Mario Strikers Charged Hands-On
By
Guy Cocker, Editor
Nearly as soon as being announced, Nintendo's Mario Strikers Charged made a playable debut at Leipzig. We joined the queue to get a first sample of the game.
LEIPZIG, GERMANY--If you're not a fan of queues (who is?), then stay far away from Nintendo's cordoned-off Wii area at the Leipzig Games Convention. It's not that there are millions of people waiting outside to get a play on the new console, it's that the Japanese manufacturer is incredibly slow at letting people in. That doesn't seem to be affecting the people in the queue that are armed with the required press or exhibitor pass--most gamers would give their right arm to have a play on the innovative new console. But it does hint at the pandemonium that may have broken out if the console had been shown on the main floor to the general public. So while consumers will unfortunately have no chance at playing the console in Germany before launch, we had no choice but to grit our teeth and endure an hour-long wait to play the Italian plumber's football game, Mario Strikers Charged.
Played with both the Wii controller and nunchuck, Mario Strikers Charged follows the over-the-top, arcade approach of the original Super Mario Strikers on GameCube. This means that through-balls and cheeky flicks are replaced with power-ups and slamming body tackles. It's basically to football games what Mario Kart is to driving games, which is no bad thing, of course.
From what we've seen, the game looked incredibly polished. Aside from the limited number of characters and stadiums to choose from, the game looked like it was in an advanced form. With four characters to choose from--Mario, Donkey Kong, Princess Peach, and Bowser--we opted for the star of the game, Mario. Our opponent, a fellow journalist who was nearly as excited about the gameas we were, opted for the rather more bulky Donkey Kong. Each of these characters became our captain (with skills that we'll go into a bit later on). From here, we had to choose the four characters to make up the team. We went with the defaults, a set of Mario characters that were small and nimble, and a rugged goalkeeper to defend the goal.
The stadium that we played in, which was one of two available in the demo, had the expected Nintendo vibrancy and a crowd that cheered along with the action. The pitch itself was surrounded by an electric fence, and when the characters were shoved into this, they ended up incapacitated for a few seconds. You see, tackling in Mario Stikers Charged isn't about an expertly timed sliding tackle or a polite toe-poke at the ball. It's all about smashing into the opposition with as much force as possible, sending them reeling backward and relieving them of the ball. This being the motion-sensitive Wii controller, you can tackle by quickly moving the remote control from side to side.
Like most Wii games, Mario Strikers is strangely alien through the controller, but within minutes it becomes intuitive and fun. The analog stick on the nunchuck is the basic way you move each player around, while the remote control's A button lets you pass and change players. The two Z buttons on the nunchuk allow you to shoot and initiate power attacks on your opposition. In the game we played, the power-up was a huge red turtle shell that dropped on the pitch, bounced horizontally across the pitch and then erratically all over the place to take out the opposition. Shooting isn't difficult, and while the majority of simple shots can be saved by the huge keepers, a little skill will result in high score lines. The captain of each team is also able to use a powerful supershot by holding the shoot button down, which will do a better job of screaming into the net, or sending the keeper reeling if he manages to get a hand to it.
Our all-too-short game of Mario Strikers Charged resulted in a 4-2 score line, unfortunately in favour of our very young opposition. While the game itself is incredibly similar to the original Mario Strikers on first impressions, the Wii controller helps freshen the game, and given the advanced state of the build that we played, it could even be a launch game for the console. Once the hubbub of the Leipzig convention has calmed down, we'll do all we can to bring you more on this exciting new game.
By
Guy Cocker, Editor
Guy Cocker is the Editor of GameSpot UK, a handheld gaming fan, and someone who actually managed to use video games to lose weight. He recently took up the position of games expert on BBC 5 live and is a BAFTA games judge.
58 comments
I think it will be a wicked game, you see the camera shot on mario and donkey kong, cor! It's not really a kid game anymore, a little kid will get nightmares seeing mario all evil with plain yellow glowing eyes. lol
Umm.. I know I'm probably going to get a million negative replys and such.. but am I the only one that thinks these Mario(everything) games are being a little bit overdone. I remember years ago I joked with my cousin that they'd make a football (american), a soccor and a basketball game. It seemed outrageous but its slowly working that way now... Besides... mario party like 8 or 9 or wutever cant possibly still be getting sold to u guys can it?!
quicksilverzxc, its obvious football is a stupid name for the sport, if it were to make sense it would be called handball.
