Mario Strikers Charged

An attractive game with a dark bent, and the pitches really bring the game to life.

The problem is – despite everything mentioned above – the game isn’t that fun. While Charged is an improvement over the original, it still piles on so much craziness that it buries itself with simplistic gameplay.

Shallow and frequently frustrating but the fast-paced gameplay makes for a fun multiplayer experience.

If you approach the game with the mentality that Charged Football is going to be football in the Mario universe you'll find a game that is hard to get on with. If you accept that the emphasis is on flashy moves and fun over skill and precision, you'll find a game that has a place in your collection, even if it's only brought out every now and again.

Mario Strikers Charged is far from a perfect game, but it truly is fun when played online. For the casual sports fan who doesn't want to spend hours poring over stats, defensive combinations, matchups, and what's inside the vending machines in their virtual team's arena, this game is very much worth a look.

A very good game, terrific fun, ideal for the purpose, and just a big winner in multiplayer online or off. It is not going to set the world alight in single player, but we hope that Nintendo can see how favourably it has gone down with the online crowd and plan for the future accordingly.

The reason why it’s not fun at times isn’t because it doesn’t replicate the sport well--I would go so far as to say that I wish soccer had as much checking and all-out craziness--but rather that the AI becomes so incredibly cheap in the later tournaments and that there really isn’t much to the overall game aside from just beating the crap out of everyone to make way for a shot on goal.

To sum things up, Mario Strikers Charged is a fun, yet brutal anti-soccer game for all ages, but unfortunately the graphics leave something to be desired.

The eventful, minute-long matches and frantic to-and-fro make Mario Strikers a suitable curtain-raiser for online gaming on the Wii, but a balanced and deep extreme sports game this is not. [June 2007, p.87]

For those expecting a triumphant Mario title, you'll have to wait until Mario Party 8 for the next opportunity.

Mario Strikers Charged still has a ways to go before being considered an arcade-sports champion.