Mario Strikers (series)

The Mario Football series, also known as the Mario Strikers series in North America and Japan, is a series of Mario soccer games. It is a Nintendo-exclusive series that launched its first game in 2005. The series only contains two games to date: Mario Smash Football and Mario Strikers Charged Football. The game can be played from one to up to four players at one time. Mario Strikers Charged Football also features Wi-Fi capability.

Mario Smash Football
Mario Smash Football, the first game in the series, was released on the Nintendo Gamecube. It featured basic rules of soccer, although having its own playing style as implied in several sport Mario games. One specialized rule was Super Strikes. Only the team captain could execute a Special Strike, and if done so perfectly, the shot would always make the goal, and be worth 2 points. There are a total of eight different playable team captains, four different sidekick players, and two different goalies. A sequel was released in 2007: Mario Strikers Charged Football.

Mario Strikers Charged Football
Mario Strikers Charged Football, the second and most recent installment in the series, was released on the Wii in 2007. Wi-Fi capability was a new addition to the game, allowing players to compete across the world over the internet. The game featured four new team captains: Bowser, Bowser Jr., Diddy Kong, and Petey Piranha, as well as four new types of sidekicks (Boos, Dry Bones, Monty Moles, and Shy Guys). The game included new fields to compete, many of them containing certain gimmick that would modify the situation of every match. For this second mainstream, the characters would have special kicks to score, like sidekicks' skillshots or the powerful Mega Strikes of the captains, which Kritter proves his potential to stop the soccer balls, under the control of the user. Also, new power-ups has been added for each team captain, known as Super Abilities.