any combination of different sidekicks.

The Kritters return from Super Mario Strikers as the goalkeepers.

Captains

• Mario - His special ability is to grow into Super Mario, allowing him to stomp around the field flattening enemies and allies alike.
• Luigi - Similar to Mario, Luigi can grow into Super Luigi and stomp around the field.
• Princess Peach - Princess Peach's super ability allows her to take 'snapshots' of surrounding players, freezing them in place.
• Princess Daisy - When Princess Daisy's superpower is activated, a ring of crystalline spikes explode from the ground around her, disabling any opponents in range and knocking the ball into her control.
• Yoshi - Yoshi can encase himself in a giant egg and roll around the field to flatten opponents.
• Donkey Kong - Donkey Kong jumps into the air before slamming his fists on the ground, flooring all opponents in a large vicinity.
• Diddy Kong - Diddy Kong summons a tractor beam that transports any nearby players off the field and out of the match for a short period of time or until the next goal is scored.
• Wario - Any characters caught in a cloud of Wario's flatulence will have their controls reversed until the effect wears off, and typically lose control of the ball if they have it.
• Waluigi - Waluigi gains a boost of speed, leaving behind him a vine-like wall that he can use to trap enemies or cordon himself off before performing a Mega Strike.
• Bowser - Bowser can breathe fire, igniting enemies (even the goalie) and causing them to run around in a panicked attempt to put out the flames.
• Bowser Jr. - Bowser Jr. uses a sonic scream to shrink any enemies caught in the line of fire.
• Petey Piranha - Petey Piranha spits bullets of ooze-like mud to trip up enemy players and slow them down.

Sidekicks

• Toad - Toad's special shot envelopes the ball in flames, leaving the goalie unable to grab the ball while his gloves are on fire (although he can still rebound it out to other players).
• Boo - Boo's special shot renders himself and the ball intangible for a split second while he shoots; if performed at close enough range, this sends the ball and Boo straight through the goalie and into the goal.
• Dry Bones - Dry Bones shoots an electrified ball at the goalie which then rebounds directly back, allowing him an opportunity to score a header goal while the goalie is incapacitated.
• Monty Mole - Mony Mole burrows under the ground towards the goal before emerging dolphin-like to shoot the ball—if performed within a specific range from the goal, he will both knock the goalie and the ball into the goal.
• Koopa Troopa - Koopa Troopa shoots a giant shell towards the goalie, temporarily stunning him; the ball then rebounds a random distance and direction.
• Birdo - Birdo shoots a large egg containing the ball which sinks the goalie into the ground and scores a point; this shot is much less effective if it hits another player instead, shattering on them and not affecting the goalie.
• Hammer Bros. - Hammer Bros. leaps into the air before throwing down a series of hammers and shooting the ball—if performed close enough to the goal, this will smash the goalie into the ground and smash the ball into the goal.
• Shy Guy - Shy Guy mounts a Bullet Bill and rides it towards the goal where it explodes, stunning anyone, including Shy Guy, in the blast radius, and depositing the ball nearby.

Goalies

• Kritter - Kritter cannot be controlled by the player except when he has the ball or is defending against a Mega Strike.

Stadiums

All 7 stadiums from Super Mario Strikers return along with 10 new updated stadiums for a grand total of 17 stadiums.

Many of the newer stadiums have certain characteristics. Thunder Island has blowing wind, which can blow players off the field. Other stadiums have obstacles such as Thwomps and lightning strikes to make scoring more difficult, and some even have terrain obstacles.

For the most part, the older stadiums remain faithful to the original. There has been some remodeling, retexturing, and relighting done. For example, Bowser Stadium's flooring has been improved texture-wise, and some of the audience seating is missing as if it had been blown away, thus being able to see out into space. There also seems to be less light and the goal nets have been changed as well.

Reception

Currently, reviews of the game have been generally positive with an average critic score of 80% at Game Rankings. Official Nintendo Magazine praised the pick-up and play feel of the game, giving the game 91%. Eurogamer also favored the added strategy and feel to game, giving it an 8/10. UK magazine NGamer criticized the game for its low amount of game modes, but overall felt that it was a definite improvement over the GameCube original, giving it 78%. Edge magazine was concerned about the overwhelming power of the Mega Strike feature, giving it 6/10. IGN UK gave the game an 8.7 out of 10 and an editor's choice award. UK based website Mansized scored Mario Strikers Charged a full 5 out of 5 stars, particularly praising the game's enjoyable multiplayer options. GameSpot gave the game a score of 7.5 out 10.

The US edition has also received favorable reviews from IGN who stated that its online feature was "the first one on Nintendo's new console worth mentioning" IGN scored it 8.3 (out of ten)

Nintendo Power gave the US edition an 8.5 out of 10, criticizing the limited single player modes while praising its online and offline multiplayer capabilities.

GamePro gave Mario Strikers Charged a 5 out of 5, praising the great online support, lots of game modes, and its fun inquires and battles.

See also

List of Wii Wi-Fi Connection games

External links

• Mario Strikers Charged Football at Official European Site
• Mario Strikers Charged page at wii.nintendo.com
• Mario Strikers Charged at Metacritic
• Mario Strikers Charged at GameSpot