08-10-2007, 01:17 PM
Mr.Luben
Presents
A review of
Well, lets start out with the so called story. In other words, "Road to the Striker Cup". This simply is a mode in witch you try to beat all of your opponents to win one of the different cups. Beating everyone and wining the Cup will unlock new stages, characters and so on. This mode is fun but something that got on my nerves was the skill levels of the other teams. One match you could play Mario. Then, 3 matches latter, Mario comes back and kills you 10 to 2... Yes that did happen to me once. So i was wondering how Mario suddenly got so good... Not a huge deal but it did get a little annoying. Another annoying thing about this is that it is Multiplayer but not Co-op. I wanted so bad to play along side my friends but sadly i could only play against them. But overall its a great way to get good and have a great time.
Another mode that dose have some "Story" built in is the Challenge mode. Strikers Challenges is where the game puts you in a game that may seem impossible to get out of. For example, you may be facing DK with only 20 secs left but you have to score 2 more goals to win the game. Most do provide a pretty good challenge but are overall not to much fun. It is worth while to do these how ever because for each challenge that you unlock you get a player card. These player cards give you more and more extras that are great to have.
But with a challenging single player, how do the controls for the wii-mote handle? I did find pros and cons for the controls but mostly they were fun to play with and great to handle in a tight spot in the game. One thing that i must complain about is how hard some of the mega strikes are to block. Maybe its just me but every time someone would lay 6 balls out on me, i would block maybe one. And the blocking also felt a little tacked on just to get some pointing in there. Another thing that made me a little annoyed were the use of Button combos. Most of the combos were used for shooting and passing but sometimes you would find yourself doing the wrong kind of shot because you had acedently let your finger lay on the A button. Overall they are pretty good and fun to use. Just don't be surprised if you get annoyed.
If you ever played the first Strikers, you know how crappy the crowds look and how stupid the characters looked up close. Well, nothing really has changed much except for the crowd is actually real now. All the characters look horrible up close and some times during replay, you will see the ball move without the kicker even touching it yet. There really isn't much to say about graphics except that it barely looks like a Wii title besides the Intro. Why couldn't Nintendo push for better dust effects, better crowds, better characters design? Maybe the Wii is just 2 game cubes duck taped together...
Now, you are probably thinking to yourself, why should i buy this game? So far it doesn't sound to great. Well keep reading because its about to get a whole lot better. Better mainly because of the gameplay. In strikers you have to pass the ball from one person to another to get charge. More charge means more likeliness of getting a shot in the goal. Passing is pretty simple. Just tap A. Stealing can get a little difficult but it isn't to hard. Just tap the D-pad if your in the right spot to take the ball. If your not really a passing person, then Skill shots are your thing. Skill shots are shots that side kicks charge up. This then sends something powerful out. Like a ball of flame or a ball that is electrified. This gives each side kick its own special touch witch is great. Captions also have there own special ability's! Like DKs thunder smash or Waluigi's cloud of blackness. These all give each caption there pros and cons witch gives the game a great depth. Something that captions can bring on are Mega Strikes. Mega Strikes are done by charging a shot and then a gauge appears that determines the number and speed of the balls. But if you get tackled during these, then you can not complete the strike. Besides those special things that they have there are Power-Up items that you can get by ether getting tackled or saving a huge Skill shot. Most of them are shells or bombs that shot out like in Mario kart. Overall the gameplays is fast paced fun and just overall great to play!
The overall sound of the game is great. The opening music to the kicking of the ball are great. All of them are fun and energenic to hear. Somthing that i really looked forward to is each sidekicks own little theme. When a side kick scores a goal, that side kicks theme plays during the replay. Those were by far the best. Overall, all the music got me pumped to play!
Now something i have saved for last is the Online. Nintendo Wi-Fi connection has been doing pretty good lately with games on the DS. But now, it has come to the wii and it is true the first real online game. It has leader boards and random matches with strangers. If you win a game, you get 10 and 1 point for every goal. If you loose, you get 1 point and 1 point for every goal. The basic point of online is to get alot of points so that you can become the striker of the day or become one of the top in season. Both are HUGE feats since most Striker of the day people get about 1500. And i think the season leader so far has about 50000. I sadly only have 300... But its so addicting. I did have some problems with online when i first got the game but then it suddenly started streaming wonderfully! I don't know if it was our Internet connection but it is still working wonderfully. Another thing that was great is playing online with a friend. Its so much fun to work together with another to kick someones butt! Sadly, now comes the time when i start to compare it to Xbox Live. Its not as in depth as Live is, but for Nintendo, its great! Some things that i really wished was there were Voice chat and NO friend codes. I love talking smack on live and i wish i could do it so bad on Strikers. Friend codes (in my oppion) are killing its own maker and Nintendo doesn't want to do anything about it. Besides those two things, Online is great. Not as amazing as Live, but it is still amazing for Nintendo. As well, online will keep you coming back for months until Brawl comes out! And hopefully, Brawl will have just as good as online as this!
Story ~ 7.8
- Meh, its no Halo story, but there are plenty of Unlockables and such...
Controls ~ 8.5
- I did get annoyed at some points but overall pretty good!
Graphics ~ 6.5
- Why didn't Nintendo bump up the graphics? Looks alot like GameCube...
GamePlay ~ 8.9
- Great fun with alot of different strategy in Characters
Sound ~ 9.8
- Great sound everywhere in the game
Online ~ 9.5
- Awesome fun!! Its no Live, but it still is a great step up for nintendo!
Overall - 8.8
And now if you are to lazy to read, then you should check out my Video review!!!! Thanks everyone!!!
Luben
good job.
*is more of a Fifa kinda guy*