Mario Strikers

Mario Strikers Charged Hands-On

While Super Paper Mario is garnering the most attention at this year's Game Developers Conference, there are plenty of other noteworthy games on display in Nintendo's booth. One such game is Mario Strikers Charged, a follow-up to the 2005 GameCube soccer game Super Mario Strikers. Not a lot has changed since we first saw and played the game last August, but we did get the chance to check out another field and all the hazards that go along with it.

You start by selecting a team captain, each of which has individual attributes. Mario, Princess Peach, and Donkey Kong were available to choose from. You then pick from characters like Toad, Boo, and Bones to make up the rest of your squad. The field we saw was high atop a volcanic island in the middle of the sea. The dark clouds in the sky indicated a storm was brewing, and there was lots of wind, which normally wouldn't be so bad, but here it can blow you right off the field if you stray too close to the edge. Other fields will have similar hazards. The other pitch we saw was surrounded by an invisible electric fence that would shock players that got too close.

After Mario went all extreme and dropped in from the sky, the match began. The action is largely reminiscent of Super Mario Strikers; it was simple and quite fast. It doesn't take long to figure out the controls, even with a new control scheme that uses both the Nunchuk and the Wii Remote. The analog stick on the Nunchuk moves your player and the C button uses power-ups, which you're awarded when the other team tackles one of your players that doesn't have the ball. On the Wii Remote, you use the D pad to perform dekes, the B button to shoot (or hold it to charge), and the A button to pass. One of the special attacks we saw was when Donkey Kong activated a power-up and took a shot. The screen switched to a first-person perspective for the goalie, and we had to line up a cursor to block multiple shots on goal. If you miss too many, the ball goes in the net and you're treated to (or humiliated by) one of the game's over-the-top goal celebrations.

The game currently lets up to four players play on one system, and when we asked about online support, we were told it was "undecided at this time." The two playable modes we were able to check out were domination mode, which was just a quickplay option, and road to the cup, where you'll take on teams of increasing difficulty in your quest to take home the trophy. There's no firm release date yet, but the game appears to be quite far along, even if we didn't see a whole lot of new content this time around.

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