Mario sure does star in a lot of games, despite that Nintendo only releases about one major Mario platformer every generation. Indeed, for a plumber, he sure gets around. To date, he’s starred in a number of Mario spin-offs, including everything from Mario Tennis to Mario Typing to Mario Party (he’s actually starred in more of these games than you can safely count on one hand) to Mario Kart and Mario Golf. That’s just the beginning of the list, though. Nintendo’s most famous mascot has played the lead roll in upwards of a whopping forty different Mario spin-offs over the last two decades. That’s a pretty big number, and despite that Mario can dance, play baseball and play a game of golf that would make even Tiger Woods jealous, the poor plumber can’t quite manage to shed those extra pounds.

The real question, though, despite our sincere concern for our favorite plumber and princess-rescuer, is just how fun are these games? Depending on who you ask, you’ll get a different answer. But we think all could agree that the entire Mario spin-off genre is somewhat of a mixed bag. There have been successes – Mario Tennis, for one – and absolute failures – Mario Teaches Typing – that even your grandma knows she should avoid like Best Buy on the day-after-Thanksgiving.

The latest in the seemingly never-ending series of Mario sports title is Super Mario Strikers, developed by Next Level Games, the same group of folks who worked on NHL Hitz Pro for GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation 2. Strikers has had a relatively strong following since its debut at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2005. A strong demo quickly hooked attendees and since then, the title’s been on many gamer’s to-watch lists.

At the end of the day, Super Mario Strikers isn’t exactly the best sports game to feature Mario but it’s hardly the worst. It features a lot of fun back-and-forth gameplay, not to mention competitive four-player action that will no doubt entertain those that go for that sort of thing. Unfortunately, the overall production values are a little thin and the title doesn’t offer much in the way of extras.

The Facts

• Mario and friends team up for five-on-five soccer matches for the first time in gaming history
  
• Play as nine different characters from the Mario universe, one of which is a hidden character
  
• Four different modes include Grudge Match, Cup Battles, Super Cup Battles and Custom Battles
  
• Seven different stadiums
  
• Rated E for Everyone
  
• Dolby Pro Logic II
  
• 16x9 widescreen mode

Let’s Play Some Football (aka Soccer)
The biggest difference between Super Mario Strikers and any other Mario sports game in the last five years – other than the fact that it’s a soccer game and not a tennis, baseball or golf game – is its overall style. Next Level Games has opted to go with an overall personality that is absolutely different than anything we’ve really seen in a Mario title. Everything is very edgy, aggressive and sometimes downright hostile. This is actually a nice change of pace, especially for those who have lived and breathed everything Mario over the last twenty years. Then again, series traditionalists might be surprised to find Mario looking disgustingly at the same Princess Peach that he continuously saves from Bowser over and over.

The opening cinema in the game demonstrates this strong theme that is present throughout the rest the game. It opens with Mario and Wario headed at each other. Both wave to the crowd, only to turn at each other, greeting one another with unfriendly smirks. This is not the Mario or Wario you grew up with (or in Wario’s case, didn’t grow up with). We know that much. What happens next is a montage of FMV-rendered scenes of characters kicking at and sliding into each other as they try to score a goal or stop one from being scored by the other team. Shells slide across the field, bomb-ombs explode and somebody slips on a banana peel. Eventually, Bowser appears, unleashing deadly flames onto unsuspecting Toads and Koopas Indeed, this is soccer – Mario style.

The overall style, as said before is different, but the visual quality isn’t much different from any other Mario sports game. The full motion video looks crisp and clean. In comparison, the in-game visuals don’t look bad, though some textures could look nicer and the framerate could be more polished.



Mario either hates soccer or Princess Peach. We're not sure.
On field, there are essentially two different control schemes, depending on whether you’re in control of the ball or not. On both offense and defense, the analog stick controls your character. If you have the ball and are on offense, the A button is used for passing. Pressing the A button while dribbling the ball will kick it across the ground. If, however, you quickly tap the A button as you approach an already rolling ball, you will simply give it a good hard kick towards another team mate. The scheme goes a little deeper too. If you press down the L trigger while holding A, you can do a special pass that sends the ball flying high over your competition’s head.