One of among four new Mario games announced at this E3, Super Mario Strikers is the newest addition to the growing Mario sports library. This time Mario and friends hit the stadium for some frenetic, fast-paced soccer action, Mario style.

The demo on the show floor only had Mario and Donkey Kong as playable characters with a generic soccer stadium as the playing field. To the best of my recollection, teams are composed of 5 players on each side. The more "star-worthy" characters like Mario and Donkey Kong are the captains, while the rest of the team is composed of Toads and Koopas. I'm sure the full game will have a ton of fan favorite characters as well as appropriately themed Nintendo stadiums.

The action in Super Mario Strikers never skips a beat, with hardly a pause throughout the match. The arcade gameplay really contributes to this: there's no out of bounds since the ball just bounces off force fields surrounding the field, and cheap hits and tackles are the norm as players jockey for control of the ball. There's no rules to slow down the action; in fact, there aren't any referees. In my respects, the game feels like Sega Soccer Slam but with Mario characters.

As with many Nintendo titles, the gameplay in Super Mario Strikers can be as simple or deep as you want it to be. You can just know the buttons for pass, shoot, and tackle and have a fun time. But if you want to get fancy, you can pull off lob passes, charge up power shots at the goal, and perform deke moves. Either way, control is intuitive and easy, making this game perfect for pick-up and play fun.

Adding to the strategy is that whenever your team captain scores a fully powered up shot, that counts as 2 points. It takes some skill and a little luck (or just an unobservant opponent) to pull one of these off since it takes a while to charge up, but they can really swing the tide of a match if planned carefully. A simple but neat looking special effect accompanies one of these shots, as the game turns into slow-mo and the captain kicks a literally blazing ball towards the net.

Powerups in the vein of Mario Kart help to distinguish this game from other similar arcade soccer titles. Every once in a while, they pop up in your arsenal, available for activation at the push of a button. These range from giant koopa shells that bounce around the field and knock over everybody that dares to stand in their way to blue shells that freeze opposing teammates. A giant Chomp Chomp also appears on occasion to terrorize the field.

The game supports 4 player multiplayer, which is of course the highlight of the game. Show attendees were quite raucous while in the middle of a heated match because the games can get really exciting. In one game I was watching, one of the participants yelled out a giant "YES!!" after scoring a goal that probably could have been heard fifty feet away. If you know the insane noise levels of E3, you'd know that's no easy accomplishment!

Visuals are typical colorful Nintendo with a very slick framerate and no signs of slowdown. The action is relentless and animation looks fluid. While the graphical style is cutesy, it does fit the good natured theme of the game very well.

Super Mario Strikers is looking to be a stellar surprise to the GameCube library. I would just like to see more characters and creative arenas, but hopefully Nintendo's working on those right now! No release date has been announced, but I would expect it to be out on store shelves by the holidays.