(released in Europe and Australia as Mario Smash Football), is a 2005 sports video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The game was released in Europe on November 18, 2005, North America on December 5, 2005, Japan on January 19, 2006, and Australia on April 6, 2006. The game's developers had worked on NHL Hitz Pro before development of Strikers, which served as an influence for the fast-paced and physical nature of the game. In general, reviewers lauded Strikers accessibility and multiplayer gameplay, but criticised the lack of gameplay modes and single-player offerings.

Gameplay

thumb|left|Opponents can be frozen by blue shells with the score tied between [[Waluigi and Peach.]]

Super Mario Strikers is a five-a-side football console video game comprising characters and themes from the Mario series. Each team consists of a captain character from the Mario series and three secondary Mario characters known as "sidekicks". Strikers follows the basic gameplay featured in most football video games, including the ability to dash, tackle players, and lob the ball. Despite this, characters not in possession can legitimately hit opponents with or without the ball ("Big Hit"), resulting in a more arcade-like style of gameplay. The game also features "Perfect" passes and shots, which trigger in sequence if both a pass and shot are applied close to the opponent's goal. The most powerful shot possible is the "Super Strike", which only the captain can make and will account for two points if successful. Once charged, the player must time button presses accurately on a visible gauge to trigger a successful shot at a goal, resulting in a character-specific animation.

Strikers includes multiple gameplay modes such as the "Grudge Match", which is the standard single and multiplayer match mode of the game. Training sessions come in the form of "Strikers 101", where the player can practice individual aspects such as shooting and dashing. "Cup Battles" allows up to four players to compete in tournaments against artificial intelligence opponents to advance through more difficult cups for rewards, with "Super" denoting the higher-ranked tournaments.

Development

Strikers was developed by Next Level Games, who revealed the game at the E3 conference of 2005 in the form of a playable demonstration. In an interview, game director Mike Inglehart and marketing director Grace Kim revealed that Strikers was originally intended to be a more realistic Mario sports game, but the development team opted for an "over-the-top" style after numerous consultations with Nintendo. Next Level Games cited a connection between Strikers and NHL Hitz Pro in terms of gameplay mechanics, claiming that the latter influenced the "responsive gameplay" in Strikers, as well as the use of goalkeepers and on-field collisions. The developers revealed that the character system would be "balanced and fun", although Nintendo had "the ultimate say" in regards to character design, wanting strong and aggressive styles that did not deviate from past characterisations too much. For this reason, voice recording for Strikers required more lines and sounds than in other Mario sports titles. The game was developed in 13 months.

Assisted by producer Ken Yeeloy, Inglehart stated in an interview a willingness to link any new feature of Strikers with the sport of football. With this, they decided to accentuate "the exciting parts" of the game, with Inglehart using the electric fences in the stadia as an example in reference to the physicality of the sport. They also explained reasons for not using a penalty or card system, rating the power-up system as compensation for this considering power-ups are awarded to the team of a player that has been pushed or shoved.

Reception

Super Mario Strikers received generally positive reviews from critics, with reviewers lauding the game's characterisation and visual style, being reminiscent to that of Kazuto Nakazawa. GameSpots Brian Ekberg praised the game's accessibility, stating that "Strikers' pick-up-and-play design will have you playing like a cartoon Pele in no time". Similarly, critics welcomed the developers' choice to forgo traditional football rules in the favour of a more arcade-like style of gameplay. 1Up.com thought that once players figured out the AI's intricacies, there was little reason to replay the game.

Awards and sales

In GameSpots E3 2005 coverage, this game was given the award "Best Sports Game," and was nominated a finalist for "Best Game of Show." It received GameSpys "Game of the Year 2005" awards for "Best GameCube Sports", "Best GameCube Multiplayer", and was ranked second for all the GameCube games in 2005. It was a finalist for "Sports Game of the Year" by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the 9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. Super Mario Strikers sold 950,000 copies in North America as of December 27, 2007. It sold 1.20 million copies overall.

Notes

References

  • Super Mario Strikers at Nintendo.com (archives of the original at the Internet Archive)
  • Official website