10 Greatest Super Mario Spin-Offs Of All Time

Mario has seen no end to his sporting adventures. Golf, Tennis, the Olympics, even a Basketball game on DS with Final Fantasy characters. Keeping surprisingly active, one of this plumber’s lesser known sporting ventures was in Football back in 2007, where Mario Strikers Charged Football emerged on Nintendo Wii.

A sequel to 2005’s Mario Smash Football for GameCube, Charged employed a similar gameplay approach. Featuring no referees, you’d select a five-a-side team, choosing a captain, three sidekicks and have a set goalkeeper.

Each character was defined by five categories; Balanced, Playmaker, Power, Offensive and Defensive, leaving team balancing to you and much like Mario Kart, you could attack opposing players with items. If you make a dirty tackle, you’ll grant your opponents items, so it pays to otherwise keep it clean.

It received mostly positive reception and whilst there was some criticism about its lack of depth, multiplayer was where it truly shined. To this day, it still proves excellent fun and we would love to see it brought back on Switch version.