Super Mario Strikers

The plumber with the red jumpsuit returns again to Nintendo with his newest addition to the rapidly growing Mario Sports series. Nintendo seems to have put a nice big sticky note on the series reminding them to keep coming back to it, because after this and Mario Superstar Baseball, there will only be a few sports for Nintendo to put it’s special Mushroom Kingdom touch to it. Well, that’s exactly what they’ve done with Super Mario Strikers, after all, who said fireballs are against the rules?

If you didn’t get the hints in the first paragraph, Super Mario Strikers is a hardcore Mario themed soccer videogame, or football if you’re European. To tell you the truth there is nothing to explain about the actual game rules, unless you don’t know how to kick a soccer ball. If not, all you have to do is get it across the field into your opponents net, easy enough? Not quite, Nintendo has put a healthy dose of obstacles for you to get through, including power ups, supershots, special abilities (spinning shells, Chain Chomps, freezing ice cold shells, you get the drift) tones of characters and more.

Just like in Mario Superstar Baseball, you’ll be prompted to choose a team captain from the list of main Mario stars and a character race to serve as your gang of henchmen to help you win. The color of your characters will change based on the captain you’ve chosen. For example, if you chose the slightly outspoken character of the Mario Bros., Luigi and a group of incompetent Toads, the spots on their Mushroom-like head would appear green. That way you won’t be passing back to what you thought was your goalie when the fact is your goalie was pulled and the opposing team has a cherry picker that looks like your one-timing buddy you’ve named George, who is of course on the other side of the field.

In terms to the controls, they are supposedly instantly fun based on those lucky enough to create hands-on previews. While A passes the ball (on offense) and changes player (on defense), The B button is used for shooting at that stupid goalie taunting you from across the field. If he taunts you enough, you’ll want to conduct what Nintendo calls a powershot. If you find that the characters are waiting for you to come to them, show them Whats what and charge up your power shot by holding B. When the needles line up with the middle of the bar (like a golf game) let go and tap the B for a power shot. But, if everyone suddenly dives towards you once you’ve started to charge you can abandon that idea, fake it and deke them out for a chip shot into the net.

Along with a good deke and an unexpected chip shot come other features to the game, like a one-timer shot, flipping/flying toads and diving attacks, Mario style. If Donkey Kong is picking on the little guys, send out your team captain Bowser and shake the stadium with a diving attack. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, right? Well, if the diving koopa king dosent work commit a powershot purposely facing him with your team captain. They will have their own special animation along with a bit of fire surrounding the ball. Be careful though, DK has the ability to wind up a clenching fist and punch the soccer ball for high speeds and distance. See what I mean by Mario Twist? Yeah that’s right it’s no holds bar when it comes to this game.

Supershots will daze anyone for a couple seconds if they’re hit, so make it your top priority to tackle him, along with getting this game. The graphics you see in the screenshots are brilliant, the concept is well thought up, this games shaping up to be another Mario classic. Grab a couple friends and hit the field with Super Mario Strikers this November.