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Excellent Choice for Wii Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game was great. The controls were very easy to get adjusted to. I thought gameplay was great. The only thing I didn't like was playing multi-player on the same team. It felt like there was to much going on. When playing in multi-player mode play on seperate teams. The power-ups are great. The skill shots rock. The maps are amazing. The graphics are great for the Wii. The online multi-player goes very smooth. I can say if you're looking for a fun game for the Wii this one is it. Unless, you are looking for something that's more integrated with the numchuck and remote. Remember when playing to deal out as many hits as you can give.

Do you like Smash Bros?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is the perfect game for me because i love Smash Bros, my only problem there was i'd always fall of the edge. This game reminds me of it in a way because you still get to throw shells, bombs and such. Much like in Mario Kart and Smash Bros to help you advance, only in this case to score a goal.

I like playing this game single player, but also double. I have yet to play with another person in my living room, but online play is definetly fun. There are those people who like to "cheat" and aren't in it for the fun but "points points points" you want to try and avoid those people, unless you are one of them. Then you were made for each other.

Over all i think it's a great game, very entertaining. Now...when is DDR comming out?

Better than its predecessor, but still has room for improvement

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: August 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

FINALLY! A game for the Wii that consists of more than a collection of mini games that hardly contain more polish than a tech demo!

This game improves on several of the short comings found in its predecessor, we now have well defined diversity amongst the character's skill sets, the ability to mix and match the "side kick" characters, along with the wii-centric mega shot (a welcome evolution of the "super strike" found in the cube version that was beyond cheap).

Not to mention that each side kick has a unique power up shot and deke (which, as you may have guessed, are used best in unique circumstances)! It actually appears that some thought and effort was put into this edition of Mario Soccer!

That being said, there are still some annoying things about the game that carry over from the cube version such as the apparently random goalie AI (better shots off the feet of better shooters don't always yield as many goals as poor shots by poor shooters... this is beyond frustrating), and then some of the new "improvements" really aren't that great. The new fields that add obstacles... they don't really add an element of strategy, just an element of getting bent over a barrel from time to time (when the "unique obstacles" occur at random there isn't really a way to prepare for or avoid them... you just have to hope that the random lightning strike will not paralyze your entire team at once, or disrupt a nice passing sequence... very frustrating), and then the new tournament format where you have to restart all the way at the beginning if you wish to change your roster. I don't mean at the beginning of one particular tourney, I mean you have to replay the easier tournaments that you have already cleared... I honestly don't understand why they would do this, it is sadistic.

But now on to the best feature of all. ONLINE PLAY!!! Now when I say best, I mean that under the condition that you don't randomly draw one of the lagalicious new fields (those pretty lightning bolts come at a hefty bandwidth price!), or an opponent who is too immature to take the beating you hand down and withdraws from the game before you can be declared the winner. But ignore all of that. This is a major step for Nintendo, and hopefully a sign of things to come. The only real gripe that I have about it is the lack of a good "matching" sort of service, and a few options that would be as simple as "check boxes next to fields you won't play on".

A practice mode where you can just focus on a single element of the game would be nice too. The 101 skills training courses don't count as they are all on retard difficulty. But now I am nitpicking.

Overall Mario Strikers: Charged is a very nice multiplayer game. It is a blast to play with friends, and the online play allows you to find 1 on 1 opponents that are more enjoyable than the cheating AI. The graphics are pretty blah blah blah, does that honestly influence your decision to buy this game? You want it because it is the first legitimate title to be released on Wii since Paper Mario (which barely counts, honestly, as it was originally plotted for a cube release).

You should get this game if you have friends to play with, or if you enjoy chaotic sports games with a hint of team building strategy. If you both of these describe your current situation, I honestly cannot think of a better way to spend $50.

Fun game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I never played the Gamecube version but the Wii version is definitely fun. As others have mentioned, the single player portion is kind of wacky but that's now why you buy this game anyway. Multiplayer is great, whether you play with friends or online.

