Mario Strikers Charged Football...Revisited

[Fierce_LiNk]

So, I recently jumped back into Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, and the latest game I've recently got back into is Mario Strikers Charged Football.

 

First of all, let me just say that the name for this game is pretty...awful. Why they needed to add "Football" to the end is beyond me. "Mario Strikers Charged" or "Mario Charged Football" ... or something else would have done. But, don't let it put you off, this is pretty fun.

 

So, when getting into this game, the first thing you'll notice is that it is pretty pacey. The game sees you playing 4 on 4 against either a CPU controlled team, or human controlled. Both are fun, and offer different challenges. For those of you who are not familiar with this, basically you choose a "Captain" from a list of Nintendo regulars, including Mario, Wario, Luigi, Bowser. The cast of Mario Kart, if you will.

 

Along with these, you choose three other characters in your team. The game sets you out with a 1 defensive 2 attacking and your Captain formation, and you choose from a list of other characters, such as The Hammer Bros, Dry Bones, Birdo, and others. Each of these come with different attributes, as do the Captains. Some are better are shooting, others are perfect for passing, whilst some may just have an edge when it comes to finding some space, or more defensive qualities.

 

It's good to experiment with the characters and then settling on a specific team. Personally, I love having Wario as my Captain, due to his poweful shooting, with Hammer Bros and Birdo in attack, and Dry Bones as my star defender. Perfect team for the way I play.

 

The gameplay itself is pretty special, in my opinion. It's very different to how you'd play something like Fifa, but at the same time there are some similarities. Passing the ball from player to player will cause the ball to "charge" up, and will be covered in a glow. The more charged up the ball is, the faster it moves, and the more powerful it becomes. This makes it so much easier to score goals. Pressing the B button on the Wiimote will cause you to either shoot (if you tap it) or charge up (depending on your character, and by holding this button for longer). When using any other member of your team, holding the button will cause you to charge up and release a character-specific skill-shot. With Birdo, this releases a giant egg that almost certainly reaches for the top corner. But, with someone else such as Hammer Bros, this causes the character to throw hammers onto the goalkeeper (played by Kritter), causing the Kritter to be stunned, and allowing you to score.

 

However, when charging up with your Captain, you unleash what is called a "Mega-strike." These are extremely useful, but also phenomenally annoying when someone unleashes one on you in the dying seconds of the game. By unleasing a mega-strike, you are taking to a power-up bar, where you must first stop the meter at a certain point (to indicate how many shots you will take at the Kritter) and then hitting another point (which indicates the strength or speed of the shots). Doing this perfectly will cause you to hit 6 shots are almost unstoppable speed. Doing this badly will mean you shoot three balls at such a slow speed that even Whoppi Goldberg could stop these, with her hands on Demi Moore.

 

If you're facing these mega-strikes, your job is to stop these by using the Wiimote pointer to "touch" the balls on the screen and pressing the A button. Doing this will cause you to save the shots, but missing them means the other team gets a goal. Very unfair at times, but can also be extremely useful. I tend to use these very sparingly, prefering to pass my way around the field and scoring with style.

 

The game itself still has a Nintendo feel to it, particularly with the choice of field design and power-ups. You can obtain items through the match, such as shells (which can cause damage to others) or mushrooms (to allow you to move faster than others across the field). The stadiums themselves are based in some great locations, such as underground, in the desert (with chomps falling onto the field) or even in space.

 

So, I've given you a lot of information, and that's particularly for those of you who have not managed to play this game, or just to refresh your memory. Personally, I love this game, and have been addicted to it this week. I've been going through the challenge mode, which allows you to unlock cheats, although some of the challenges particularly did my nut in. There's one challenge which sees you trying to win a game against the CPU and not to concede a goal. Although this seems simple, the AI always finds a cheeky way to score, rendering it "mission failed" and meaning you need to retry the challenge. It's one of those that you can pass on your first go, or your fifteenth.

 

What are your views on this?

[D_prOdigy]

Aah, one of my few Wii games I probably haven't spent enough time with.

 

It was a bit of a spontaneous impulse buy for me - a combination of the prospect of online play (previously unheard of on Wii) and fond memories of playing against my friend on his copy of the Cube original.

