Mario Strikers: Battle League Football Review

In a recent issue of Switch Player, I talked about how Nintendo’s recent sports games have been lacking a lot of originality and character. They’ve been playing it very safe, sticking to tried-and-tested traditions without stepping out of their comfort zone. The Mario Strikers games, on the other hand, have always been the complete opposite of that.

Where other sports games stick to a formula, Strikers takes risks. The games became known for their uniqueness, which is impressive considering the last one came out on the Wii back in 2007. They gave each character distinct personality traits, they experimented with off-the-wall music choices and a more gritty tone, and they let you tackle famous Mario characters into an electric fence. All these features helped make Strikers stand out in a sea of generic sports titles.

But when Mario Strikers: Battle League Football was announced, some fans were worried. It wasn’t clear if this game would be able to bring back the charm and character that those original games revelled in. The tone seemed a bit off, and while the electric fences are still there, it remained to be seen if this game would stand toe-to-toe with the others. So with that said, how does Strikers stack up against former forays on the football fields?

Thankfully, the game has not lost sight of what made the originals so fun. The animations, the character traits, the music – all of it is distinctly Strikers and very much a continuation of the same kind of wacky charm. Unfortunately, it’s all wrapped up in a package that feels very light on content, making it somewhat hard to justify picking up.

The core gameplay is a lot of fun. You have 4 characters on each side of the field, and you’re trying to score as many times as possible within the time limit. There are items, different techniques to utilise, and gear upgrades that affect how you play – it’s more than just passing and shooting. Looking at the gameplay alone, I can’t really fault it much. It’s more action-packed and chaotic than its Tennis or Golf counterparts on Switch which makes it more fun in quick bursts.

Beyond the core gameplay though, this game severely lacks features. This isn’t a substantial single-player experience at all. You can partake in cup battles, but they all feel the same aside from ascending difficulties as you progress through them. There’s equipable gear to unlock, but only five different types split across four body parts. You’ll blast through all the single-player content in a couple of hours unless you get stuck on a hard match near the end. If you’re not interested in playing multiplayer, there’s not a whole lot here.

The gear unlocks are a lot of fun at first though. Seeing Donkey Kong or Wario with weird Tron-style neon visors is as weird as it is hilarious. It’s great that Battle League Football actually lets you customise these staple characters rather than using their default outfits. I wish there were a few more things to work towards though, as new helmets, boots, and gloves aren’t quite enough to keep the average player hooked for lengthy playtimes.

The multiplayer is where the main content lies, but Nintendo has always had a rough relationship with online experiences. So how does Strikers fare?

Well, it’s fun, I can tell you that. Battle League Football blends casual and competitive pretty well, offering up a solid mix that should satisfy players of all skill levels. You can match up against someone alone, or team up with another player to take them on as a duo. That means you split the team in half and control only a couple of characters. I went solo, but you can join up with a friend and share the pitch if you prefer.

The main draw of the multiplayer is the club feature, where you can create your own club or join someone else’s. You take part in matches against other clubs across a “season”, earning achievements and climbing through the ranks. The problem is that unless you have a lot of friends, these clubs aren’t very exciting. You can join a random one but you won’t really feel much of a connection to it. It’s a good way to earn coins to buy more gear, but the lack of character diversity means you’ll run out of gear to buy eventually.

I wish there was a bit more to the club gimmick that the average player could enjoy. It feels like there’s quite a bit of missed potential here, especially in single-player. It’d be nice if you could make your own club and recruit other Mario characters into it while you take down CPUs on your way to the top. Maybe this could serve as a way to add more replayability into the fray. Really, anything would be better than the slim pickings in the game right now.

Thankfully, online play is relatively smooth, at least in my experience. The real issue lies in the amount of content on offer, as it gets stale fast. Repetition is unfortunately inevitable – there’s only one way to play Strikers, whether you’re online or offline. There are no minigames, bonus modes or story-based content to get stuck into if you tire of the standard gameplay loop. It’s just 4v4 football on a timer.

If that’s all you want from this title, then you’ll definitely enjoy it. It feels polished but lacks variety. Players looking for more out of it will be disappointed. There are only ten characters (with more on the way), and any given team will be using four of them, so you’ll be seeing the same characters and combinations constantly.

Luckily, the animations are so great you won’t mind seeing the same characters all the time. Whether it’s Yoshi balancing on the ball, Donkey Kong breaking it down on the pitch, or Wario dancing in a rain of cash, every animation has been carefully crafted with a lot of love. I’ll often watch the post-goal celebrations even after already seeing them just because they’re so delightfully fun – they truly never get old.

Sometimes, rather than showing a celebration, you’ll get a glimpse of the losing team’s reaction to a goal. Donkey Kong angrily slumps down and eats a banana to cope with a loss, and Peach practices breathing techniques to calm herself down. And the animations for the special moves are incredibly stylish too. They all have a lot of power behind them, but always feel appropriate for the character in question. Especially Wario, who may or may not slam the ball with his backside.

It’s possible that the detail put into these animations is the reason the roster is so small. Every character has to have a whole host of animations, all with their own personality woven into them. Still, it’s disappointing we only got ten characters at launch. That’s less than Charged, which came out fifteen years ago. Characters like Koopa Troopa, Diddy Kong, Bowser Jr, and especially Daisy feel like they should’ve been guaranteed. We really should have had a few more than we got.

It would have been nice to have some proper unlockables too. The ten characters and five stadiums are all unlocked right from the start. A couple of extra stadiums to unlock or some hidden characters would have gone a long way to make Battle League a more fleshed-out title, but that isn’t the case here.

It’s a shame because the game is deserving of so much more. Next Level Games nailed the core gameplay, but everything surrounding it feels half-baked. The minimal amount of characters, stadiums, and game modes are a disappointing blight on an otherwise joyous multiplayer experience. Perhaps in a year, this game will feel more complete, but right now it’s tough to justify the asking price unless you absolutely love this kind of gameplay.

Post-launch DLC may be able to patch up some holes in this release, that’s for sure. But as it stands, Battle League Football is another Mario sports title that doesn’t offer enough core content as it should. The hectic, animated gameplay is almost enough to carry it. Sadly, after all this time waiting for another Strikers game, this one doesn’t quite reach its full potential, and I’m not sure if adding new stadiums or characters every couple of months will be enough to salvage it.