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Super Mario StrikersBy Frankie Dosch - 12-06-05 Print  EmailDid you know that fat Italian plumbers play soccer like Pele? Or that gorillas have a wicked chip shot? Or that even princesses in peril can deke with the best of them? Yeah, this was all news to me too. But it’s all true, and you can find it all in Super Mario Strikers, the most addictive and awesome game of the season. And possibly the best Mario multiplayer game ever on the Gamecube. I know that’s a lot to swallow for you little plumbers in training. A Mario soccer game that might be better than the Mario Kart games? “I don’t even like soccer,” you say, “I’m no soccer sissy!” Neither am I. I actually hate soccer and everything it stands for. When I heard they were making a Mario soccer game, I told my friends I’d prefer Mario Curling or even Super Mario Figure Skating Sensation. Then about two months ago I played a demo of Strikers and completely forgot about my tremendous game ideas (seriously though Nintendo: C-U-R-L-I-N-G). I played the demo during slow spurts at work. Then I took it home. Then it made its way to a friend’s place. Soon the Strikers demo was the Cats Pajamas on Thursday nights, and two nerdy dudes playing a stripped down demo quickly became a dozen nerdy dudes. A Strikers sausage party if you will.  What Nintendo and Next Level Games have done is used the formula that makes every single Mario game so sickeningly fun and addictive: take a sport, throw in Mario & Gang, sprinkle on the charm, the normal Mario-based power-ups, some Nintendo know how, and Holy Crap! Another great Mario game. To understand the ins and outs of Strikers awesomeness, I’ll take you through an average match. You start out with five minutes on the clock, eight classic Mario characters to pick (should have been more), a few different cups to win, and some serious ‘tude. One thing that Strikers delivers more so than other cutesy Mario game is a feeling of aggressiveness. Donkey Kong smashes the camera on his way out to the field. Peach screams like Janet Leigh when the invisible boundaries electrocute her. All of the characters are attempting to grind each other into the ground, which makes defense almost as fun as offense. You can even get a “paramedic” award for getting a lot of hits in one tournament. I think this new “tougher” Mario sensibility blows open the possibilities of future Super sports titles (football anyone?). This ain’t no 8-bit wimp-ass Mario. After the game is started, the Nintendo sport begins and soccer ends. Of course the point in soccer (besides looking stupid in shin pads) is to put the ball in the big net thing. Smashing and passing and kicking and grassing until controllers are tossed and friendships are lost is the name of this game. Whoa, that was some crazy rhyming. It all happened for real though; I think I’ve got some friends gunning for my life after last week’s matches. Multiplayer will have nuns cussing and preachers drinking, I promise. I have literally spent nights playing this game, and know all of the tactics. The meat and 'taters lies in the fulfilling multiplayer experience. I love going head to head with someone who’s as crazy about the game as I am, and enjoys a good Wavebird to the junk.  I agree with many of my reviewing cohorts when they say that the single-player experience could have been deeper. There is only one character to unlock, and once you beat the cup matches, there is not much of a reason to go back through. I can look past this once you get another human player involved, though. My two biggest complaints involved the characters and the up and down antics of the goalie. I thought that, like many of the other Mario franchises, each character would have his/her own attributes or power-ups. But sadly, besides from varying speeds, they all seem to play the exact same. So the only difference you get is in character models: do you prefer monkeys or princess Peach in skimpy pink biker shorts (don’t answer that you perv)? The second complaint seems to be more important in changing the gameplay. I know that in most Mario games the loser will get better power-ups to get back in the game, but Strikers utilizes this feature to a seemingly stupid degree. Sometimes, when only up by one goal, the opposing player will get a star, which deems them invincible. In the right hands, the star can get the main mascot character a “super-strike” which gives the loser 2 points. And sometimes this doesn’t happen at all. This works the same with the goalies. Sometimes they can be brick walls, while other times your goalie can be scored on all the time. I’m not sure what will judge a good shout, but maybe this mechanic should have been ironed out before it was stamped Nintendo gold. Don’t get your Mario underwear in a bunch; these complaints come from someone who has spent far too much time with the finished version and the demo. And who is on a losing streak as of late (damn friends got better, must murder). You all know how Mario works, you’ve played his games, you’ve listened to the WOOHOO and YAHOO so much you might wonder what it means in Italian. I think it translates roughly into KACHING. Nintendo makes big bucks off of the Brad Pitt of video games, and Super Mario Strikers looks like another solid outing by the big N. If you can get past not-so-deep single player and challenge your friends to some soccer mayhem, Strikers scores big.  Ratings |
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