I picked up Mario Strikers Charged Football earlier this week, and as always I'm going to give my thoughts and finish with a little rant.

First off, it's a great game to play with friends, and the online connection (which I have) is also good fun up to a point which I will discuss later.

My first major complaint is with the online. The ranked matches tend to be frequented by a type of player called a "Hammer Spammer". These people are annoying. Y'see, they use the Hammer Brother in their team. Now, each character has a dodge move and a special kind of shot (i.e. Captains use Megastrikes, Toad engulfs the ball in flames, Monty Mole tunnels underground and reappears with a headbutt etc.). Unfortunately, the Hammer Brother is very broken. His dodge move involves him jumping in the air and dropping a massive hammer on the ground, flattening anything beneath him, and his special shot sees him throwing a bunch of hammers and then booting the ball, now if the hammers hit the goalie, he's stunned and it's an instant goal. See where this is going?

*whistle blows, opponent passes to Hammer Bro* HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER *charging* hammerhammerhammerhammer GOAL! *repeat ad nauseum*

Fast characters can exploit the 2 or 3 second gap between hammers, but it's difficult for a newbie.

My only other complaint is that the game can get ridiculously unfair at times.

The one player mode consists of three cups: Fire, Crystal and Striker, with Striker being the hardest. Now each Captain has a special ability (Mario and Luigi turn into giants, Waluigi can create a thorny wall, Yoshi rolls around in a giant egg etc.) and Diddy Kong's is really unfair. He basically uses a tractor beam to suck your players off the field. Nevermind the fact that he's already one of the fastest characters in the game. The other pain in the rear end is Birdo, everyone's favourite gender confused, vacuum faced dinosaur. Not only is Birdo ridiculously overpowered (even though no-one likes it, Nintendo sees fit to try and shove it down our throats) it also has the most annoying dodge (a pirouette that sends anyone who touches it flying) but it has an instant goal supershot and the most GOD-AWFUL victory music ever (some kind of fast paced ballet crap). Put Diddy and Birdo on the same team in THE FINAL STAGE OF THE KNOCKOUT ROUNDS, WHERE A LOSS MEANS STARTING THE WHOLE CUP FROM SCRATCH and you have no chance of winning. I swear, I have to see Diddy's stupid victory dance or hear Birdo's theme again, I'm gonna go crazy.

I DO, however, have a strategy to beat these cheapasses, albeit one that involves me being in the lead and not being in a crappy stadium (Wastelands, Stormship, I'm looking at you). I use Bowser, I score, pass to Bowser, hide in the corner and turtle. Literally. Anytime someone tries to tackle me, dodge (Bowser recoils into his shell and knocks them away). Playing keep-away for 2 or 3 minutes is relatively easy unless they have shells or are very quick, like Diddy Kong and Daisy. So hopefully, if I ever see Diddy or Birdo again, I'll slip a goal past, and turtle for the win (unless that f******g tractor beam appears).

All in all, it's a great game, albeit a little too unfair at times, and I recommend it.