When it comes to Inazuma Eleven Strikers, don't let any references to football (soccer if you're of the North America persuasion) or the snazzy kits fool you, this isn't a football game. It's a ball game with football-style rules, infused with extravagant special moves and buckets of charm, which is guaranteed to raise an initial smile for anyone who remembers when video games were little more than silly fantasies and over-the-top action. Unfortunately for this title, that smile won't last long for grown-up gamers, though the younger target audience may get through the full match.
To make one thing clear from the offset, this title has very little in common with the two DS RPG experiences released in Europe. While those are lengthy, involving tales with an experience defined by much more than the occasional game of football, Strikers strips out the match-play, spruces it up and does away with everything else. While that's probably to be expected of any spin-off, it's important to note that any levelling up, bonds or team building through transfers — all in the Club Room career mode — are minor and far less substantial than in the main series entries.
The game of football — a term we'll continue to use loosely — that this title offers up is undoubtedly stylish and fun. With clean and basic cel-shaded graphics to set the tone, you carry out the basic actions of run, sprint, pass and shoot, but throw in plenty of the outlandish special moves that have come to define the franchise. Some are particularly memorable, such as a defender that replaces the ball with a bomb or summons an enormous "divine" foot to crush the attacker, or the striker that produces four rocket-propelled penguins that fly the ball towards goal. One of the main activities in this game is, quite simply, messing around and experimenting with special moves, playing with as many players and teams as possible in order to see them.
It's in the basic modes of Exhibition and Tournament where this style works best, most specifically in multiplayer. When playing with a friend there are plenty of laughs to be had — at least while the experience is fresh — while an extra player without much skill can also join in as a coach. While two players can play in co-op, or against each other, anyone with a Wii Remote can point at the screen and create areas to recover vital TP (Technical Points) for pulling off special moves, or waggle the remote to make special moves even more powerful. The main control options are equally accessible, with Wii Remote and Nunchuk, Wii Remote only and the Classic Controller all supported; on screen button prompts also help players along. With the fun of experimenting with co-op special moves and different levels of these skills, all while someone else can help from the sidelines, this game does a good job of enabling a group to have some old-fashioned fun.
It's not all great in multiplayer, however, with the five Mini Games on offer being rudimentary at best, with any gold medals for performance seeming like an impossibility. They normally involve tapping buttons in time, quickly or in co-ordination with a team mate, but they're not particularly enjoyable or effective. It's unfortunate that these same activities count as Training in the career mode, just one issue with the Club Room.
While the Club Room mode does its best to introduce elements from the full adventures — such as items, scouting for players and bonds between team mates — the experience ultimately falls down due to the fact that it's basically a trudge through consecutive tournaments. That's common in many games, of course, with the idea that you gradually improve your team to move up to tougher opponents, but the gameplay doesn't have enough depth to sustain interest for a number of consecutive matches.
Playing this title alone is significantly less fun than in co-op, simply because your attention is focused on the shortcomings of the game design. The special moves become a blessing and curse, as they're the most interesting thing about the matches while also becoming repetitive and relentless. There'll be occasions where special moves, on either side, are activated every few seconds, and on each occasion you have to sit and watch the same old animation sequence. It breaks up the flow of play to an excessive degree — especially as scoring normal goals is such a rare occurrence — and matters aren't helped much by having to listen to the same screams of "THE TOWER" or "THE WALL" over and over again.
Of course, this repetition and compulsion to shout repeatedly truly shows that this is a video game for children, which struggles to find a balance to keep older gamers equally interested and, well, not in a state of irritation. It takes away the age-group unifying depth of the DS entries and opts for the simplistic approach, so anyone of a certain age coming into this expecting a similar experience is likely to be surprised, initially charmed, and then bored.
Conclusion
Inazuma Eleven Strikers has some undeniable strengths, specifically when two or more players gather with the express intention of enjoying some mindless fun. Kids and big kids alike will get a kick from the cheerful visuals and bombastic special moves, making it a game of football as imagined by hyperactive five-year-olds. The charm struggles to last, however, with older gamers likely to become more irritated than excited as the hours drift by. Younger gamers may have more patience and enjoy it for longer; it really depends how much you like tornado shots and giant god-like goalkeeping hands, over and over again.
