The Cricket Log

I enjoy Mario Strikers Charged, despite the frustrations of cup play. I really do enjoy it.

I played online today for the first time since the week I bought the game. I played against three different opponents. As expected, I lost every game. I noticed something new this time, though. Not a singe one of them ever kicked the ball in an attempt to score a goal. Only one of them tried a megastrike, and only then at the last seconds of the game when he was already winning. How do you score goals without kicking the ball at the goal?

You walk it in.

They did the exact same thing every time they gained possession of the ball: they gave it to their fastest player, hugged the wall below the goal, “deked” right past the goalie, and walked the ball in. Every single time.

I suppose I could just be upset that I wasn’t able to develop an effective countermeasure to this attack. On the other hand, maybe I’m upset that I was unable to successfully perform this move myself.

Why would I want to perfect this move? Do I really want to win so badly that I would perform the same mind- and thumb-numbing move over and over again just to score goals? I don’t find that fun. I’d rather seek the challenge of performing a complicated passing maneuver ending with a fantastic slow motion attempt at a goal. That’s what I find fun: outsmarting or outreflexing my opponent.

I end with a non-rhetorical question, in case anyone reads this post. Is perfecting this technique the only way to win ranked games now, or was I just unlucky?