The online element to the game is lag-free and, like pretty much everything else with Wii, designed to be as easy as possible for even the most inept technophobe dad or soccer-mom to access as well as their technologically more clued-up offspring.

It is, as has been well publicised, also designed to be as safe as possible, with younger gamers in mind so, yes, you need to know your chosen opponent’s unique twelve-digit Friend Code to input before you can add them to your Friend Roster in the game. While there is a minority element of Nintendo fanboys out there who will moan at this aspect of the service, I for one welcome the increased control it gives me over who I choose to play (and, more importantly, not play) the game with.

When you select the Wi-Fi option in the game you are given four options to choose from - Play, Friend Roster, Leaderboard and Ranked. Add your mates in the friend’s roster and keep an eye on their ranks, wins, losses and points all handily displayed next to their Miis. It really could not be simpler.

You can see which of your mates are online, indicated in green (for ‘go’) and away you go. You select match settings, stadium and both select your captains and sidekicks just as you would in the single-player game. I, for one, welcome it as perhaps the first online multiplayer game that I will be able to play with younger nephews in the family, while their parents can be safe in the knowledge that they are partaking in a totally safe gaming experience (albeit with daft old uncle Adam!)

SPOnG Score: 88%

[i]Mario Strikers: Charged Football is a deceptively hardcore little game. While at first it may seem little more than a fast-paced, space-age cartoony kickabout, after repeated play of the single-player and both offline and online multiplayer games, it becomes clear that there is far more depth to the game than, at first, meets the eye. Graphics-wise, while nothing much to shout about, it looks, well, happy and colourful and pleasingly chunky, in the way in which only truly memorable Nintendo characters can.

Whether or not, in addition to the Nintendo fanboy community (who will have already pre-ordered), the legions of ‘casual’ gamers who have bought into Wii will buy the game when it comes out on May 25th, remains to be seen. Nintendo is putting one of its biggest marketing pushes of the year behind the title, which suggests it values it as highly as we do.[/i]