“Super Mario Multiverse” – Mario Strikers Charged (Wii) by the Sometimes Vaguely Philosophical Mage

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don’t like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.

– Bill Shankly

When I heard that The Well-Red Mage was running a collaboration in which many writers would contribute pieces about games from the many-storied Mario franchise, I knew that there could only be one selection for me.

I was one of the first to make a claim, so there were plenty of classics available. Great, genre-defining, console-launching, industry-shaping titles. True blockbusters.

So, naturally, I picked Mario Strikers Charged.

EDGY MARIO FOOTBALL

There have been very many Mario games, as indeed have there been very many football games. There have, however, only been relatively few instances of the two coming together in glorious harmony, and Mario Strikers Charged is one of that select and holy number.

Released on Nintendo Wii in 2007, Charged is the follow up to 2005’s GameCube title Super Mario Strikers. Mario and co. are fairly frequently off doing various sporty things together between more conventional let-us-go-to-another-castle-for-the-princess-is-not-in-this-one escapades – tennis, golf, go-karting, baseball, even teaming up with the Sonic gang for the Olympics – so it was perhaps inevitable that eventually the Strikers minifranchise would come along and have them taking to the football field.

I myself (prepare for incoming humblebrag) am something of a rare breed: an Englishman who really doesn’t care about footy. I kind of know how it works, and I can even explain the offside rule, but I’ve never actively followed it or got the hype. Still, many of my countrymen are pretty big into their footballs – as of course are plenty of other folk the world over, but as I understand it us Brits are somewhat renowned for our rowdy delight in yon beautiful game. As someone who generally doesn’t get it, I expected when a mate of mine asked when we were hanging out after school one day whether I wanted to play the new Mario football game with him that I would really not enjoy it.

As it turned out, I really did rather enjoy it. The fact that this mate had a Nintendo Wii, which at the time I did not and of which I was deeply envious, may have just made me pretty flipping excited to be Playing A Kool Vidya Gaem, but I was astonished by just how fun it was to be knocking a ball around as Waluigi.

Always Waluigi. If Waluigi is playable in anything, I will never not be Waluigi. Can someone mod Waluigi into Kingdom Hearts II?

The Mario games are, of course, many and diverse, but Strikers Charged really doesn’t feel much like any of its cousins, even the other sporty ones. It’s something of an oddball (ha), I think. I can’t explain why, but it feels neither particularly like a Mario game nor very much like a football game.

For one thing, it kind of wants to be a bit gritty. The way things handle feels viciously weighty at times; along with unusually violent special moves and noticeably, um, less-kid-friendly outfits, it can at times feel more like playing something like the old Street FIFA/Street Madden games. Remember those? You played a normal sport, but on the street (thanks for being so indicative, title), which entailed a lot of punching and even a bit of jumping off walls. While Mario Strikers Charged sets its matches in actual football fields, the rules are definitely not Association regulation: y’know, you often see Premier League players acting as if they’ve been socked with a proper haymaker, but Strikers Charged has the two teams actively trying to batter each other.

I enjoy that.

As a non-expert in Mario-ness, I don’t know that there’s much value in me expounding further on the game itself and its place in the franchise, so suffice to say for the purposes of this rather epic collaborative event that Strikers Charged is just really fun. I don’t ever really see people talking about it, compared to other titles that have been around for just as long or longer, and I think that’s a huge disservice to a game that somehow brings together two things and makes something that feels completely different to both of them but also really good.

If you’ve never played Mario Strikers Charged, give it a go. Whether you like football, or Mario, or both, or neither, I still reckon there’s a decent chance you’ll have a pretty good time.

Though he’s been known by many names across the vast and peculiar landscape of the Internet, every iteration of The Sometimes Vaguely Philosophical Mage has shared an urge to look far too closely at tiny details and extrapolate huge, important-seeming conclusions. These days, in addition to Mage duties, he can be found discussing gaming and other pop culture (and occasionally sharing some of his own musical and fictional creations) at the Overthinker Y blog and on Twitter.

Wahoo! You are a Super Reader! But the adventure doesn’t stop here… There’s more of this project in another castle! This article is just one level in an entire Super Mario Multiverse, a galactic collaboration between writers around the world sharing a bit of our hearts and memories about our favorite Mario games. Visit the Center of the Multiverse to see more: