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Now for the game itself. I've played a lot of the game over the last few days, and I'm not sure I'm in the right frame of mind to write this review. My last session with the game ended with a infuriating defeat to Daisy, which nearly made me throw my Wii Remote at the telly. I've got a cup of tea (no crumpets ) and I'm starting to calm down. The best way to put this is that the game is easy to pick up, very difficult to master. The buttons are simple, press A to pass, B to shoot. You move with the Nunchuk, and do hard hits by shaking the Wii Remote. There are other button combinations that allow you to do chips, skills, and sliding tackles, but it's very easy to play. There's a tutorial section that lets you run through the basics, and after this you can dive straight into the action.

The games are played with 5 players. One captain (who have different attributes including passing, shooting, defence, and movement), 3 "sidekicks" (again who have different attributes), and a goalkeeper (who are all the same). This ability to choose your team allows for some sort of tactics. Do you choose a team of Shy Guys who are good all rounders, or do you go for a strong defensive team? I like to go for variety in my team, with on strong defender, and good passer, a powerful striker, and an all round captain. Although with the pace of the game, and the environmental factors that come into play with each pitch, I'm not sure how much difference this actually makes.

The key to success lies in the "charged" part of this game's title. The ball charges up every time it gets kicked, and changes colour from purple to red to orange to yellow and finally white. The closer the ball is to white, the more powerful your shot will be, and therefore you will be more likely to score. This means that it pays to try and string a few passes together before you deliver a killer strike on goal. If that seems too much work for you, you can charge the shot by holding down the B button before you unleash it. The longer you hold it down, the more powerful the shot will be. You do, however, leave yourself open to be challenged.

If your captain manages to unleash a fully charged shot, they will activate the Mega Strike meter. You have a limited time (without being challenged) to select the number of balls to send goal wards, and the power. Your part is then over, and it's down to the goalkeeper to try and save your shots. If you are defending against a Mega Strike, you use the Wii Remote to point at the incoming balls, and press A to deflect them. The maximum amount of balls you can release in a Mega Strike is 6, so this can lead to some high-scoring games. If your sidekick makes a charged shot, they each have their own Skillshot. For some it's a pretty much guaranteed goal if they're close enough to the goal, for others the shot will stun the keeper, allowing the rebound to be slotted home. Again, it takes time to charge up a shot, and you've got to ensure that you have enough space to kick the ball without being challenged.

To help you make this space the game uses items. Every time to make a charged shot (not just a Mega Strike or Skillshot) or get tackled when you haven't got the ball (there are no fouls in this game - this is the way of punishing bad challenges) you get given an item. These items can be activated and if you've played a Mario Sports game you'll know what they do. Red Shells home toward the opposition, banana skins form a defensive line in front of you, Bob-ombs explode on the area around the ball, and chain chomps run around the pitch immobilizing all that they touch. Each captain has their own Super Ability which they can use to smash the opposition around them. Mario and Luigi, for example, grow in size, and can stomp the players around them. Then they can charge up a Mega Strike free from interference. Some work better than others, and it adds to the decision of choosing your captain.

There is not much to the game, and the single player option is pretty weak. There are 3 cups to enter (Fire, Crystal, and Striker), and some challenges, but that's it. I'm hoping that you unlock more cups once these have been completed (there is mention of Star, Mushroom, and Sand cups in the challenge section), but it's still thin in my opinion. There are many pitches to unlock to be used in the Domination mode (just one-off games against the CPU or a friend), and some are better than others. One of the more annoying aspects of the games are the pitches. One pitch blows debris across it and knocks your team off the playing field, another drops Thwomps on the pitch, and another even disintegrates players before the kick-off. For me this makes the game too random, and takes some of the skill away from it. You can be winning 2-0 to have 3 of your players disappear from the action leaving the opposition free to score 3 goals by a Mega Strike. It does mean that people of varying skill can compete more evenly, but when you're trying to win the final game of a tournament knowing that defeat means that you have to start the whole thing from the start...it's very annoying.

So that leaves the Wi-Fi. And it's good fun. The games play well, and although there are no real options when playing random people, it's still entertaining. There are two basic modes; friendlies and ranking series. Friendlies are against people you have exchanged friend codes with (although interestingly Nintendo state in the manual

If you'll be using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in Mario Strikers Charged Football, you will be able to play only with people in Europe. If you choose FRIENDLY and invite somebody living in another continent after having inserted their Friend Code, you might be able to play with him or her, but Nintendo does not advise it as the lag could potentially make the match unplayable.

I hope this isn't the case with all Wi-Fi games on the Wii, and I'll be keen to see what the lag is actually like when another continent gets the game.

For the Ranking matches, you are matched with a random opponent, and get a certain number of points for a win, and bonus points for the goals that you have scored. All series or "best of three" games, and once you have won your points, you increase in ranking. There is a striker of the day award if you score the most points on that day, and there is a week long season to be ranked against. A great addition is the ability to play 2 v 2 over Wi-Fi, and this is the most enjoyable part of the game for me.

Sadly there are a number of negative points to this game. Aside from the limited single payer game, it has a steep learning curve. I'm struggling to get past the second cup, and I like to think that I'm not a bad gamer. It's not that I don't understand the game, or can't play it, but it's that the CPU is so infuriating. You can have 10 charged shots at goal, and the keeper will save all of them. The opposition will have one and score. For some reason when I play with Toad he can't hit a barn door - when he plays for the CPU he is suddenly Stevie G, and scoring at will.

The items (which are meant to punish foul play) are useless. Releasing the Chain Chomp, for example, affects the whole pitch, not just the opposition. So Bowser can foul you all he wants, and you just get a item which is more of a hindrance than a help. Maybe I don't use them as well as I should, but when the action is so fast and furious, it's hard to pay attention to the items you have at your disposal. I often find I waste them, and just this morning I was trying to tackle someone, looked at what items I had to shoot at him, and as a result he scored. There are so many more annoying parts to the CPU's game. You will often sit amazed at how they have managed to score by using a dummy move, or how they manage to get the most useful items. Maybe it's just me, but when I get to that throwing-stuff-at-the-telly annoyance stage, I know I'm not enjoying the game.

I'll keep practicing, and playing on Wi-Fi is still good fun (even though the opposition is rock-hard).

The Max nested elements reached Points

The Max nested elements reached Points