Mario Strikers Charged Review

Mario Strikers Charged, also Mario Strikers Charged Football and Mario Power Soccer, was the sequel to Super Mario Strikers for the GameCube. It offers a fast and furious game of football staring Nintendo characters.

While many sporting events injected with Nintendo-ness fare less than well, this game came to life with clever play mechanics and surprisingly deep levels of skill required. Each of the characters has special abilities that need to be used intelligently and you can also specify different tactical locations for each of your team.

Although themed around football, the game feels more like ice hockey as players whip, curl and smack the ball to each other. Also, because you are allowed to tackle, attack and knock out your opposing team's players.

To this is added the ability to charge up the ball as you pass it from player to player and make it easier to score. You also get Mario Kart style power-ups that offer special abilities. Finally, you can go for a super strike that switches into a penalty mini-game where players can score multiple goals.

The game is available on the Wii, although this means you can also play it on the Wii U with backwards compatibility. On the Wii U it’s also available to download. In families with teenagers, this is a great competitive game that everyone has a chance of winning at.