Comments 17
Oh well, that's more money to go towards a Wii U game instead then.
I played this for a bit & instantly regretted it. Took me a while of searching on the internet to find out the game doesn't have any story or RPG mode & basically has nothing to do with the DS games. I have no interest in soccer but have found the Inazuma Eleven DS games amazingly great fun despite that fact hence I was very excited for a Wii version of the DS games. Sadly this was a total miss for me
Does this have Professor Layton in it at all? I heard he was in one of the DS games, that blew my mind.
Fun with two players. Double fun if you're a fan of the series and the DS games.
Hmm, that's a pity - the reviews I've read so far all seem to agree that this is fairly average.
Looks like I'll probably give it a miss!
Seems like I might go for Skylanders Giants instead.
@WiiLovePeace Yeah, the Inazuma Eleven games seem really fun, but the lack of singleplayer content is very disappointing. Not that it'll come to the US anyways...
The guy with red hair looks like Tala.
Haven't got round to playing this yet. We are fans of the DS games in our household. My lad likes the FIFA handheld games and Mario Strikers. Hoepfully he'll like this. :-S
This game looks VERY bizzare.
It's actually not a bad game (not that a 5 means bad, more like mediocre, which I'd agree with), and I wouldn't call it a non-Football game, indeed it is one, it just has an exaggerated twist. While I prefer the DS series, Strikers is not a bad game, and fans of the series will no doubt have fun with the game. It's looser than most Sports games, mainly because the source material is largely different than traditional sports games (the games are played in massively different respects), but also because it vies for surrealism rather than realism, as games such as Fifa are geared towards. I'd really recommend one playing the DS games (or really just one of them) before playing Strikers, but you don't really need to. I've actually had a lot of fun with Strikers, and it's great for playing with friends or if you just want to play a few rounds by yourself.
The real problem is that some of the facets of the game, such as scoring normal goals, TP exertion, and the forgettable minigames, seemed more like afterthoughts. That's not to say it's not fun, but at least the former two were critical parts of the original game, and the latter is critical given that the game features no Story Experience or really any extended offerings, and thus it's not really worth $50. Thus, I'd recommend playing the DS games until the Wii title (or titles, if 2012 Extreme comes over) become...say, $20?
A 5? That's much lower then I expected! Maybe it's good that I didn't buy it yet!
Though the complaining about the yelling isn't fair! EVERY anime/anime-game contains yelling! Characters always have to shout the names of their moves/monsters/powers etc. That's just Japanese tradition, whether you like it or not!
@machomuu Isn't that basically exactly what the review said?
Well, didn't see that score coming... Good review Thomas!
@DiscordedTeeJay Pretty much, but I, personally, would give it at least a six (or possibly a 6.5), simply because even a non-fan of the series could still get quite a bit of fun out of it, with friends or otherwise, and it has quite some longevity, just not too much content on the side (or much to support the story). It's not a bad game, it just seems a little rushed and lacks polish, but the music, graphics, and gameplay really do make for a good experience. So really, I just wanted to note a few things not in the review and highlight some things that were.
@Henmii I don't disagree with you on the yelling itself...buy don't say it's Japanese culture, not even as a joke. It is in the spirit of Inazuma Eleven to make an incredibly audacious impression, same with many other anime (and comic books, Western or Eastern), but please don't say it's "Japanese Tradition" for them to do so. The Japanese are, as a generalization, conservative; even they would look silly if they yelled out the names of moves and there were no flames or gigantic tremors to accompany them. It's strictly a media technique.
hope its comes to the u.s along with pandora tower and project zero 2...
"but please don't say it's "Japanese Tradition" for them to do so. The Japanese are, as a generalization, conservative; even they would look silly if they yelled out the names of moves and there were no flames or gigantic tremors to accompany them. It's strictly a media technique"
Well, it wasn't my intention to insult them! I know Japanese people are kindy introvert (to a certain extent), but they go all out on their games, Anime's etc. It's just something that I noticed over the years: There's a lot of yelling in their Anime's/games!
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