 

One thing people should realise is that this game is VERY hard if you play it straight. What I mean by that is I'm sure a few people find it very easy by using certain repeated 'cheap' tactics which I loathe.

 

Unfortunately, this game does have connoations of anger for me - mainy down to the hard camapign but also the online mode. It's the rare sort of game that can get very very frustrating seeing as you're playing quite a violent match against one other person, and they're likely to be using aforementioned tactics. I remember playing against someone who I though sucked: thrashed them in the first match, layed off on the second match so they just scraped a victory, but I couldn't muster the skill to seal the third

 

But I guess I can't fault the game if I'm a bit naff. It's genuinely a fun little title.

Edited March 30, 2009 by D_prOdigy

[darksnowman]

I didn't actually get the Wii one! I got Mario Footy on the GC and had some great fun with it and found it was maybe the best footy game I'd ever played in co-op! I liked playing with another human in my team rather than against them. The teamwork of it really brought things into their own, I thought.

[That Guy]

I think it's quite a fun little game, although the football bit is misleading really, as it really doesn't feel like football at all. I found it a bit too hard to score goals, which was annoying.

 

I've just gone back to playing SMB:BB as well by the way and suddenly really enjoying it. It's great when a game you hated suddenly seems good :p

[Hero-of-Time]

I have mixed feelings about this one. I hated how you couldn't save and then restart if you got beat during a tournament, if you got beat you had start start the whole thing again. IMO this was done to hide the stupidly short single player experience. As for the online it was full of cheaters and spammers which drained all of the enjoyment out of the game.

 

For me the game really shone when played with your mates in a local game. I remember I had all of the lads around one night and we slammed it on for a laugh, it was such fun. Everytime a powershot was unleashed and the scoring mini game happened everyone was in fits trying to put each other off. If a keeper made a saved during this time everyone shouted "GOOD HANDS!" or "SAFE HANDS!" Good times!

[Fierce_LiNk]

I think it's quite a fun little game, although the football bit is misleading really, as it really doesn't feel like football at all. I found it a bit too hard to score goals, which was annoying.

 

I've just gone back to playing SMB:BB as well by the way and suddenly really enjoying it. It's great when a game you hated suddenly seems good :p

 

Haha, I didn't hate this, mind. I've always loved it, but I think I love it a lot more now than I did before. It seems like I've got a better understanding now, so enjoy it more.

 

I think there is still a strong football element in the game, mind. Think about when you're choosing your team, you're basing it on the shooting, movement and passing stats. If you don't learn to pass the ball quickly and move quickly, you'll get mauled, just like you would in something like Pro Evo. You wouldn't just pick up the ball and run, as it would be far less likely to score. In this, it's all about working the ball and finding space. True, the fantasy elements (such as skill-shots and mega-strikes) do help with scoring, but you can just as easily score without these. If you can make the space, you can score from so many different places.

 

H-O-T: That's pretty funny, haha.

[Portlett]

MSCF is a fun game especially with a bunch of mates, the main reason I bought it was for the online play.....still dont think ive properly comlpleted the single player but ah well.

[Nicktendo]

Had it about a year ago and I loved it. For me it was one of the local multiplayer highlights on Wii. Online was prone to cheaters but was OK and good for the time when it first came out. It's a great game though, extremely fun, tight controls and fairly challenging later on into the single player. Well worth the £15 I paid.

[ThePigMarcher]

Had this for a while when it first come out and had a blast online with it against a few of the regulars on here and it was a good game for a while.

 

I always compared it more to Ice Hockey than football and thats a good thing IMO , but saying that , I traded it a while back and haven't missed it in the slightest.

 

The single player game was absolute garbage and yes , games like this aren't about the single player game but still , there was far too much frustration in the cheap AI on the later cups and it sucked all enjoyment out of the title.

 

The same thing happened if you played randomers online , so many cheap goals and equally cheap tactics it soon became a game that was best avoided online as well. Although , as stated , it did have some merit when played with decent quality opponents (even the notoriously dirty Cookyman :p).

