Once charged, the player must time button presses accurately on a visible gauge to trigger a successful shot at a goal, resulting in a character-specific animation. As in other Mario sports titles such as Mario Power Tennis, the player can use items—bananas, red shells, etc.—to impede the opponent. Some "power ups" can aid the user by granting temporary invincibility while others immobilize or hinder the opponent. The player can also push opponents into electric barriers, which can electrocute them. The central antagonist of the Mario universe, Bowser, will also appear occasionally as a non-player character to obstruct the players from each side. Strikers includes six stadia, each having barriers to prevent the ball from going out of play. These stadia only vary aesthetically and do not affect gameplay, featuring different surfaces such as grass and wood. The player can adjust the match settings to limit or expand the match time and select whether features such as the Super Strike will be included. As the player advances through the game, further adjustments can be made called "cheats", that can render goalkeepers weaker and grant an infinite number of items.Strikers includes multiple gameplay modes such as the "Grudge Match", which is the standard single and multiplayer match mode of the game. Training sessions come in the form of "Strikers 101", where the player can practice individual aspects such as shooting and dashing. "Cup Battles" allows up to four players to compete in tournaments against artificial intelligence opponents to advance through more difficult cups for rewards, with "Super" denoting the higher-ranked tournaments. DevelopmentStrikers was developed by Next Level Games, who revealed the game at the E3 conference of 2005 in the form of a playable demonstration. In an interview, game director Mike Inglehart and marketing director Grace Kim revealed that Strikers was originally intended to be a more realistic Mario sports game, but the development team opted for an "over-the-top" style after numerous consultations with Nintendo. Next Level Games cited a connection between Strikers and NHL Hitz Pro in terms of gameplay mechanics, claiming that the latter influenced the "responsive gameplay" in Strikers, as well as the use of goalkeepers and on-field collisions. The developers revealed that the character system would be "balanced and fun", although Nintendo had "the ultimate say" in regards to character design, wanting strong and aggressive styles that did not deviate from past characterisations too much. For this reason,