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Radioactive IT Review: Mario Strikers Charged Football – Soccer plumber style
Radioactive IT Review: Mario Strikers Charged Football – Soccer plumber style | Review: Mario Strikers Charged Football – Soccer plumber style |
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| by Mike Bantick | ||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, 01 August 2007 | ||||||||||||||||
On the surface (and having not played the GameCube predecessor to this), an initial reaction could be to categorise MSCF as a retro game with the feel of a late eighties basketball title. Five a side top down view, played on a small pitch with high scoring the order of the day. But there is a deceptively tactical challenge here for those willing to look. The Single player game consists of two main parts. The most addictive are the “challenges” placing the player in a situation such as a golden goal game, or with a three nil deficit to overcome. Then there is the ‘road to the striker cup’ consisting of a controlled tournament played out over a number of rounds. Choose a team Captain from those on offer (Nine initially) and then select your squad – each team mate can bring to the pitch differing abilities – more on that later. There are a number of spectacular environments to play upon, each pitch provides themed interaction with the players, usually impeding their little jaunts around the field, from electrocution to massive Thwomps dropping inconveniently onto play, nothing can be taken for granted in Mario based soccer.  Gameplay itself is relatively simple, with a simple pass mechanism utilised between team mates, but building up to a score is key with the more passes before a shot meaning that the actual shot will be that harder to defend against. Defence is equally straight forward on the surface with a waggle of the Wii-mote causing a tackle. On top of the basics though, are the individual abilities of side-kicks and captains which when employed tactically can mean the difference between defeat and victory. When compressed to there basics, the abilities come down to power, speed or disruption of the opposition – for example sidekicks such as Monty Mole can shoot the ball well and lays down the biggest smackdowns for a sidekick, but plods along at, well, mole pace. Then there are the Captains of the teams, ranging from Donkey Kong’s brute power to Mario’s fitness, speed and “super” ability. When a Captain fires on goal with a Megastrike, the player receives a ‘golf game” style interface to fine tune their strike followed by an individualised over the tip animation – that annoyingly cannot be skipped. A Megastrike then triggers the goal-keeping mini game, requiring a wii-mote waggle and press of the A button to try to stop the incoming goal shots. Being unsuccessful here can result in an opponents score boosted by 5 goals. Presentation is crisp, and colourful, full of Mario style goodness, though even on a large screen; the overhead view can loose some player definition and cause confusion during frenetic playmaking. Multiplayer is taken care of by Domination mode, on the same console, or via the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection hooking up with players around the world, including co-op play.  Overall there is a level of depth not initially apparent during first plays. Though most of the special abilities boil down to immobilising (knocking down, freezing etc) opposition players, the resultant variety and mayhem is a joy to behold and quite addictive as well as fulfilling. Though the Wii’s unique controller system is not over employed, the bits that require mouse-like control (goal tending) work well and show that the game could only work on the Nintendo console.
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