In response to the comment about the server crashing all the time. This isn't quite true. Most of the time, when this happens, its because of a sore loser that pulls the power cord on their wii so it counts as a disconnect. If they would just give the person that disconnects a loss it would stop this problem immediately.

Wii Reviver

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was skeptical at first with this game, I had read reviews and they were certainly mixed. My Wii had been gathering dust for a while since no games that tickled my fancy had come out, so I decided to go out on a limb and buy this. I have to say, I made the right decision. Don't buy this game if you're looking for a realistic soccer sim. Do buy this if you're looking to have a blast with your favorite Nintendo characters.
While the single player is fun, the online play is what makes this game shine. When I boot up this game, I don't even think about playing the single player. I go straight to the online play. The friend codes might be a drag, but I prefer to simply play a ranked match against a random player.
The Wii might have had a dry spell, but this game certainly brought back my admiration for the console, and I don't see myself putting this game down anytime soon.

Great Concept, Difficulty Scaling is Awful

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Nintendo almost had this game perfected. If you can find 3 other people to play with (who are of similar skill levels), then it can be ridiculously fun. It is a hectic, fast paced, quasi-soccer game that is great to play. However, the Cup mode is far too difficult, and the A.I. seems dirty in much play. Whether it is the cherry-picking shots which often occur on the 3rd level of difficulty and above, or just the level of frustration that occurs from their perfectly placed defense, it's a bit much.

Online play is great, but there aren't many options at all. Matchmaking and opponents closer to your skill level (as well as voice chat) would have been nice.

This game gets a solid 3, with a 4 in concept and innovation, but the difficultly level and only decent online play limit it from being something amazing.

Mario Strikers Charged CK review

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Two years ago Nintendo and development studio Next Level Games released Super Mario Strikers (a title that married a very untraditional approach to the sport of soccer with the lovable characters from the Mushroom Kingdom) for GameCube. Nobody had any idea what to expect from the endeavor, but it proved to be surprisingly enjoyable, particularly as a multiplayer affair. As a single-player outing, however, it lacked depth. Gamers could select their team captains, but they couldn't pick their sidekicks. Special moves called megastrikes practically guaranteed goals. And the selection of characters and stadiums seemed as light as the CPU-controlled artificial intelligence. Thankfully, for the official Wii sequel, Mario Strikers Charged, many of these criticisms have been addressed, but Next Level Games hasn't stopped there. It's also spruced up the overall graphical presentation and added a full-blown online mode the first one on Nintendo's new console worth mentioning. Charged still has some shortcomings, and yet it's a definite improvement over its predecessor in every facet and ultimately one of the best multiplayer offerings available for Wii, period.

