The GameCube era saw a number of first party sports titles released throughout its lifecycle. This was a healthy continuation from the previous generation on the Nintendo 64 with even more sports being thrown into the mix, several of which, of course, starring Mario. Perhaps one of the best of the Nintendo sports titles, Super Mario Strikers was also a welcome addition to the library. But, all these years later, is the first entry in the series still worth going back to today? Let’s get into it.
Note
For the purpose of this review, I played Super Mario Strikers via the GameCube Nintendo Classics app on the Nintendo Switch 2 with the wireless GameCube controller from My Nintendo. Even with that said, I’m going to focus primarily on the game as a whole rather than this particular version of it.
Background
Super Mario Strikers was first released in Europe on November 18, 2005 and was followed by a North American release on December 5, 2005, January 19, 2006 in Japan and April 6, 2006 in Australia. The game was developed by Next Level Games and marked their second game release as a studio, and first time partnering with Nintendo. This would lead to years of partnerships and games with Nintendo which eventually led to the company being purchased by Nintendo in 2021 to become a fully owned subsidiary of the company.
Gameplay
Everything about the gameplay in Super Mario Strikers is a beefed up five-on-five version of soccer/football. Teams consist of a captain, three sidekicks and a goalie. Gone are the rules of the game, such as offsides or penalties, to make for a more arcade-like feel. Nine captain characters are available to choose from as well as a handful of teams of sidekicks. These are:
Captains
- Mario
- Luigi
- Peach
- Daisy
- Wario
- Waluigi
- Donkey Kong
- Yoshi
- Super Team (all characters are the same)
Sidekicks
- Toads
- Hammer Bros.
- Koopa Troopas
- Birdo(s)
While on offense, A is used for passing, B is for shooting, X uses items, Y is for dekes or spins, R is used for a speed boost and Z changes the order of the items in your inventory. Using the L button in conjunction with passes or shots will initiate lobs. Shooting is quite a bit more nuanced than just pressing the B button. Holding it down for a little while with your team captain will initiate a super powerful shot called the Super Strike. As long as you don’t get hit while charging up, this can be game changing. If you manage to line up the power meter correctly, this will be guaranteed to go in AND give you two points. If the timing is a little bit off, the shot may or may not go in.
Defense offers a similar arcade-like feel with A being used to change players, B for slide tackles, X for items, Y for big hits and R and Z performing the same actions as the offense. Y is a great way to completely level your opponents and take control of a game. However, while taking out enemies constantly might seem like a good idea to gain an advantage, this comes with a cost. When you make use of big hits against players that don’t have the ball, the opposing team receives power-ups. Even though there is a limit on how many of these that can be held, on the higher difficulty levels you will have to really think about whether or not it is worth it to destroy a defenseless opponent. These were placed in the game in lieu of implementing some kind of penalties. Game producer, Ken Yeeloy (Next Level Games) mentioned in an October 2005 Kotaku interview that the power-up system “balances out the lack of penalties in the actual game. For unsportsmanlike play, the other team will get a power-up and hopefully be able to use that power-up to create a scoring chance.”
I’ve mentioned this before and I’ll mention it again - I’m typically not a fan of sports games that offer goofy or some kind of balance breaking element into the gameplay. While items may appear to do just this, I think the combination of balanced, fast gameplay, alongside of these make Strikers fun and yet fair at the same time. Despite some rumblings in the online Strikers community, I feel that the main characters and sidekicks all feel pretty balanced and no one in particular will give an unfair advantage.
Modes
The following handful of modes and options are available in Strikers:
- Grudge Match - exhibition games with friends or the CPU
- Cup Battles - four cups
- Super Cup Battles - opened after clearing Cup Battles, playable on “Professional” difficulty or higher
- Custom Battles - create your own tournaments
- Strikers 101 - learn the ins and outs of the game through tutorials
- Spoils
- Options
For those looking for the deepest experience the Strikers has to offer, the Cup Battle and Super Cup Battles (unlocked after going through Cup Battle) are where play. These put you through series of tournaments against the CPU. In total, four cups (Mushroom, Flower, Star and Bowser) are available in Cup Battles, each with progressively more matches to play. The main difference between regular Cup Battles and Super is the difficulty. Cup battles can be played at lower difficulty levels, while the Super Cup starts you out on Professional or higher. I found the lower difficulty levels to be quite easy, but even with that said, sometimes the CPU would really make things interesting with some fun back and forth matches. Playing on the higher difficulty levels, you can really see how much better the CPU performs. They’ll dodge more, take our players with big hits and just be strategic with the way they play. It’s challenging, and yet fair.
The modes on offer are fun, but I wished that there was just more to do. Of course, challenging the cups on higher difficulties is an obvious way to do this, but there’s a limit on that. The lack of mode variety is the lone setback to the game, especially if you are mainly tackling the game solo. Playing the game with friends would be a great way to get more longevity out of this one.
Visuals, Audio & Performance
Super Mario Strikers is a sharp looking game. Each of the characters are all wearing the appropriate gear to all look the part. Animations, such as what are found in the opening cutscenes of each match, are great. Facial expressions, kicks, dances and general movement all nail the landing. I was particularly found of the animation and sound associated with slamming opponents into the electrified walls in the stadiums as it was a good mix of brutality and comedy. The stadiums available in the game each offer their own unique looks, different surfaces to play on and net sizes. Speaking of nets, Strikers even offers net animations when the soccer balls are shot in - a great touch!
In terms of performance, Strikers runs pretty smoothly and I don’t recall any (or many) instances of slowdown when playing the game recently or playing it on the the original hardware back around the time of release. If you’re playing Strikers on original hardware or on the Wii, the game supports progressive scan mode (480p) as long as you have the proper equipment. Widescreen is also supported both on original hardware and the GameCube app running on Nintendo Switch 2. All in all, the combination of sharp visuals, nice animations, stellar performance and the ability to play the game in widescreen are all awesome.
Collector’s Corner
For you collector’s out there, Super Mario Strikers is one game that features some pretty amazing box art regardless of the region. I picked up a copy of the Japanese version pretty cheaply, though I used to own the North American version back in the day. The North American and Japanese box arts are pretty similar here, with the main difference being placement of the logo - the Japanese version has this on the bottom, while the North American one is at the top. The Japanese logo is also slightly different and also includes katakana to ensure Japanese natives will be able to read it. These differences in logo are also present on the titles screens of each respective game. My copy is pretty clean, coming with the Japanese sleeve, manual and other leaflets included when the game originally released. Simply put, this is a stunning piece to add to any collection.
Conclusion
Super Mario Strikers’ fun, fast paced gameplay is fantastic and makes it stand the test of time. On the other hand, the lack of depth for single player may limit gamers’ time with it. Of course, playing with friends is one way to get more mileage out of Strikers. Single player offerings might feel a bit lacking to some, but Strikers is still a blast to play.
But, let’s turn things over to you guys. Did you play Strikers back in the day? What other Nintendo sports (or third party) titles did you enjoy on the GameCube? Sound off in the comments down below. We’d love to hear from you.
by Danny Bivens
originally posted on Wednesday, November 12, 2026, 5:20 p.m.
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