As Mario’s time on the GameCube comes to an end, his sports swan song on the system is Super Mario Strikers, which is soccer. In case you don’t know, I hate soccer. I find it to be way too boring and too low-scoring to be interesting. There was one Olympic soccer match I went to ten years ago, and that was pretty interesting, though mainly for the experience rather than the game itself. Otherwise, soccer is usually a snoozefest. A 2-0 game? Woah, too many goals there. 0-0 is more like it.
If you are a fan of “real” soccer, then I’ll tell you right now: this isn’t your game. Super Mario Strikers breaks all the rules, not resembling “real” soccer at all. That, in fact, is why I feel the way I do about this game.
It’s been so long since I wrote a Review here that you may have forgotten my scoring scale: no stars for patheticness, and 4 stars for excellence. Good thing I didn’t forget it, or else there would be some inconsistency between this and my previous Reviews.
Graphics: **½
While the graphics are pretty good, being that this is near the end of the GameCube’s run, I was expecting more. Somehow GameCube games seemed to start at the peak of their graphics capability and move downhill over time, as seen here (with the huge exception of the beautiful-looking but poor-playing F-Zero GX). The characters are probably the best-looking part of this game. The stadiums are rather dull, however, not being as nice as I would have liked. I’m not saying the graphics stink or anything like that. I’m just saying they could be better, that’s all.
Sound: *½
Take a moment and listen to most Mario games, whether it is Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario Kart 64, or Mario Tennis. The music (in most cases) is very good. It’s memorable. It’s enjoyable. Now just take a moment and listen to this game, if you don’t have the game muted already. The menu music isn’t that great, but the music during the game is worse. It’s either inaudible, or really bad-sounding, like the music heard during sudden death, when it sounds like a siren mixed with some other music. I do like the stadium announcer and the characters’ voices, though, as they seem to sound pretty realistic.
Characters: ½
A big disappointment here. You get to choose from eight team captains, but your teammates are all the same character, and there are only four to choose from (Toads, Birdos, Hammer Brothers, and Troopas). Strange, considering that you’d think more characters could play soccer than could play baseball, but somehow Goomba could swing a bat but can’t play soccer, which doesn’t require hands. And don’t get me started about the unlockable team, which is a gigantic disappointment.
Difficulty: **½
This game isn’t terribly difficult, but it can still be a challenge, which I think is good. Sometimes you can score a lot easily; other times you’ll have a really hard time scoring. With different skill levels to choose from, you can decide how difficult you want the game to be, but even the easiest skill level isn’t that easy.
Controls: ***
The controls are great, being very easy to use. The problems are that you can’t control the goaltender if he doesn’t have the ball, and there can be a little bit of trouble when you are running quickly with the ball (sometimes it is hard to pass or shoot effectively when you have the ball and are pressing turbo while running). Otherwise, the controls are very simple, and you should have an easy time with them.
Gameplay: ****
All right, I’ve put off the heart of this Review long enough. Super Mario Strikers does not even somewhat resemble real soccer, yet that is what makes it so awesome. You can go around knocking around your opponents, not worrying about a red card or anything like that. No, this is full-contact soccer, with more hits than ice hockey. There are one-timers, which are when a player shoots right after he receives a pass. There are Mario items, which of course make the game great fun. Bowser sometimes comes onto the field, causing trouble and sometimes tilting the playing field (literally). Your team captain can even charge up shots that, if they go in, are worth 2 points instead of only 1. The ball can never go out of bounds, a HUGE plus. Apparently Next Level Games agreed with me that plain old soccer is boring, so they decided to make it fun. And boy, did they ever. After being so pessimistic over whether a Mario soccer game would be any fun, all doubts are removed. With the possibility of high-scoring or low-scoring games, you are in for a fun time every time you play this game. I can’t believe they pulled off making soccer so fun, especially for a soccer-hater like me.
Cup Battles: ***
Cup Battles are the tournaments you play against the computer. These are usually round-robin, though the Bowser Cup forces you to first clinch a playoff spot in the round-robin matches, then win the tournament in a typical four-team bracket. You get 3 points in the standings for a win, 0 for a regulation loss, and 1 if you lose in sudden death. These are fun. The only fault I find with these is the “Mario Kart” factor: you usually have one big competitor that wins almost every match except the one they play against you. If you go undefeated, that’s no problem, but going undefeated can be pretty difficult. This can especially be a problem in the Cup matches besides the Bowser Cup, where there are no playoff matches, as the only way to win those Cups is by finishing first.
Custom Battles: ***
These are like Cup Battles, only differing in the fact that you can have multiple human players in them. Plus, you can set up the way you want it, with round-robin or knockout (the brackets we all know and love) choices. These can be fun as well, though you need competitive human opponents in order to really have fun with this.
Replayability: *½
This game takes a hit here, as those two modes I mentioned are really the only big modes, besides single matches and Super Cup Battles, which are just longer (and probably harder) versions of Cup Battles. The game needs more than this… unfortunately, with not much worth unlocking, this one won’t last as long as Mario Superstar Baseball, though it is a whole lot of fun.
Fun Factor!: ***½
Really, this is the key to the game. It is so much fun. You should really enjoy playing matches, against the computer or against other live opponents. With all the items and hitting in the game, soccer goes from boring to really fun.
OVERALL: ***
Super Mario Strikers exceeded all expectations I had for it. It is simply remarkable. This is the perfect way for Mario to end his GameCube sports series, with superb gameplay which should be a lot of fun for those who buy this game. The lack of a lot of things to do in the game makes it a little too short for my liking, hurting the overall rating. I recommend it to any sports fan, and even to Mario fans out there, because it really is a lot of fun, and quite easy to learn how to play as well.
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