A half decent attempt but a typical good game runied by Nintendo's luck obsession.
The Mega-strikes are also a source of major problems. There is simply no logical consistency to them. A rushed shot with three balls, and poor power will often result in two goals whilst a perfect shot of six at full power can yield as little as one quite frequently. There feels little relation between your actions and the results, a criminal flaw for a video game. Somewhat luckily for the game however all these problems seep away in multi-player, where luck can be traded off as part of the action and where the mega-strikes and opponents are far more balanced. The game in it's multiplayer incarnation is a revelation, both fun and utterly exhausting where the line between victory and faliure is tight. It's also away from the single player mode where the character slection can shine. The ability to pick from a variety of sub players to augment your captain allows a high level of customisation that makes your team feel like it's your's. The variety of special moves, and the range of characters available adds much needed depth that allows the game to reach out beyond it's short-comings. As a vehicle to promote the new online features of the Wii machine it's a valid and successful choice.
The range of stadia, and the unique personalities each holds is also a source of much inspiration, and can alter the gameplay so dramatically so as to add genuine reasons to re-challenge your opponent of a field of your choosing.
It's just such a shame that so much that's good is let down by the mass of what's bad. A simple bit of thought and fairness is all that's needed but once again a game bearing the Nintendo name is let down by their unnerving desire to make luck such a potent element. Whilst you can relate their reasons in a multi-player, balancing out the level between experienced and non-experienced gamers, it is utterly unnecessary in the single-player incarnation and the travesty is that you end up feeling so little control over the results of your efforts. This failure is only worsened by the need to complete the single player to unlock many of the games secrets. A great game that's been badly mis-handled.