So many developers have taken the easy route when it comes to creating software for Wii. Just take what worked for GameCube and do it again. These lazy undertakings aren't official ports, but they always have that same air about them -- that they might have started out as GCN or PS2 projects until someone got wind of Wii sales and decided to go with a quick, no-fuss port instead. Wii hasn't even been out a year and we've seen too many of these careless releases to count, so it is incredibly refreshing to behold an effort that looks and plays like it was created specifically for Nintendo's new system and not rushed to it, and for that Next Level Games has earned our respect.
Take, for instance, the game's crisp, detailed and wholly stylized visual presentation, which actually made us wonder if the experience could be duplicated on GameCube; probably not, we think. The title begins with an absolutely stunning pre-rendered intro showcasing characters like Mario and Peach battling it out on the soccer field against Waluigi and Bowser, and not only is the art and choreography beautiful, but there's no artifacting whatsoever, the video couldn't possibly be cleaner. It's a small detail, we know, but it's the first sign that the developer has strived to deliver a completely polished package, and this truth is demonstrated again and again. Slick, intuitive menus revolve around a soccer theme. Compared to the original Strikers, Charged boasts larger environments with crisper, cleaner textures, thoroughly enhanced particle effects, characters who run, jump, kick and perform special moves with very fluid animation, and a host of camera sweeps, screen shakes and environmental effects (wind, lighting, etc.) to add atmosphere to the action. Even the music is catchy, although it's repeated too often. There is the occasional background or stadium texture that looks a little blurrier than we'd like, but for the most part the game looks great and it supports 480p and true 16:9 widescreen (it'll fill your whole screen -- there's no fake stuff here). Everything runs at a pretty solid 30 frames per second with the occasional dip. Obviously, Strikers plays differently from its predecessor, in part because of a brand new controller. The title moves speedily and tightly along at an arcade pace and is responsively controlled with the nunchuk's analog stick. You'll tap the A button to pass to a teammate when on offense and the same will cycle between characters on defense. B trigger will fire off shots or, when held, charge up heavier kicks and megastrikes, the latter of which look superb thanks to some great new in-game animations. You can earn special power-ups, send shells at opponents, drop bombs, etc. By slamming into competitors who don't have the ball or by charging up a kick and releasing at the ideal moment. You'll be able to unleash these specials when needed by tapping the C button. Finally, when held, the Z button enables you to volley passes back and forth to teammates, which can set up some all-pro shots. Novices may never fully explore this function, but for it may change the way dedicated gamers play. These very traditional mechanics come together for a fast-paced and fun soccer romp.
If you haven't yet noticed, there aren't a lot of motion controls in place. This is because the development studio didn't want to force waggle onto players when it wasn't necessary. When gestures are used, however, they are used well. For instance, to perform bit hits, you now motion in any direction as you near an opponent and your character will knock them off their feet. It may sound like a subtle change over the original control scheme, but trust us when we state that it feels much better because there's significantly more "umph" to acting out the damaging move. On the other hand, thanks to the pointer functionality of the Wii remote, megastrikes are no longer a cheap means to score goals because now you can actually block them. Megastrikes are more powerful than they've ever been. If charged correctly, you can send up to six soccer balls at the goal, so this new measure is a necessity. If you're quick with the pointer and can move the goalie's hand in front of the oncoming soccer balls, you will regularly stop ones that might've been massive scores. In Charged, you can be leading 6-0 one second and find that the game is tied in the next. It can be intense and frustrating at the same time.

Charged continues its predecessor's rule in that only team captains can perform megastrikes, but that doesn't mean that the sidekicks are still more or less useless. Actually, not only do they come equipped with basic attributes some are slow, others fast, others more powerful, etc. but they can each perform one special maneuver. For instance, Boo is able to send the ball directly into the goal in one quick burst if you have the character positioned in exactly the right spot on the field. The Hammer Bros. can hurl hammers toward the goal, knock out the goalie, and then roll the ball in. These moves are executed by charging with the B trigger, just as you would a megastrike. As a result, sidekicks feel like real contributors now, as opposed to the generic stand-ins of the first game. Since you can also specifically choose the sidekicks you want on your team, too, there's inherently more skill involved in building the perfect soccer all-stars this time around.
What you will eventually notice is that you'll be able to use more skill shots and megastrikes in the single-player mode against easy AI competitors than you will against well-practiced human opponents a disappointment, as far as we're concerned. This is because real-life gamers are relentless, as we've found, and they will stay on you, keep nailing you with big hits and power-ups, and you'll just never have the time to fully charge a kick into a megastrike; and vice-versa, of course. Playing two-dozen matches online, we actually managed to get off only a handful of megastrikes against opponents and our competitors even less that. Perhaps that's why NLG felt compelled to prevent us from being able to skip the admittedlly-fancy megastrike animations, which see characters like Mario hurling themselves into the air before becoming engulfed in flames and eventually kicking the shot these animations can take 10 seconds or more. They look great the first time, or even the first 20 times, but after awhile you'll just want to skip by them and we unfortunately haven't found that option.

