One hell of an addicting...yet incredibly frustrating game!!!
Soccer has never been so much fun, and I dont' think it could get much better. Pretty much you pick your mario flavored captain from a few major characters, and then use minor characters to fill in your team.
Your treated to three 'cup's much like the popular Mario Kart series (why Kart is being released after Strikers makes little sense to me... I always though Kart was a bigger franchise) and much like the Kart series, you get extreemly easy... frustratingly difficult, but not impossible...and then where the hell did I put my pistol suicidingly difficult thrid cup... only this time I'm sure it's impossible.
The animations are awesome, the sounds amazing, and the graphics definatly show that the 'old' graphics processor has a lot more tricks up it;s sleeve than stereotypically thought. Each character, major and minor has their own victory dances, which are quite amusing... they even have their own losing dances! Theres a lot of variety there, but you would think they could put more variety into the 'mega shot' animations that YOU CANNOT SKIP, and can get quite boring after the third or fourth time you see it. I wish tye would have more than one annimation per character... The music is pretty good, ripped from previous decades and redone for the game, but it lends a nice hand. Aside from the comical styling of the characters...the game seems to be pretty dark. There seem to be more 'evil' or 'dark' styled arenas than the happy go-lucky versions one might usually think would acompany a Mario title. Even the 'menu' music can be dark at times when it's not the up-beat stuff that it plays when you start the game.
Overall, a very good game, and a welcome addition to my collection!