Mario Strikers Charged - updated hands-on

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By published

The gang hits the soccer pitch once again, now with 800% more things on fire

Gameplay itself has more depth, thanks to several touches like one-touch passing, header shots, the ability to chip the ball off walls, and a finely-tuned tackle you can launch by flicking the Wii remote. The ball's halo changes from red to yellow to white, depending upon how likely it is that your shot will go in, and Megastrikes aren't the automatic scores the last game had. Instead, when you trigger one, a golf swing-style meter appears that enables you to select how many shots to take (up to six) and how fast the ball will move. Then, the other player takes control of his or her goalie's hands and tries to block the balls as they streak toward them in first-person. And if you don't like any of this super-powered stuff and want a more realistic humans and turtles and mushrooms playing soccer sim, you can unlock the power to turn all those fancy bits off.

Eric Bratcher
Eric Bratcher
I was the founding Executive Editor/Editor in Chief here at GR, charged with making sure we published great stories every day without burning down the building or getting sued. Which isn't nearly as easy as you might imagine. I don't work for GR any longer, but I still come here - why wouldn't I? It's awesome. I'm a fairly average person who has nursed an above average love of video games since I first played Pong just over 30 years ago. I entered the games journalism world as a freelancer and have since been on staff at the magazines Next Generation and PSM before coming over to GamesRadar. Outside of gaming, I also love music (especially classic metal and hard rock), my lovely wife, my pet pig Bacon, Japanese monster movies, and my dented, now dearly departed '89 Ranger pickup truck. I pray sincerely. I cheer for the Bears, Bulls, and White Sox. And behind Tyler Nagata, I am probably the GR staffer least likely to get arrested... again.