Mario Strikers is probably the worst Mario sports game to date but its up against some tough competition in that regard.
ESRB: “E” for everyone
Genre: Arcade Soccer—Sports
Cost: 54.99 cdn
Platform: Nintendo Gamecube
Super Mario Strikers fills its mold in typical Mario fashion. It has 4 different cups to play through and all with several different difficulty options. It also has the fully featured multiplayer mode that’s fun to play with a buddy. The game doesn’t reinvent the Mario genre in any way and doesn’t add anything we’re not expecting or haven’t seen before. Another question you may be asking is who else is on the field with Mario? No, you can’t make a team of Mario, Yoshi, Luigi and such as they would be literally insane and unbalanced with the way the game uses these characters. The game chooses to fill the other spaces on the field with a crocodile in net and your choice of goomba’s., creatures like toad, gangly looking robots or those loveable Koopa’s and Paratroopa’s. All these characters play basically the exact same throughout the game and you have no real advantage in choosing any of the particular groupings as its all personal preference for almost the entire game.
The game for the most part is quite simply way too easy. You can pick up the controls and in about 5 minutes be a good player at the game. The game has a very small curve and for players looking for a challenge will have to crank up the difficulty if they want to get a good challenging game of soccer. There are a few minor tricks that a player can pick up but these are just to help you win even easier and make it better. Still it’s not surprising that the game is pick up and play as that’s what we find in most Mario sports games. The game is aimed at a younger audience and the simplicity and overall nature of the game reflect this. The game has some of the simple and fun gameplay Nintendo is becoming known for rapidly and is a game that virtually everyone should be able to play fairly competitively with each other. This competitiveness helps with the multiplayer mode—more on that later in the review.
The games captains or “superstars” are your main cast of Mario characters. Not a lot separates them from the other characters on the field in the game the only ability they have that the others don’t is the ability to superstrike. These superstrikes are a massively powerful kick that can bust games wide open for you. By simply holding the superstrike button with one of the main characters you enter a short and small minigame. You’ll try to line up the bar with both green sections on it. The bar moving rapidly and you’ll have to be right on if you want to ensure success. Doing with result in a cut-scene whether you were successful or not. Hitting double green will result in an entirely different cut-scene and result in an automatic goal for your team. All superstrike goals result in two goals for your team. I’m sure you can figure timing on the strike is important and is crucial to having success. The biggest flaw is the easiness it is to pull off a superstrike, these should be harder to pull off as once you get better you may be able to pull off several in succession and break into a massive lead early on the game. The superstrike cut-scenes have only the two variations and can get really repetitive during the game to the point where you wish there was a way to skip them. Thankfully the superstrikes aren’t unstoppable and you can tackle opposing players to cut it out mid motion. That said it still feels way to easy to pull off unless your playing a tough opponent on a high difficulty where they will tackle you a lot in the game to keep you moving and looking for open space to pull of a superstrike.
Tackling in Super Mario is pretty fun I must say. It’s probably the most surprising step Nintendo takes with the Mario genre here. The tackles are actually pretty violent at times and can make you wonder how the game managed to stay under “E” for everyone. The tackles involve either you slide tackling an opponent to take the ball from them in typical soccer fashion, only these have a simpler and more arcade look and feel to them. As opposed to the violent slide tackles from behind we see in professional soccer matches. The other tackle involves you viciously head butting an opponent knocking him away and off the ball. These head butts can also knock enemies off the ball and into an electric fence that surrounds the pitch. Your enemies will wail as they get electrocuted and it will you give a slight advantage while they are out of the play. It’s probably the most important skill to learn how to do as it can stop superstrikes and other shots as well but you time and field position for an offensive strike.
Maybe it’s the violent tackles or that fact it’s only one superstar per team but the game feels less colorful and exciting then other Mario sports games. Sure there are two of your favorite characters like Daisy, Princess Peach, Mario, Luigi, Waluigi, Yoshi etc per game but they seem so limited it’s almost like they aren’t there. Or maybe it’s the lack of any story at all that takes away from the experience. You play through all the cups Mushroom, Flower, Star and special cups with no reason why. This set-up works in Mario Kart because of how racing works but soccer matches usually have more of a purpose then what’s here that not to say there is no Mario feel in the game at all its just limited. The game still has that storybook, colorful feel to it with vibrant characters and such the scope is just drastically limited. The menu’s seem noticeable bland in comparison to other Mario games and the game just feels like they rushed to get it out to fast. What the game does capture is the fast pace of arcade soccer and Mario games. The hectic feel that some of the matches can create is fantastic as they are fast paced and fast moving games just like arcade soccer.
The multiplayer mode is solid and plays out well. You can play several varieties of multiplayer including co-op through the game’s cups that you’ll play through. There is no LAN to play to increase the players to eight so you’ll max at four players on one GCN. Thankfully its not split screen so the 4 player isn’t tediously frustrating. The multiplayer can also be variations of 4 and 3 players so 2v2, 3v1 etc… The multiplayer is enjoyable for the most part and woks well because of the simplistic controls in the game. It’s hard to imagine a non-competitive game of multiplayer as everybody should have a decent amount of skill even playing for their first time. Multiplayer is definitely needed as winning the cups in single player won’t take you very long and it tacks on some much needed value for the game.
The game shows a significant lack of polish though which is really disappointing. The character models all look fantastic as usual but the rest of the game seems to miss in the graphical department. The repetitiveness of the superstrikes leaves something to be desired and with only a few goal variations as well the games few cut-scenes you’ll experience you will have seen before after the first time. It doesn’t help that the game has no story to work with. The game hiccups in the frame-rate department and can LAG during certain parts. This hurts and can ruin the fast pace of the game but is also caused because of the quick moving game. It’s definitely the worst frame-rate problems to have come out a Nintendo game in a long time and is actually quite disappointing. That said the game’s environments also look quite good. They show a large scale of differentiations and vary quite a bit. The electric fence is a cool addition in this regard as watching an enemy get shocked is as fun the first time as it is the hundredth. All in all the graphics are not superb or drop dead gorgeous but not hideous by any regards.
The game also lacks in the sound department of the game. In typical Mario fashion the characters dialogue are limited to one liner’s or two line responses at best. Why Nintendo refuses to actually give them a voice and some dialogue still confuses me as it would open a lot more doors for them to work with. The music is fast paced to suit the gameplay and is light hearted and up tempo as well. It’s typical Mario music that most of us have come to enjoy for the most part. The music is different in each stadium that you’ll play in and tends to try and fit the era and style of the stadium you are playing in. this works well for the most part as it causes the music to alter itself often and stops it from getting noticeably repetitive. The in game sounds consist of one liners and a crazy announcer yelling GOOOAAAALLLLLL which is absolutely hilarious and great. The sound is solid and well done for the most part but the lack of dialogue hampers it a lot.
Super Mario strikers is a game then any Mario fan or Mario sports fan will definitely enjoy and find something to like about. Its also the best arcade soccer game on the market that those looking for an opposite of Winning eleven or Fifa could look into. It’s probably the worst Mario sports game in recent memory and feels like a few more months could have made it into a much better game. That said its still a ton of fun that for most will be at least worth a rental although not necessarily a full purchase.