Strikers Charged is fun and frustrating.
For no real reason, all the Mario characters decide to have football tournaments. The first is extremely easy, the second is quite hard and the third is extremely difficult.
You pick one 'captain', i.e. a fully-fledged character, and three 'sidekicks', who are the less-important characters of the Mario world, such as Koopa, ShyGuy and Birdo.
Each character has strengths and weaknesses - Mario, as in ALL the other sports games, including racing, is your typical balanced character. DK is obviously more offensive.
The controls work quite well. Passing is done with A (and a direction on the nunchuk), shooting is B, C uses an item (shells, chainchomps etc.) and Z is the modifier i.e. it makes a pass into a lob/cross or performs a lobshot with B.
Special shots are performed by holding B. These are unique to the character, which is quite cool - for example, Birdo shoots an egg. With captains, it uses Megastrike. This may sound/look cool, but unless it's (near) perfect, human players will save each shot (by pointing and pressing A) and computers will as well, at least on higher difficulty.
Each character also has a skill, performed using any directional button and most of these (if not all) are simply to avoid contact with other players. If not in possession of the ball, the buttons do a slide tackle. For the more aggressive of you, shake the Remote for a smash tackle, which you can do off-the-ball. You should try to hit the person into the side of the arena, there is either an electric fence or nothingness.
Music is remixed Mario classics, which all sound familiar to fans. Sounds of characters are also familiar, including Peach's squeals when thrown into the electric fence.
Multiplayer and online are basically the same in my eyes - except in one you play someone not sat next to you. It's fun but, again, frustrating at times.
The problems : it goes from FAR TOO EASY to INSANELY HARD very quickly. There are too many cheap-feeling tricks, like making Boo float through the keeper or constantly volleying the ball, making it VERY hard to get it. Pressing Shoot in your own half clears the ball, with NO direction. Repetition, gameplay wise, is not too apparent, but the Megastrike cutscenes feel like they drag on forever. The WORST thing of ALL is that you cannot skip the scene after your opponent scores in multiplayer. They have to press A. My older brother uses that to his full advantage whilst Wario gloats, dancing around the pitch whilst Mario cries in the corner.
There are, of course, times where you feel it's the best game ever. Chipping the ball to Mario who does a slow-mo backflip kick and shoots it to the back of the net. Dry Bones charging up a shot that electrifies the keeper, followed by a lob shot over his frazzling body. Knowing that your opponent will never win in the twenty seconds left. Being happy in the knowledge that you've just ruined some seven-year-old's day.
Mario Strikers is a good game, in single and multiplayer, but if you buy it, be sure that you are in for an emotional rollercoaster.