#Mario #Strikers #Battle #League #Football #Mario #finally #returning #football
On Switch, Mario and his friends have already taken up tennis, golf, and even the Olympics. But for many years, a discipline was very absent in the hobby: football. Indeed, you have to go back to the spring of 2007 to find the last Mario Foot. It was “Mario Strikers Charged Football” on the Nintendo Wii. After 15 years of waiting, his successor finally arrives this June 10 on Switch with “Mario Strikers Battle League Football”. Subway tried it.
Before stringing together forceful tackles, combinations, dribbles and goals, the match begins with an essential training session. Because unlike a Mario Kart in which any beginner (or almost) player can settle in, pick up a controller, start a race and have fun almost immediately, “Mario Strikers Battle League Football” requires some mastery and many keys to remember. If that shouldn’t be a problem for players used to soccer games, some will need a lot of practice to handle all the intricacies of the game.
Once you’ve learned the basics through eight different lessons, it’s time to hit the field. In single player mode, players can only choose between a customizable quick match and six different small cups, which are impossible to customize. The first step is to choose the four players on your team (the goalkeeper is always handled automatically by the AI) from the ten available characters. Then, you have to choose the color of your jersey and the stadium among the six offered.
Production-wise, it’s beautiful, fluid, and the animations during a goal celebration or special shot are spot-on if too repetitive. Between soccer and wrestling, “Mario Strikers Battle League Football” is an interesting and tactical sports game. You have to think about your team building, because Donkey Kong is not played the same way as Princess Peach, and manage your use of bonuses as well as possible. Because yes, what would a Mario game be without these mystery boxes and this element of chance (and injustice) in games. We thus find well-known bonuses such as the red shell, the banana or the star that come to spice up the parties. Add to that the “hyper strike”, an overflow shot that gives two goals if it hits (which is not easy) and you will get technical and rhythmic games where the pleasure of the game is at the rendezvous. .
That’s when things get complicated. In recent months, we have already seen that Nintendo had an unfortunate tendency to neglect the solo aspect of some of its games in favor of online (via paid subscription) more. Unfortunately, “Mario Strikers Battle League Football” is no exception to the rule. With ultimately few characters in the cast and only six different solo cups whose options are impossible to customize, we turned the game around too quickly. After only two hours of training and matches, we found ourselves easily winning the final of the last 10 tournament. -2 and we are already entitled to the final credits. So yes, there is a little surprise that we cannot tell you, but we can only remain dissatisfied with such weak content. We would have liked a somewhat scripted solo adventure as was the case with the last Mario Tennis.
However, there is good news in sight. Nintendo has already announced that the game “will benefit from free updates after its launch, including new characters among others.” So it looks like the best is yet to come!
However, there is one aspect that remains interesting in the game, with the coins earned during competitions, there is a way to buy new equipment for each character. These improvements are aesthetic but also affect the characteristics of the players. This dimension adds a little more strategy to the games, which is always good to take!
multioriented
Finally, “Mario Strikers Battle League Football” is of course played with several players in local, cooperative (on the same team) or confrontation mode. As long as you have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, you can also easily and quickly play against players from all over the world. 100% online multiplayer, the “Club Strikers” mode allows you to create or join a club with a capacity of 20 members and participate in seasons, progressing through the different divisions and earning various rewards.
However, in multiplayer games, the action can get blurry and messy. In fact, the arena often tends to become a real battlefield that can sometimes lack visibility, even more so when the two teams have fairly similar colors (pink and light purple, for example). However, let’s not sulk our pleasure, the sensations are really good and each part is different.
What a pleasure to finally find Mario on a soccer field! Much more complex and subtle than it seems, “Mario Strikers Battle League Football” offers excellent game sensations and benefits from beautiful execution. As long as you have a minimum of training, the game offers wild games for various, locally or online. On the other hand, solo players will necessarily get a taste for very little, as solo content for launch is sparse and limited. Shame. To give you an idea, a demo is available for free on Nintendo eShop.
Watch the teaser trailer: