Those who played the original Super Mario Strikers may remember that Mario and friend's first foray onto the pitch was somewhat lackluster. By focusing far too much on the realism of soccer, a definite negative in any Mario-themed sports game, they lost that element of excitement and fun that the series is known for. A retread in some minor ways, Charged does exactly what its predecessor did not do, and what so many other soccer games in past years have been unable to: be enjoyable. This isn't just somewhat enjoyable. It is the scream with your friends, hold your controller high, and run in circles around the living room variety of enjoyable. Mario Strikers Charged hits the right tone throughout, making it far more worthy of its namesake than its predecessor.

The game starts out differently than the previous installment, in that now teams are far more useful. The past game began with choosing an individual player from the top tier Mario ranks such as Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Peach, etc. There were twelve captains to choose from, but rounding that out were lesser players like Shy Guy or Birdo. These other players had little to distinguish themselves past their looks. They would all have whatever generic statistics you chose for them, which has changed entirely in Charged. Now the other players have their own individual statistics, just as the main characters do. So there's actually a level of strategy that goes along with building a team that wasn't present before. With the frenetic pace of the game, having the best players to match your style is incredibly important. All players also have megastrike shots, which are the equivalent to a Gamebreaker in the NFL Street franchise. These shots are death blows that can quickly turn the tide of a game and are pretty entertaining to watch as they unfold.

The gameplay is fast and over the top.

The comparison to Street is incredibly apt here. Like that title, the on-field action is definitely over the top. The Hammer Brothers throw hammers towards their opponent until they can make a shot. Balls fly around on fire. The six balls fired by your captain during the megastrike fill the screen and simply look insane. Power-ups litter the maps and the pace moves frantically. Often, as players grow more skillful, the pace speeds up even more and it becomes difficult to even keep up with some of the on-screen action. This is most noticeable during online play. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but for anyone expecting a Winning Eleven or some other soccer simulation this may not be for you. In some ways the game seems more like some type of crazy pinball, with the ball bouncing around furiously, and should be not be mistaken for anything even resembling the actual game of soccer.

In a Wii game the motion specific controls are generally the first thing you notice and Charged uses them sparingly. Players can tackle others by merely waggling the Wii remote when near them. This function works very well and players will flop constantly. It can grow frustrating as you play better human opponents because of how easy it is and how well it works. The only other time the motion control is used is during the goaltending minigame in which the main characters can charge up and use their megastrike to fire up to six balls at once. A meter then pops up like in a golf game, and here you hit the button on the meter to decide how many, and how hard, the balls will come out. The defensive keeper then has the option to use the pointing reticule to stop the shots if they are quick enough with their hand movement. Aside from this, there are barely any other motion-specific controls.

The single player is decidedly lackluster and even with the fun of the core gameplay, grows tiring. Playing against the AI is either maddeningly easy or highly irritating. They are prone to cheap shots and sudden bursts of "teamwork", wherein their players miraculously pass the ball faster than it's possible to defend and work the field in a way that tears your defenses to shreds. However, this is a small gripe because this game is not really meant to be played with one player. There are only two single player modes offered. The first is "Road to the Striker's Cup," the Mario equivalent to the World Cup, which begins easily but becomes challenging towards the end. There are also "Striker Challenges," which are merely mini-games that can be beaten quickly.

Multiplayer is one of the most visceral experiences in quite some time and, most surprisingly, the online aspect is where it stands out most. Four players can play offline on one console in crazy, high velocity matches. Online play allows for up to two players per Wii and is just as much fun. The frantic pace is hardly touched by lag, and most games will run smoothly and without issue. There is even the ability to play ranked matches and track yourself on a leader board along with all of your friends. However, the biggest negatives lie in the silly and irritating use of unique friend codes and a lack of online conversation ability. The game uses its own codes so you'll need to find out from your friends what theirs are before you can play, which is a turn-off to some degree. There is also no voice chat or keyboard support whatsoever. So, once in game, you have no ability to talk to another player. Unless you want to use a speaker phone, players are unable to trash talk each other online, which is a disappointment.

This game has some of the best multiplayer that the Wii has seen yet.

Graphically, the game looks clean and crisp, especially for a Wii game. This proves that, at some level, you really can make decent looking titles on the platform. Each classic character is rendered especially well and the maps look just as good. All of the original maps from the first game have been updated slightly or are at least present along with a host of new maps. Unfortunately, a lot of the smaller details are lacking. The megastrike shots look pretty bad and even though each character has his or her own special move, the moves themselves look like rejects from some sort of anime series. The sound remains decent with the individual characters music generally being the most interesting, even though the themes can grow repetitive over time.

Mario Strikers Charged is a game that finds the niche all Mario sports games should fit into. As the first good online Wii game, it works in ways almost every other game on the console has failed to up to this point. This is one of the most entertaining multiplayer experiences on the Wii and the game's shortcomings can be overlooked to some degree because of that. Any player who cannot connect to the internet or has only a few friends that are Wii-capable should probably stay away, as the single player is far from the highlight of the package. Although sometimes generic, Charged hits far more goals than it misses. Even with a few blocked shots like the shoddy single player and generic sound, it's still recommended for any fan of fast-paced soccer action.