[Blue_Ninja0]

MSCF is a fun game especially with a bunch of mates, the main reason I bought it was for the online play.....still dont think ive properly comlpleted the single player but ah well.

 

Strangely, in this game I prefer 1 VS 1 matches.

I kinda lose focus when I see another player moving my players around.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Strangely, in this game I prefer 1 VS 1 matches.

I kinda lose focus when I see another player moving my players around.

 

I think I agree with that. The thing is, when I play games, I like to be in control of everything. The only possible way I'd play co-op is if it was a clone of myself.

 

I've been really hooked on this over the last few weeks. Can't wait to get home and play some more. Out of curiosity, how well did it sell?

[Rummy]

'As of March 31, 2008, 1.77 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide, with 240,000 being sold in Japan.'

 

Yoinked from Wiki, so unreliable maybe, tho it's sourced there I cba to check.

 

I've never been much of a football man/fan, and so this didn't appeal to me on release. However, two good gaming buddies of mine both had it, and I took it for a bit of a spin but realisticly, I sucked. I sucked...yet I kind of loved the game! I remember playing some 2v2, and even one time 4 of us on a team VS a hard comp! I eventually ended up buying it(I had a dissertation to do ) for like £17 off ebay, which wasn't bad given the price at the time, and the copy was nigh mint too. I really played it through the single player a bit, a few online matches too but I weren't up to standard(plus the spammers and crap annoyed me) but after a while it got too hard and I gave up, just couldn't find myself overcoming anything! Maybe I'll dust it off and bust it out again sometime soon though, it was a rather good game with a definite nintendo feel to it.

[Fierce_LiNk]

'As of March 31, 2008, 1.77 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide, with 240,000 being sold in Japan.'

 

Yoinked from Wiki, so unreliable maybe, tho it's sourced there I cba to check.

 

I've never been much of a football man/fan, and so this didn't appeal to me on release. However, two good gaming buddies of mine both had it, and I took it for a bit of a spin but realisticly, I sucked. I sucked...yet I kind of loved the game! I remember playing some 2v2, and even one time 4 of us on a team VS a hard comp! I eventually ended up buying it(I had a dissertation to do ) for like £17 off ebay, which wasn't bad given the price at the time, and the copy was nigh mint too. I really played it through the single player a bit, a few online matches too but I weren't up to standard(plus the spammers and crap annoyed me) but after a while it got too hard and I gave up, just couldn't find myself overcoming anything! Maybe I'll dust it off and bust it out again sometime soon though, it was a rather good game with a definite nintendo feel to it.

 

Haha, I would have loved to have tried that 4 vs Computer fun. That must have owned, hard. Would you all just control a character each then? Or did you still have the ability to change players?

 

This game does really depend on who you're playing against. I had some great games on here, so we're quite lucky in that respect to have a good community.

[tapedeck]

I really enjoyed this and I'd love to see a sequel.

 

I did actually adore the title initially yet I hit that proverbial brick wall when the AI difficulty spiked to notorious heights and the online community went spam-happy. It would have massively benefited from more single player modes nicked from PES/FIFA (a managerial mode consisting of thousands of Nintendo characters would rock...hard) and there really should have been around two million+ gameplay options thus making the game pretty much unique to many different play styles. How about the ability to stretch the pitches? Wider, shorter, longer? Throw-ins, corners? Would have been nice to have had up to 8 players per side aswell.

 

Ok, Ok...I know it's an arcade-based title and I make it sound like I just want Super Mario Evo 2009, but these options would have given the title reams of longevity in my eyes and would have created the ultimate Mario-universe football title.

 

As it stands it's an enjoyable local multiplayer title which screams 'possibility' - I for one would love to see this turn into a major franchise ala Smash Bros./Mario Kart/Mario Party. Purely because, with more updates to stadia/gameplay and more fan service, I feel that the mechanics (and even the slightly rockin' style) suit the Mario universe to a tee!

Edited April 7, 2009 by tapedeck

[Fierce_LiNk]

Dude, you have some excellent ideas there. This definitely could be the next generation of Nintendo games to reach the same sorta heights as Mario Kart.

