Towards the end of the Gamecube era, Nintendo finally realised that Mario needed a new sport to try, and real sport; one which people across the world could get passionate about. So, Nintendo got together with Next Level Games, and came up with football. Not American Football, but pure football; the game the English are famous for starting, and then managing to lose at it all the time. But, would Mario be able to star in a football game without it being a loose addition to the game? Thankfully, Next Level Games took football in its loosest sense, added head-butting, electric fences and chain chomps, and sold it as Mario Smash Football, one of the Gamecube’s finest games. So, when the Wii was announced, many people wondered how Mario’s sports titles would be transferred onto it, and at Leipzig 2006, the world saw a new Mario Strikers game for the Wii...

From that simple act of showing a short game, the world went into a frenzy, wondering how it would work and whether it would ruin the game’s concept. But, when Mario Strikers Charged Football finally entered European Wiis (that’s before the rest of the world!) football fans were not disappointed.

It’s difficult to know where to begin with this game, as there is a lot to it. The game opens with a nice cinematic showing the characters in action on the pitch. It has a nice soundtrack to it, and it gets you buzzing before the game begins. The first thing that you’ll see, and most crucial aspect of the game, is the menu. The menu has been changed from the GC version, with the seven icons now surrounding the new look ball. This is useful, as you select icons with the Wii remote, meaning that the next icon is never too far away from you.