Mario Smash Football dated

Nintendo has confirmed a release date for its surprisingly-entertaining Mario-flavoured football game, Mario Smash Football - known to those who saw it at E3 as Super Mario Strikers. It'll be released on 18th November.

Joining it on the shelves will be one of Nintendo's Cube bundle specials, featuring a "beautiful pearl white Nintendo GameCube and a copy of the game".

As we noted in our first impressions, it's a football game with half the rules chucked out of the window. Goals matter most, and to get them you can pick up Mario Kart-style power-ups for extra speed, as well as shells and other Mario mainstays.

It's five-a-side football at the core and each team is captained by a well-known Mario character, with Mario himself, Luigi and Donkey Kong named in today's release - and each team filled out by characters like Toads and Koopas.

We also know more about the game modes now. Grudge Match is just about scoring the most goals, Battle Mode "is the main championship mode", chucked into a league competing for the Bowser Cup, and there's also a Champion's League of the Mushroom Kingdom and a Super Battle Mode. A Custom Battle meanwhile will allow you to set up your own championships - all pretty standard fare.

Naturally four-player multiplayer options are also on the cards, and we'll be sure to put it through its paces as a group just as soon as we can.