 

I loved your 8 players per side option, but I would still keep the 4-aside (plus kritter) option option as standard. Maybe other options to make this 8-aside, and 11-aside, which means that there is plenty of variety for the gamer.

 

As such, I think you'd definitely need to think about different pitch sizes for these modes. I think Nintendo has got the sizes right so far, . Width wise, I'd say it was perfect. So, personally, I'd keep the game the same, but allow 8/11-aside, with the option to have throw-ins and corners. The only thing I think is that maybe this would slow the game down. The game thrives off being fast-paced, so I think maybe the addition of throw-ins would take it away from that.

 

One thing I'd like to see expanded on is the variety of sidekicks and captains. You could build some awesome teams with the characters that you had. What about substitutes? I think "home" stadiums for each captain is also a must, and it's something that could definitely be improved upon.

 

This could easily be better than Mario, and could potentially have more depth to it (in terms of content) if they add more unlockables into this. What about have the same style of unlocking content as Smash Bros. So, taking those challenges from this last game and taking that further. Scoring with each member of your team could unlock you something. Scoring a hat-trick for the first time could get you something else.

[Rummy]

Heh Flink, the 4man team did rather own! I liked it cos as I said, I sucked when I first played this, and it was really nice for us all to be on a team together(i could share in some glory I'd never achieve alone! :p) but it also helped me pick the game up a bit more too. It basically did happen that you all could only control one character on the team, but it would tend to change after each goal, sometimes a total shuffle, sometimes just two of us. Might have to bust this title out again sometime at another gamesday gathering now...

 

As for the game and later directions; Unlockables would be good for adding a bit of extended challenge like, as people have said and myself included the title fell stale fast because of the ridiculous AI jump later on. It can't be looked at too footbally though, I mean, it's the charm of the mario/nintendo style and vibe that makes this what it is, and whilst I don't have many suggestions on the way of future improvement, I'd just say to not make it too much like the serious football games, unless they manage to underpin everything they do with that Ninty charm.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Heh Flink, the 4man team did rather own! I liked it cos as I said, I sucked when I first played this, and it was really nice for us all to be on a team together(i could share in some glory I'd never achieve alone! :p) but it also helped me pick the game up a bit more too. It basically did happen that you all could only control one character on the team, but it would tend to change after each goal, sometimes a total shuffle, sometimes just two of us. Might have to bust this title out again sometime at another gamesday gathering now...

 

As for the game and later directions; Unlockables would be good for adding a bit of extended challenge like, as people have said and myself included the title fell stale fast because of the ridiculous AI jump later on. It can't be looked at too footbally though, I mean, it's the charm of the mario/nintendo style and vibe that makes this what it is, and whilst I don't have many suggestions on the way of future improvement, I'd just say to not make it too much like the serious football games, unless they manage to underpin everything they do with that Ninty charm.

 

The ability to have one gamer controlling one character in a football game is something that has always interested me. When I was younger, I always thought about having a footie game like that, just so I could be Ryan Giggs, haha. So, to have that ability in this seems awesome. I know the latest edition of FIFA on the 360/PS3 includes something like this, but now I think I've gone the other way and just want to control my entire team in a realistic football game, heh.

 

You're right, though. Adding too much could just turn it into a Football title with Nintendo characters. I hope Nintendo do think about fledging this into a New Series of games, and that this isn't something that they drop. We need another one of those.

[DuD]

I used to play this against my cousin, who was far too good. I never got to play it often, so whenever the chance arose i always sucked, ridiculously sucked its probably not even imaginable how bad i was I couldn't score at all without jumping the keeper as toad, which was simply cheap and brilliant at annoying my cousin.

 

My team was just all toads

 

I did enjoy it though, so would love to see another that i could get myself and properly get into. Probably a bit late now to purchase the last one.

[nekunando]

It has been an awful long time since I played this.. and I'm scared to as it will probably make me very bat at Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 when I go back ..but if some of you fancy a game or two later, I'd be up for that

 

I've been doing coursework all day and fancy wagglin' the remote at a few victims.. : peace:

[Blue_Ninja0]

My brother is playing it as I write and seeing the way each character has his specific special shot and dodge makes me love it.