Releasing on June 10 for Nintendo Switch, Mario Strikers: Battle League takes the sport of soccer and paints a thick layer of cartoon-y violence over the top. For those who find Mario Tennis a little too basic, and Mario Golf a little too meandering, Mario Strikers: Battle League may just be the chaotic, fast-paced action they’ve been looking for.
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Mario Strikers: Battle League’s Chaotic Take on Soccer
In most Mario titles, violence is kept to an absolute minimum, with the most heinous act being hopping on some creatures’ heads. Mario Strikers: Battle League, on the other hand, can get pretty brutal. While the standard moment-to-moment gameplay is essentially just a simple soccer game - passing, dribbling, shooting etc.- Mario Strikers: Battle League heavily encourages players to violently tackle their opponents at every turn.
From the Mario Strikers trailers released so far, fans have seen Luigi barreled into an electric fence, Bowser smacked in the face with Mario’s shoulder, and Waluigi tragically slip on a banana, landing face-first into the turf below. With no fouls, players are encouraged to tackle to their hearts’ content. To counteract this, players are also given a dodge ability, which should help them avoid being constantly pummeled in glorious over-the-top cartoon-y fashion.
In another attempt to balance this tackling mechanic, players are also awarded with items when they’ve been hit. These items will be familiar to anyone who has ever played a Mario Kart, Mario sports, or just plain old Mario platformer before. Green shells, red shells, banana peels, Bob-ombs, mushrooms, and stars are all here to ensure players can get their own back on their opponents.
When entering a match, players will be able to choose from 10 iconic Mario mainstays to play as. Each character has their own set of strengths and weaknesses, such as Princess Peach being fast but weak and Wario being slow but strong, and also have a unique Hyper Strike ability that is charged up during the course of a match by pulling off tackles and successful shots.
As players continue to progress through Mario Strikers: Battle League, they’ll start to earn coins, which can then be used to purchase a range of equipable gear. Each gear set has its own unique effect on the character’s stats, so players will need to equip the right gear for their play style, mixing and matching different gear types to find the best combination.
Mario Strikers: Battle League will have two main modes on launch, with some more possibly coming in future free updates for Mario Strikers. These modes are Quick Battle, which sees 1-8 players go up against each other in a quick match, and Cup Battle, where 1-4 players work alongside each other to beat an AI team. Up to eight players can play on one Switch console locally, or players can hop over to the online mode and face off against players from around the world.
Mario Strikers: Battle League will launch on June 10 2022, exclusively for Nintendo Switch.
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