Arguably the game's main offering is its Road to the Striker Cup, which enables you to progress through various cups, including Striker, Crystal and Fire. The cups start off ridiculously easy, but eventually become quite challenging, particularly if you start out with a more advanced difficulty. NLG has returned all the classic stadiums from the original game and has added a host of new ones, including Sand Tomb, Thunder Island, the Vice, Lava Pit, the Dump, Galactic Stadium, the Wastelands, Crystal Canyon, Stormship Stadium and the Classroom. The levels are extremely varied and come to life with interactivity for instance, wind that has a bearing on the game and objects that crash onto the fields. The sheer diversity of the levels helps break up the monotony of the cups, which are all too similar. While the difficulty does increase, you will eventually take notice of the repetitive nature of the experience -- maybe that's inherent to any sports game, but it's a consideration nonetheless. What may also be true is that sports games are simply best played by two more or more people, and that, of course, is where Strikers shines.
And it really shines, actually, because it dishes out a robust four-player mode either off or online. Both are great, which surprised us since our experience with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is based solely on the rather clumsy and stupid Pokemon Battle Revolution. Strikers is the anti-Pokemon in that it features a very clean, intuitive connection interface and in our experience very little lag, even when playing four players online two per Wii console. The title pulls your system's Miis and saves all your Wi-Fi Connection data to them. When logged into the network you've got the option to battle friends, compete against a randomly selected competitor in a ranked game, look at the leaderboard or evaluate your friend roster.

The megastrikes look great, but after a while you'll just want to skip them and can't.The obvious downer is that, yes, Strikers does use individual friend codes that are completely separate from your Wii system number. Why, we have no idea, since it's not simple or easy in the least. You'll have to call up all your buddies, ask them what their friend codes are, enter them, and they will in turn have to enter yours. With that done, you'll be able to see whenever they are online and you can invite them very quickly to a match. Another real disappointment is that you can't communicate with anybody at all during the online experience. No headset support. No typing via the Wii remote and virtual keyboard. If you want to communicate at all, you better have a phone handy. This is especially unfortunate because in a game like Strikers, as in Smash Bros., half the fun comes with the trash talking that transpires during matches. There are some other minor gripes. You can't set conditions or choose levels in ranked matches -- they are chosen at random. (You can do this against friends, though.) And you will not be able to gain the friend code of someone you play in a ranked match. Only once was lag so unbearable that i felt like i was not even controlling our characters; I actually checked to see if we had mistakenly turned on some unnoticed CPU control option no joke, it was really that bad. But by and large the online experience was excellent, offering no lag whatsoever. When i first got the game, i seemed to be the only ones in America on the network and i could never find anybody to connect with in ranked matches. However, in the days prior to this review, more and more players started to appear online and we found that the process of searching for gamers and eventually connecting to a ranked game usually took no more than 30 seconds and sometimes as few as five. NLG has created a sense of community via online leaderboards. You can log in to see where you rank across the Americas, which is sure to spur competition (sadly, ranked matches cannot be played outside the continent and official Nintendo documentation is very vague and iffy on the subject of whether or not you can play against friends on different continents; we tried and couldn't, but it's allegedly possible, maybe.)

Closing Comments
Mario Strikers Charged is exactly the kind of sequel I was hoping for. It plays similarly to its predecessor, which means that it's got tight control and it moves at a quick, arcade-style pace. But it's also got a lot of mechanical and aesthetic enhancements, from new Wii gesture controls that feel great to truly polished graphics. There's added content. More characters to choose from than ever before. You can select sidekicks, who now come with special moves of their own. There are wealth of new interactive stages. And there are even some supplemental single-player modes. When you're done with Road to the Striker Cup, you can try out the Striker Challenges, which throw you into situations and test you to come out the victor; as you win, you'll unlock cheats that can be used in the offline multiplayer mode.

