All-Time Highest Rated Games Tagged 'casual, GameCube, mario' on The Great Games Experiment http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/css/logo.jpg en-us Take all the crazy action of the celebrated Mario Kart series.. and multiply it by two! In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, each kart holds two racers that can switch places at any time, so choose from a huge cast of favorites and pair them up any way you see fit!

]]> 02 Feb 2007 08:57:56 Nintendo's foray into sports titles continues with Super Mario Strikers, a new soccer game that's unlike anything ever to hit the pitch. Whether players are freezing their opponents with an ice-cold shell, unleashing a spiny shell on their hapless opponents or making entire teams flee in terror with a roving Chain Chomp, they're sure to see something new around every corner kick.

Super Mario Strikers features all the favorite characters from the Nintendo universe, as well as four-person multiplayer action that will have players and their friends cheering all night long. Get ready for the world cup of gaming.

]]> 01 Feb 2007 01:44:56 Luigi's Mansion is an adventure video game developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube in 2001. It was a launch title for the GameCube.

Luigi's Mansion is the first official Mario game to star Luigi exclusively, as opposed to most earlier Mario titles that featured either Mario by himself or both Mario and Luigi. It features a unique set of goals and ways to attain those goals, involving stunning ghosts with a flashlight and promptly sucking them into a vacuum cleaner, which is aptly named the Poltergust 3000.

]]> 13 Feb 2007 03:55:51 Mario Mix features several of Nintendo's popular characters, including Mario, Luigi, Toad, Toadette, Waluigi, Wario, and Bowser. According to the story, Waluigi has stolen the "Music Keys", unleashing their music upon the Mushroom Kingdom and causing chaos. Mario must restore peace to the land by recovering the Music Keys.

]]> 13 Feb 2007 11:32:56 A feature unique to Mario Superstar Baseball is "player chemistry". Player chemistry puts emphasis on character relationships and compatibility while playing. There are two types of player chemistry: good and bad. Good chemistry occurs when two "buddy" players throw to each other while fielding. The ball travels faster when one character throws to a buddy, improving teamwork. On offense, a player's batting abilities increase if he/she has a buddy on base. A few examples of buddy players are Peach & Daisy, Mario & Luigi, Donkey Kong & Diddy Kong, Yoshi & Birdo, Bowser & Bowser Jr., and Wario & Waluigi. Good chemistry is symbolized by an eighth note, and is displayed to show which characters are friends. If other characters share this note when one is highlighted, they are buddies.

Conversely, bad chemistry occurs when one character throws to another character he/she dislikes. The ball travels much slower, and is wildly off-line, which may result in misplays that are usually routine (Such as throwing a runner out at first base). Examples of characters who have bad chemistry with each other are Mario & Bowser, Toad & Wario, and Luigi & Boo. Bad chemistry occurs less often than good chemistry, however.

A single game of baseball, players choose the Team Captain and a roster of players, and play one game. Players can also choose how many innings the game will last, and pick their choice out of 6 unique stadiums.

The heart of Mario Superstar Baseball is the Challenge Mode. It is a single-player mode where the player selects a pre-built team and must defeat all the other teams; at first Bowser's team is the last team to beat for the cup, and must be unlocked before the player can use him. There are six teams, each led by one of the Captains (Mario, Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Wario and Bowser), features a secondary captain (Luigi, Daisy, Birdo, Diddy Kong, Waluigi and Bowser Jr.), and is filled with a mix of sub characters, some of which are duplicated within a team, but do not appear on any other team. For example, Mario's team consists of Mario, Luigi, Monty Mole, 3 Piantas and 3 Nokis, Princess Peach's team consists of Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Toadette, Toadsworth, and 5 Toads, Wario's team consists of Wario, Waluigi, Boo, King Boo, Petey Pirahna, and 4 Magikoopas, Yoshi's team consists of Yoshi, Birdo, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, and 5 Shy Guys, Donkey Kong's team consists of Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, Goomba, Paragoomba, 2 Koopa Troopas, and 2 Koopa Paratroopas and Bowser's team consists of Bowser, Bowser Jr., 4 Dry Bones, and 3 Hammer Bros

Players challenge the other teams, beating the other four opens the path to Bowser's castle. The secondary purpose of defeating other teams is to recruit other characters to improve ones team. On opposing teams, each character has a set of scouting flags. During the game players will have mission objectives like "Strike 'em out", or "Score a run", that earn flags; if one gets all the flags of a particular character and wins the game, that character will be recruited. Flags are cumulative, so if the player doesn't get all the flags in a game, or loses the game after getting all the flags, the flags earned will remain when the team is challenged again; a team can be challenged as long as the captain of the team is not recruited. Players of a different color (such as Purple Toad & Yellow Magikoopa) can't be recruited and can only be played in minigames and playing with the teams they start on (ex. Green Toad with Peach).

If the team captain is recruited, his or her team will disband; any characters from that team that were not recruited will join a team led by Bowser Jr. Another way to recruit characters is by a mercy win; if either team is leading by at least 10 runs at the end of an inning, the game is called out of mercy to the losing team. If the player wins a game in this fashion, all characters on the opposing team will be so impressed that they will immediately join.

After every game or minigame, Bowser Jr. will wander around the map; if the player challenges him, they will play a game in the bottom of the 9th inning, with the player randomly chosen as visitor or home. If the player's team is the visiting team, then they will have the lead and must stop Bowser Jr. from mounting a comeback; otherwise, it is the player's job to mount a comeback. Beating Bowser Jr. earns the player coins to use in the shop, while losing costs the player coins. Bowser Jr.'s team also has players from disbanded teams that the player can recruit; in which case the only mission objective is "Beat Bowser Jr.".

There is a shop located on the map for purchasing power-ups, each worth a certain number of coins that the player earns from the minigames or Bowser Jr. In order for a Captain to use their special abilities, they must be purchased from the shop; these power-ups are permanent, and can be carried over into other Challenge Mode games by continuing from a previously cleared game. Other power-ups offer a temporary boost to a stat for all characters on their team, but they only last for one game, win or lose.

Another goal during Challenge Mode is the Superstar quest; each character has a set of requirement that earn stars. If a character meets all of his or her requirements, then the character upgrades to a Superstar, and gets a boost in all their abilities. Also, once a character becomes a Superstar, the Superstar version of the character can be used in other game modes. There's a simple way to figure out the number of superstar missions per player. The captain of the team has 10 missions. The 2nd captain has 8. Minor characters have 6. And characters of race (excluding Monty Mole who has 6) have 4. Note that players like Red Koopa and Black Shy Guy can be unlocked by completing the main changing color player like Blue Pianta & Blue Noki.

There are four difficulty settings for challenge mode that are similar to those of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! - Mushroom (easy), Flower (medium), Star (hard), and Special (very hard). On Mushroom, Flower, and Star difficulty setting, you challenge four other teams that lasts for 3 innings and beat Bowser's team that lasts for 5 innings. On Special difficulty setting, the innings change: challenging four other teams lasts for 5 innings and beating Bowser's team lasts for 7 innings. Once the player clears Special Cup, then Bowser is selectable as a team captain. When using him as a team captain, the rules slightly change: one has to beat the initial five teams, then face a team composed of nine of the ten main captains and sub-captains called the Mario Fireballs (One character is exempt at random); one can still recruit other characters, except the captains and sub-captains; and Bowser Jr. does not wander the map to challenge a player.

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