How good is the Wii's first online game?
Let's get the basics of the game out of the way. The way you play the game. You choose a captain and each captain has a different catagory of play. For example, Mario is a balanced captain and Luigi is a playmaker. Then you get to choose three sidekicks, each of which also have their own catagory. Then you start to play the game. When you are on the ball, A is pass, Holding down Z and A is an air pass, holding Z and B is chip shot, B is shoot, D-pad is skills and Z is weapons. When you are off the ball, A is change player, D-Pad is tackle, Z is weapon and shaking the Wiimote hits your opponent. A key feature to this game is the colour of the ball. It starts off as purple meaning that if you have a shot, it is unlikely to be a goal. However, if you pass the ball around or charge up your shot, the ball changes color. When the ball is white, it means that your chances of scoring have increased. If you hold down B for long enough while on the ball, you will do a super strike. When a captain does a super strike, a meter comes up. You have to stop it at the amount of shots you want and then at an accuracy meter. It is possible to score a maximum of 6 goals using a super strike. If you are facing a super strike, you become Kritter and you have you have to control his hands to stop the shots from going into the back of the net. Sidekicks also have superstrikes but there is no meter for these strikes. You just hold down B for a while and then something will happen depending on which sidekick you are using.
There are several gameplay modes. Domination mode is just a plain exhibition mode where you can face the CPU or a friend and you can then choose to use cheats that you have unlocked. In the Road To The Striker Cup mode you play in several tournaments, unlocking characters and so on. This mode is spot on as it gradually gets harder and can get very hard at points, which is a lot better than the original where you can just stroll through the tournaments with ease. There is also a mode where you can complete various challenges to unlock cheats.
And then there is the main attraction. Online mode. You choose a Mii to use as your avatar and each Mii you use is assigned its own friend code which is perfect if more than one person wants to play online. There is a Ranked mode where you can earn points to get furthur up on the leaderboard. You play a best of three game. A win gets you 10 points and each goal you score counts as 1 point each. You even get 1 point for losing but you get deducted points if you disconnect during a match. You can add peoples friend codes and then face then in a Friendly match which is just for fun and no points are awarded.
The graphics and music to the game are pretty solid. Nothing spectacular but nothing terrible either.
The stadiums that you use vary. You get all seven courses from the original games back and lots of new ones. Some new courses strongly affect the way that you play the game such as Thunder Island in which wind is blowing and things can roll at you and in Lava Pit when random areas of lava appear in which your players can get caught in. In these stages you feel that the game is really unfair especially online.
The captains gameplay styles also can make no sense. For example, Bowser Jr. is an offensive captain, yet he is very slow. Have you ever seen a striker in football that is slower than the rest of his team? No probably not because strikers are meant to run fast in order to score goals. Also, in the previous game I played as Daisy because she was an offensive captain. For some reason, both of the offensive captains from the previous game (Daisy and Waluigi) are now defensive captains. Does that make any sense to you?
And this game is all about luck. The goalkeepers are really inconsistent. You can have 20 shots in one game and 7 of them are goals and then in another game, with exactly the same shots, none of them will go in.
In conclusion, this game is good and the online mode makes this game miles better than the original ever was. However, a few problems hold it down. If you own a Wii and need a new purchase, this game should please you.