Mario Strikers Charged Review

One could say that Nintendo is just trying to milk the Mario franchise for all its worth and so its now making multiple Mario sports games. The truth of the matter is that in most cases the games are pretty good, and Mario Strikers Charged, I would have to say, would be one of those.

You get to take the field in 5 different modes (Domination, Wi-Fi Connect, Road to the Striker Cup, Striker Challenges, and Strikers 101). Domination is your basic exhibition game where the player gets to change the rules around a bit, if they'd like to make it a bit more interesting. Wi-Fi Connect is the online mode, and if memory serves me correctly one of Nintendo's first attempts into this realm. Road to the Striker Cup is your standard season mode. You with your team that you get to choose will battle other character's teams, controlled by AI, to get all the way to the Striker's Cup. Striker Challenges are your mini games, you will be given a task that you will have to complete with a character to unlock something. Strikers 101 is your tutorial mode, use this mode to hone your skills before trying to take to the field.

The graphics for the game are in the most part really good, the only problem is that some of the characters and support characters almost look identical so when you are trying to do a special type of shot you might be getting a different results than anticipated. The different types of fields you will be playing on also look good, even on a Standard Definition TV.

The controls are where I start to have a bit of a problem, there are a couple more combinations than I was hoping for. I know that Nintendo wanted to use the functionality of the Wii-mote, but some of this stuff just confused me for a while. Your best bet to learn the controls is going through Strikers 101 and then using the controls in a could Domination games before attempting the Road to the Striker Cup.

The gameplay pair with the controller can be a bit confusing, as well as the gameplay being paired with the actual characters. Personally this game isn't enjoyable until at least a couple of hours screwing around trying to find out who you use best and what controls you'll be using most. Once you've accomplished that you're sure to find some enjoyment in the game.

Overall this game is a good game to have if you want to try playing online, or if you can't get enough of the Mario gang. This game, for me, has become more of a party game where when people who like sports come over we'll pop this game in for a bit of a different flavor.

I give Mario Strikers Charged a 7.2 out of 10.

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