There are, though, some lingering issues. Despite the added depth, the single-player mode again takes a distant back seat to the multiplayer one, as the CPU-controlled characters just don't match up with human opponents. After awhile, you'll begin to notice the inevitable repetitive wave of matches. And there are also some issues with the online interface -- namely, that you still have to use unintuitive friend codes and that there's no way to communicate with each other while playing.

Despite these criticisms, whether you're playing against friends or in random ranked matches, the online mode is fast and if you've got a good connection lag free, successfully nurturing the high-action nature of the game. And since you can play four-players online Wii Charged truly is one of the best multiplayer experiences that can be found on the system. I've connected every night since I first started playing and this game has me convinced that there is a very bright future for Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

If you thought the original Strikers was good, you haven't seen anything yet. And if you've never played these soccer games before, now is the time to start.

Way cool!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 11
Date: August 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you're like me and think actually playing soccer is like being a euro-trash wannabe and the traveling, cost, type A loser parents living their life thru their kids and ugly jerseys just get you down, then this is the way to go!

Just kidding, of course, the jerseys are actually kinda cool...

Man is this a nice upgrade to the Mario Soccer series. Not much hopping and jumping around like a lot of Wii games. Although the graphics are great and the sounds are very funny. Better players moves and the Captains Special Kick is...well...don't let your kid figure it out before you do...You can score up to six goals in one shot...

Highly recommended.

Pretty darn fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game on the advice of a local game addict in Brooklyn. I know the Olympics and Galaxy games had just come out but I wanted something fun for my roommate and I to play or for parties besides Sports. Galaxy is an one-person game was out, and Olympics seemed slightly kid-like, so I went with the Strikers recommendation. (I was told FIFA was pretty boring and it is true this totally rocks over it.) Plus, I wanted a great party game for 20&30somethings which all of my friends are. Strikers is perfect for that. All of my friends who have game skills (as in they can pick up Madden or Woods in an hour) love it, but my friends who find mastering tennis or bowling on wiiSports difficult are a little frustrated that there's so much functionality. Overall, we are huge fans in the household and just more determined to teach the new gamers. Getting to play as a Mario character is a ton of fun and I really enjoy being able to use the mushrooms to grow into a giant and stomp other characters, or knock them off the floating playing field, or throw hammers as the turtle before scoring a goal. The skill levels don't seem to differ too much which I hope they improve in another version, but playing online is awesome. Unfortunately, my roommate and I stink compared to the folks playing online, so there's a lot more (enjoyable) effort to be put into this for the both of us. Plus, bragging rights have not yet been settled.

A great Mario game....with some flaws

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Overall, this game is lots of fun. There are 12 Captains for each team (you start out with 9, but you unlock 3 more), and 8 Sidekicks. For every team that has five players on it, the Captain, 3 Sidekicks, and the goalie, named Kritter. There are 5 different difficulty levels, with about 20 stadiums. There is a one-player mode that takes you through 3 different tournaments, which constantly get harder and harder. Each sidekick has their own special type of kick and deke. The captains have their own special ability different from any other player- Bowser can shoot fire, Waluigi can put out out this special wall of thorns that make him move much faster and blocks players and items from getting through the wall. There are four different types of stats- Defense, Shooting, Passing and Movement(how fast your player can go with the ball). The Captains have this special type of shot called a Megastrike. This launches from 3 to six balls at three different speeds at the opposite goalie. If you are defending the Megastrike, you point at the balls and click the A button when they pop up, blocking the Megastrike.

Pros-
Tons of characters and stadiums to choose from.
Lots of useful items
Creative Gameplay - There is more than one different type of mode.
Its Funny!! - You can just smash into people that are nowhere near the ball! It's really entertaining.

Cons-
The goalies can miss the easiest shots, sometimes they will just trickle by Kritter.
The tournament is annoying, for if you lost just once in the knockout rounds, or if you restart the Wii without saving, you're disqualified.
It gets kinda boring pretty fast, but is really fun to play in moderation.

Overall-
This game is great. I would definitely recommend it to any Mario fan.

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