Mario Strikers Charged

Mario Strikers Charged
Also known as: Mario Strikers Charged Football (EU), Mario Power Soccer (KR) Developer: Next Level Games Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Wii Released in JP: September 20, 2007 Released in US: July 30, 2007 Released in EU: May 25, 2007 Released in AU: June 7, 2007 Released in KR: March 18, 2010 This game has unused areas. This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused cinematics. This game has regional differences.

To do: English, Spanish, and French text differences between the US and European versions. Unused alternate blue team color for Peach.

For Mario Strikers Charged, Next Level Games managed to take the grittiest Mario game and take it... to the next level.

Sub-Page

English Translation Differences The US and European translators can't seem to agree with each other.

Unused Stadiums

vicenight

Art\enviornments\vicenight\ contains an unused variation of the vice, that takes place during the nighttime. Other than that, there's a few other minor differences between the daytime and nighttime versions, such as there being stadium lights in the nighttime version, but none during the day. Also, the home team's banners that are hung in The Vice aren't shown in the nighttime version.

(Source: Kraken)

lowpolystadium

Art\enviornments\lowpolystadium\ contains a floating soccer field inside of a sphere that also has a texture of a soccer field. Other than that, there's not much else to see here.

(Source: Kraken)

Unused Videos

stadiumtest.thp

Art\movies\stadiumtest.thp is a a test rotation of a stadium.

introtest_pal.thp

Art\movies\introtest_pal.thp has a hidden pre-rendered version of the title screen at the ending. However, it is covered up by the actual game-rendered title screen. This does not appear in the other introtest.thp file, which instead shows a blank screen during the duration of the title animation.

(Source: Kraken)

Developer Files

Much like Super Mario Strikers, Charged uses .INI files to control parameters of the game. And once again, there are some interesting extra files thrown in.

Build Time Stamps

The file datetime.ini contains a nice little time stamp message of when the disc image was compiled. Hewan Woolley is credited for Programming.

DateTime = Apr 13 2007 18:18:30
UserName = WIIBURNER
BuildNumber = Change 41012 on 2007/04/13 by NLG@HWOOLLEY 'Fix for corrupt save banner pro'

Another file, datetime.ini.real, has a similar message. It was made a week later. Chad York is credited for Music Composition.

DateTime = Apr 20 2007 11:04:07
UserName = WIIBURNER
BuildNumber = Change 41751 on 2007/04/19 by NLG@CYORK 'Clean audio build for bug # 449'

Character Stat Files

The files that control the stats of the characters were given a completely new format. Despite not being used in the game, the Super Team has their own file. Other than being a bit taller, their stats are the same as Mario's. At the top of every character file, before the height/weight section, is a comment referring to programmer Bryce Holliday.

#### SPECIFIC VALUES ###	-- SOMETHING THAT NEEDS A SPECIFIC VALUE, Dont Change these without checking with Bryce

There is also an example character file, aptly named example.ini. It lacks a line for Hitting Distance, and has an extra section for Power-ups, which none of the characters use.

Difficulty Level Files

The files for controlling the difficulty level were given better organization than in Strikers, shedding some light on their usage. In fact, they specifically point out which files were for testing purposes.

# DIFFICULTY SuperHuman - everything 100% for testing

The file DifficultySuperhuman.ini returns, now with 100% more explanation.

# DIFFICULTY Baseline - used to tune the Baseline.ini (no tweaks overrided, no modifiers applied)

The file DifficultyBaseline.ini has a value of 0.5 for every stat.

Returning Files

A number of the files in the game are carried over from the first Strikers, including GameTweaks.ini and its odd commentary. This also means references to random Bowser attacks, which were removed from the game due to Bowser being a playable character.

Registry Test

This file was likely used for online profile registration. The names do not seem to correspond to any staff members.

[Mike]
Height = 5.5
Weight = 135
IsMale = true

[Ned]
Height = 6.5
Weight = 165
IsMale = true

[Linda]
Height = 5.2
Weight = 115
IsMale = false

Soak Test

A file with very simple contents. It was probably used to toggle a stress testing system to check for memory leaks or other such issues.

dosoak=true

zzzz.zzz

A file that contains a developer message related to a problem during the development of the game:

There is a bug in the NDEV file system that prevents the last file on
the disk from being read properly. Therefore, we make sure that the last
file on the disk (files are layed out alphabetically) is a dummy file
that isn't read by the game. This file must be at least 32 bytes long.
This file is added to the out\dist directory in the file GameArt.py
Dave C.

Regional Differences

The loading screen before a match is different between the US and European versions. The US version shows the mugshot for the captain while the European version shows only the captain's head.