Now that I’ve played Ubisoft’s semi-crossover cartoony casual soccer game, let’s see how Nintendo’s equivalent of the era stacks up. Mario Strikers Charged (Football) is a Western-developed Mario Sports game, the sequel to Mario Smash Football/Super Mario Strikers on the Gamecube. Next Level Games, the Canadian developer, has since worked on other titles for Nintendo, but for an early effort of theirs this is very well made.
The thing that most stands out about this title is the visual design. The official artwork is totally radical and extreme, dudes. All the usual Mario cast members have been given an overhaul and an attitude. We’re playing street soccer, with padded armour uniforms and no rules. The courses are grungy and dangerous, the menus are futuristic with glowing lights everywhere and holograms. It’s a tremendously refreshing take on the Mario universe.
Matches are dynamic, with a robust set of tricks to keep the pace up. You’ve got two types of tackles, super moves for scoring multiple goals at once(!) or wiping out opponents, and even Mario Kart-style items to throw. It’s faster and more exciting than Academy of Champions, that’s for sure. And despite the unskippable animations each time a captain performs a Megastrike, it’s worth it to see Peach grow wings, Mario’s eyes glowing as he’s wreathed in fire, or Donkey Kong charging electricity before slapping 6 balls at the goal. The awesome excess of it is quite pleasing.
I also like the way it handles teams. Your team captain is your “main character” type, and has the flashy moves and a unique item that sometimes comes up. You supplement the team with 3 mooks, like a Boo or a Hammer Bro, which is good for inclusion without being such a “waste” of a character slot as seen in many other Mario spin-offs. These sidekicks have their own attributes and special shots which makes it customisable and a varied play experience. Finally, the goalie is always a Kritter, a rarely seen but appreciated use of a Donkey Kong character to flesh out the game.
So there’s a lot to like about the game. Unfortunately I did not finish it, simply because of the difficulty curve. I wanted to at least unlock Diddy, but although the first cup of three was almost laughably easy, the second one stopped me in my tracks completely. I backed out to change up my team, only to learn that I had to start over with the first cup again, playing about 10 matches I’d already done. I’m sorry, Mario Strikers Charged (Football), but you’re asking too much of me.
With only three cups, it also seems that content has been reduced from the previous title, at least on paper. The online multiplayer seems to be a big back-of-box feature, but of course that’s gone now with the WFC. The Challenges mode was a nice addition but also becomes brutally hard and there’s only a dozen of them. So that was it. I really love what they’ve done with the presentation and the feel but I would like a “reduce difficulty” switch, please. And I wish Nintendo would allow experimentation like this a bit more often. It’s wild and fun.
