Strikers Impressions

I just picked up Super Mario Strikers: Charged today, and thought I’d share my thoughts so far on the game with you.

The game is very fast-paced, and it only gets faster online. There’s a good group of characters to choose from, and the ability to choose your 3 sidekicks adds a whole other level of strategy to the game.

Overall, the game is a lot of fun, but it can be frustrating. For example, when your opponent does a “megastrike” (where they shoot up to 6 balls at you), you need to point and click your goalkeeper’s gloves at the balls to save the shots. But the controls aren’t that great for this – I’ve clicked right over the ball numerous times, only to have it end up being a goal. Controls are probably the biggest issue I have with the game.

One other problem I have is the online play. Don’t get me wrong, it’s way better than the early DS online games, but there’s still quite a bit of room for improvement. My second match, I was matched up with someone who had already played over 200 matches… proving there is no system to match up people by skill online. Also, I played a guy who must have been using dial-up… after 2 minutes the clock had ticked off about 6 seconds… and I finally disconnected on the guy.

Very fun game all in all, though. I’d highly recommend getting it if you have some time and $50 on your hands.