The new control pad that nintendo have made looks great, something new instead of the standard. i think the control pad would be great for alot of games but from what i've seen i think nintendo will just shoot themselves in the foot because graphicly it cant stand up compared with the 360 or playstation 3. Also its true what that guy said they are just recycling there games from each format which is ok but will get boring. my biggest problem with this console is the games though, its an old compliant but a valid one, the games are to babish they need more nitty gritty games in there, more relistic games non of that cell shading crap.
This is probably the first and only time i've been looking forward to playing a football game!
Heck yah! Awesome work Nintendo and Next Level Games!!!! This game is going to be the best game for the Nintendo Wii! SMS Charged looking like its going to be one fun game with a ton of depth! I bet they(reviewers) haven't even scratched the surface with the depth that this game is showing! Really hope each character plays differently, unlike the first game! And online is going to rock!! Really hope they have some way to show other players how good you are!
I have never played Super Mario Strikers on GCN but with the Wii I'm open to anything! I never really played fighting games a lot yet SSB and SSBM had me hooked pretty good. I don't ever play sports games other than extreme sports but if Nintendo pulls off a Smash Bros. then this game will be great!
ok i didnt know where else to post this but i thought this was as good a place as any. I visited my local Video Games Etc! and they told me that their supplier started to take prebook counts on Wii games and that all prebook numbers have to be finalized by September 21. Could that mean an October release? Could be kewl!
just another mario sports title recycled from gamecube that enables the use of the new controller. no updated graphics...maybe a couple new characters and arenas. I give nintendo full credit for being innovative with the controller, but if getting a Wii is basically going to allow me to play a bunch of gamecube games with a new motion controller then count me out.
I thought the GCN version of Strikers was good so hears hoping the Wii version blows the original out of the water
Kaarstein, ok lets call American Football Hand-foot-body/throw-kick-run ball. Or not. What's he use the word queue for, line? Why does near none of the rest of the world even play American Football anyway? I can understand baseball because it gets boring, and soccer is sweet, but why not football at all? I hear rugby is semi-popular, so why not football...or is it somewhere?
to "Generic_Dude" The rest of the world knows its called Football, it is only America who calls it soccer. So if America would start to call it Football the problem is solved. I have never understood why you call a game where you hold a ball in your hands, and throw it to eachother for football. :? Anyways, this is probable going to be a good game
Sounds good to me. Given the fact that Wii is just a glorified gamecube, I'm not surprised that this game has been developed so quick. If this is a launch game for the console, it will be much better for us making it even more hard to resist. Wii here we come.
Sounds cool and all that, but for a Wii game...........the way he describes the controller makes it sound like it isn't even using the motion sensor capabilities of the controller.
Agh, I figured they meant American football... the US and Europe really need to address that semantic problem. Regardless, when are we seeing Mario Hockey? More importantly, let's announce a Mario Golf game for Wii.
Man the first one was intense now with more sharper looks and more characters ( AND PICKING 3 DIFFERENT SUB CHARACTERS) this game is going to be an Intense Multiplayer game ( I dont know about 1 player though the gamecube one Stunk
The first one was great, but a little light on extras and modes, so I'm hoping they can add a bit more to this already fantastic game and make it worth the dough I'll be forking over.
It looks exactly like the Gamecube version. I geuss Nintendo sees how popular strikers really is with gamers.
If it is like the one for the gc i think ill like it with all its new things and stuff also
Mario Power Tennis on the GBA is one of the best Mario sports games. It's worth it for the mini-games alone.
Sounds......good! I've never played a mario sports game, but words like intuitive and fun would certainly help me change my mind
Sounds awesome. And maybe we haven't seen anything of the Mario baseball game because, oh, i dunno... poor sales?
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Mario Strikers Charged
Not Following
- Publisher(s): Nintendo
- Developer(s): Next Level Games
- Genre: Sports
- Release:
- ESRB: E10+
Mario Strikers Charged Navigation
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