weebdeluxe

The next part of this little series takes me back to May 2007. Yes, there is a pretty sizable gap here, but remember: Both Zelda and Red Steel kept me busy for some time.

The biggest release I was surprisingly looking forward to for the first half of 2007 was Mario Strikers Charged. I write “surprisingly” because I have no huge history with football games. And yes, it’s “football”, get over it.

The first football game I ever spent time with was Nintendo World Cup on the NES. Our family got it because some of us (not me!) enjoyed football, so a football game was a must get. And for what it’s worth, I enjoyed playing it. It was weird, allowed for odd things like fouling other players so many times, that they just stayed lying on the grass and you could do some very mangaesque trickshots. Only a couple of years ago, I found out that this was the localized version of a Kunio-kun game. I recently bought it for the Switch since it was part of the Kunio Collection and it sure still is fun. Maybe I’ll write a blogpost about that one too. I put it on my list of sidequests to this blog series.

The second important football game for me was the official FIFA World Cup game for 2002. That world cup was very important for me, as it partially took place in Japan and as a young weeb, I was enjoying the attention the country was getting in mainstream media thanks to it. Heck, I even watched most of the games and I played the videogame alongside it. I prided myself on beating Brazil as Japan in the finals many, many times. If there’s something I enjoy, it’s a game where I can create my own alternative history.

The original Mario Strikers is not on this list, and I never checked it out. I must admit that the main draw for Strikers Charged was its online mode. Up until then, there were no online games for the Nintendo Wii and the fact that Europe got this game early made it feel even more special. It’s funny to me now that this was one of the reasons I was so much looking forward to the game, since I am not a huge online gamer. And the online mode would not be the reason, why I enjoyed this game.

Mario Strikers Charged is a football game in the same way as the original Deadpool movie was a romance flick. On the surface, some elements (a ball, two goals, two goalkeepers and the preference of hitting said ball with feet) have a striking similarity with the actual real-life sport. But the interpretation is so supercharged with excessive videogame logic, it’s barely recognizable at points. There are the special items of cours, which could stem from Mario Kart or indeed any other Mario sports title. They spice things up considerably and turn Mario Strikers Charged into a fun party game. But to dismiss this yet another party pleaser would be a disservice to the actual mechanic build in. There is the titular mechanic, which lets you charge up the ball with each consecutive pass and let’s you do super powerful shots. Then there are the special ability shots of the characters, which need a special charge up phase, that can be interrupted by anyone who is close enough to tackle you. When you manage to pull it off however, you get a cool animation and the opponent must use the sole Wii Motion gimmick present: Balls come flying at the screen and you must move your cursor in time to catch them, so they don’t score. I really like that this is a test of luck and skill at the same time and it’s well integrated.

One of the best things about this game is its flair: It has rock music, awesome lineart, great animations and the characters ooze with personality. The game felt surprisingly edgy and agressive without ever overdoing it. The latest entry in the series on the Switch toned it done but kept a lot of the mechanics present in this Wii title. Maybe I’ll do a blogpost on that game too?

As mentioned, the game had online features. They have been turned off some while ago but fans keep this game still going. I was surprised to find out that it still has a small, dedicated community that plays this as an e-sport. I played a couple of evening online and it sure was fun, but it wasn’t something that kept me engaged. For the most part, I played local multiplayer with friends or the single player mode. Local multiplayer worked great of course since it made those characters with their different stats shine. The singleplayer was surprisingly difficult and I remember never unlocking the final character. You play in cups with qualifiers and later with K.O.-rounds. As mentioned, it gives you a decent challenge and it’s a lot of fun to crush the enemy, if you’re good enough.

While not being the greatest start into 2007, I really enjoyed this, and I remember playing it often for a whole month. However, 2007 was a pretty barebones year for me… in the next part of this series, we are going to make a small pitstop in July before heading over to August and my favourite game of 2007.

As always, thanks for reading. If you want to follow me on mastodon, you can do so over at @[email protected]