Mario Strikers Football originally appeared for the Gamecube a few years back, as part of a last gasp attempt to generate interest in the console with a clutch of Mario-themed sports titles. It did not sell terrifically well, but was an immensely fun, simplistic arcade sports title that harked back to a bygone age of Super Sidekicks, Windjammers and Fighting Soccer. The sequel is no different if you look at your basic gameplay, but it does do things bigger and better in almost every way.

For starters, and for all the non believers out there, Charged takes a big leap forward graphically, employing the much discussed “depth of field” that the Gamecube lacked to make some beautiful looking backgrounds. There are numerous well realised pitches, some with environmentals that affect gameplay, and all of them look beautiful in spanking polygonal Wii-vision. The game is a big bright glitzy dollop of cartoon action that tells you: you are dealing with a Mario game, relax, everything is going to be aaaall right.

And hell, once you come to terms mentally with the odd soundtrack, that marries generic rock to groovesome funk with a distinct lack of Mario tunage, you can get involved in the action. The gameplay here is an end-to-end affair loosely based upon the rules of soccer. You select a team captain from a variety of Mario stalwarts, each with varying attributes in terms of speed, power and skill. You can also select your other outfield players from a selection of cameo-tastic Mushroom Kingdom fodder, drones who also offer differing abilities that affect the way you play. The game itself is best described as a cross pollination of Speedball 2, Sega Soccer Slam and NBA Jam, as you pass the ball around at pace and try to score into a net tended by a hideous giant lizardy thing. Stick with us, stick with us.

In open play, the keeper will invariably save most normal efforts blasted his way, so the trick is to keep possession, which after a period will charge the ball to a searing, slow-mo white missile infinitely more capable of bothering the onion bag. The sidekick characters you choose to accompany your team captain also have some tricks up their sleeve; the normally unassuming Shy Guy, for example, can turn the ball into a malevolent, black Bullet Bill. Similarly you can employ a Megastrike, which involves holding down the shoot button, stopping a gauge in the correct place and then unleashing an outlandish O.T.T. special move that sends several balls flying goal-wards. Initiating a Megastrike is accompanied by a cutscene that sees your avatar leap into the air and perform some stupendous piece of acrobatics, whilst gurning sinisterly. When facing this onslaught from another player, you take control of the keeper in a Q.T.E. sequence where the remote is used to hit targets and thus save each ball with your scaly keeper. This all sounds like it would slow down and hamper the game completely – but in reality when playing against an opponent of a decent skill level, the Megastrikes – which incidentally leave your player wide open to be tackled – are very rarely pulled off successfully.

Like its predecessor, Charged includes power up items that affect gameplay in a variety of ways, a la Mario Kart. However, they are not essential to the core game as things fly by so quickly, sustained tactical employment of the collectables is tricky, even if you can cycle through them by waggling the nunchuck.

The smooth and satisfying action is all controlled effortlessly using the Wiimote and nunchuck combo. The analogue stick is used to move your player, with the various buttons accounting for shooting and passing, whilst a waggle of the remote in an intuitive way of sending your player hurtling toward the opponent in a studs-up tackle. Tricks can be pulled off with ease, such as holding down 2 and A to chip the ball in the air, which can then be spectacularly volleyed in a bicycle stylee. Niggle-wise, the game fails to recognise and adequately, logically switch between players, meaning that at times you are reduced to doing it manually, and can end up at times facing in the wrong direction, controlling the wrong player.

We won’t start beating around the bush – Mario Strikers Charged is a poor single player experience. There are few modes to speak of, and apart from a challenge mode that when completed allows you to unlock some cheats and modifications to use in your own matches, you are restricted to a few cups that follow a similar blueprint to other Mario-themed sporting efforts.

Put the moaning aside, though, and what we have here is a fabulous prospect in multiplayer, whether this is with one or three mates. The big question, however, is how well the game works in Wi-Fi mode, when you are not just talking about playing your actual real buddies but potentially zillions of interweb players in cyberspace and stuff. The answer to this is that it works very well, with very little lag and with a best of 3 format in ranked mode. You could quibble that it is annoying having to sit through the opening animations before every single match, and it is a bit “anonymous” in that there is no true community spirit – it would be nice to be able to engage in some witty banter and repartee with your opposite number, before you dish out a serving of mushroom-based soccer justice from across the internets. Of course there is also the inconvenience of the nonsensical Friends Code system, which requires you have a separate Code for this game in addition to the one you already have with your console. We have seen this sort of malarkey before on the DS, and feel that it is up to Nintendo to sort out their approach to online gaming as a whole. The lack of a comprehensive service and the tiresome writing down and inputting of numbers does detract from the whole experience, which is a shame when you consider that a fair chunk of gamers will be picking this up purely because it is online.

The Wii is competing favourably in the console “war”, but it is only a matter of time before their commitment to online gaming is put under scrutiny when up against the stellar services provided by its rivals. This much heralded title is a step in the right direction but seems a bit of a damp squib in the marketplace when you consider that certain other platforms feature games with Net Play as standard, and have done for a considerable amount of time. But hey, it is nice to be able to play a Wii game online. And Mario Strikers is a very good game, terrific fun, ideal for the purpose, and just a big winner in multiplayer online or off. It is not going to set the world alight in single player, but we hope that Nintendo can see how favourably it has gone down with the online crowd and plan for the future accordingly.