The thing is, Nintendo firmly believed that the Mario Universe could indeed be wedged into the confines of five-a-side football, with a modicum of help from an outside partner. This turned out to be none other than Next Level Games, the team that created arguable one of the craziest GameCube arcade experiences in the form of Sega Soccer Slam. Super Mario Strikers (or Mario Smash Football as it was called here in Europe) took the world by storm, playing basically like the Sega game, but having all the familiar Mario crew included. Despite the GameCube in its last throes of life, the game managed to be one of the biggest Nintendo hits of 2005.

 

But what was a fun and frantic game for the current generation is not always guaranteed to translate perfectly well over to a new format. With games like this, the old adage that involves lightning, striking and two smooth, pert bottoms…erm…*stops thinking of DoAX2 Volleyball trailer*…Anyway, my point is, I had doubts about whether Mario Strikers Charged could easily recapture the thrills and spills of its d?t outing. The GameCube title was more fun in multi-player, and with this being an online title at least you will never be short of friends to play against. In the case of the demo, though, I was pitted against fellow C3’er James.

 

Basically this does indeed play just like the first one did, and probably is a perfect example of a case where Shigeru Miyamoto stated old GameCube games can be revamped easily for the Wii. Next Level has given the graphics and nice lick of polish to make them look amazingly vibrant, with crazy, face-blistering speedy action that never seems to let up. The control system barely uses the new technology, with the only action shown to us by the demonstrator being the way to tackle – a quick shake of the Wii controller, which becomes so natural during play that you barely even realise you are doing it. In fact, it is so much fun to just go crazy with the tackling…however, remember that when challenging crazily off-the-ball, you ARE penalised.

Yes, the items are back and more powerful than ever. If you are penalised, the opponent gets a random power item – such as green shells that fire out in various directions, huge bombs that cause havoc or even homing shells to target specific players. And then you also have to be wary of the electrified walls around the arena, as if you are barged into them you are temporarily stunned and lose any chance of gaining possession back. Use these features to your own advantage and give the captain of your team enough room and you can set yourself up for a power shot at goal – just like before, holding down shoot until a bar comes up and you must fulfil the requirements by hitting various targets before unleashing hell on the goalkeeper.

 

And here comes another piece of Wii-exclusivity – your opponent then takes control of the goalie’s hands and must use the Wii-mote to block as many shots as possible (yes, multiple goals can be scored from power shots). This proved too difficult to do properly, though, however whether it was our own incompetence or because of the unfinished build (which we managed to crash at one point…) is unclear! Flicking passes to Peach and her cohorts (Shy Guys, Koopa Troopas and/or Toads, whichever you choose to make up the numbers in the team), doing clever dummies and through balls in the air, before latching on for a sublime finish is as much fun as it was previously and, suffice to say, both of us came away from the game with extremely positive feelings.