Mario Strikers: Battle League review - A fun but repetitive sports experience

Mario Strikers is back in a big way, with Mario Strikers: Battle League on the Nintendo Switch. It brings back the chaotic, violent action I remember the last time I played one of these games.

While I’m not a big soccer/football fan, I enjoyed sinking my teeth into Mario Strikers: Battle League. It didn’t make me feel foolish for not being a big soccer fan. It’s easy to play while having a high-skill ceiling for technical gameplay.

It could have a nice, long run in esports if Nintendo wished to support that sort of move. Online gameplay is fast and frenetic, but the actual solo modes feel a little on the repetitive side. It lacks depth in the solo gameplay but works well for hardcore soccer or Mario Sports fans.

15 years later, Mario Strikers: Battle League brings chaotic soccer action back

Mario Strikers: Battle League starts by dumping a ton of training and tutorials on the player, and I was pretty grateful for that. I needed to know a lot of things, and Mario Strikers: Battle League certainly provides. All of the techniques that a player will need to know to get explained, and then the player gets to practice these against AI bots.

It’s an intelligent way to do it, even if it was a little overwhelming to do it all at once. The game mechanics are pretty simple, though. Two teams of four duke it out in 4-minute soccer matches, throwing around items from Question Mark boxes and trying to land skill-based shots on the other player’s goal.

Players can aim shots, charge shots, make passes, and perfect passes. It’s all skill-based. I was grateful that the game taught me everything I needed to know to play the game. There are only a few modes to play for the game itself.

Modes in Mario Strikers: Battle League

Mario Strikers: Battle League's modes are few but impactful (Image via Nintendo)

While the gameplay is enjoyable, one downside for the casual player is a lack of things to do. There are a couple of game modes and one mode in which to purchase and equip gear for the characters in Mario Strikers: Battle League.

Game modes

Quick Battle
Cup Battles
Strikers Club
Training

Quick Battle, as the name implies, is the default, quick match versus bots or other players. It can be played on a single console (up to eight players), via local wireless, or in online play. The best part is that people can play on several Switches on local wireless, or everyone can bring their controllers and play together.

While the default time for a match is four minutes, this can be adjusted. Items and Hyper Strikes can also be turned on and off, depending on what players want to do. For single-player battles, the AI difficulty can also be changed.

Cup Battles are the primary single-player experience, where players duke it out through a series of challenging tournament modes. The tournaments/cups are double elimination, so a loss doesn’t mean the end of the tournament. This is one of the best ways to farm coins and purchase gear for characters.

Finally, the Strikers Club is where online competitive battles are held. Players can create their football club, invite friends, and play against the best in heated online matches. That’s where the real draw of the game will be for many. The current, upcoming season reads “Season Rules: Normal,” so future seasons could be wacky or different.

Gear Settings is simply enough. Players pick a character and buy various pieces of gear to equip them with. Gear is not universal and may lead to some grinding. Each character has to buy their gear. Each piece changes the characters’ stats, so what the player wants will no doubt vary.

It’s a neat system, but it frankly doesn’t feel incredibly impactful to me. I don’t feel like players who don’t use it will permanently lose. However, I ‌want to say I’m glad this didn’t become something that uses real money to buy gear.

Practice makes perfect in Mario Strikers (Image via Nintendo)

Below that, there’s Training, where players can learn the ropes and complete a training match for further practice. That’s worth 800 gold coins, so it’s again worth doing for gear.

The modes are fun, but there’s no story mode, career mode, or anything like that. Fans hoping for something new in that department will no doubt be disappointed.

Gameplay is simple but challenging

No matter what mode players are in, the gameplay is the same, and that’s a good thing. The timer may vary, but the gameplay loop is the same. It’s up to the player to play well and build teams with characters complementing each other.

All the Mario Strikers: Battle League characters have their stat lines, with their strengths and weaknesses. After selecting a team, and the two halves of the pitch, players leap onto the field in a flashy way.

The ball starts in the middle, and the players rush to scoop it up. Players pass, shoot, and tackle, all to control the ball and shoot past the goalie. I appreciate that the shots must be aimed properly; it takes great skill to outmaneuver the goalie.

I also like that the game periodically drops Question Mark blocks in three varieties: team color, opponent team color, and rainbow blocks. Anyone can use Rainbow blocks. Teams can hold up to two items, including turtle shells, banana peels, and bob-ombs. It adds to the chaos of these matches and can foul up someone’s strategy.,

Besides regular shots, there are also charged stronger shots. Occasionally, glowing energy orbs will also hit the field, and the team that scoops it up can use Hyper Strike. This is the best part of the gameplay for me.

This is a charged shot (Hold A) until a meter appears on the screen. Players must hit the button at the right time, leading to a cutscene shot. It’s a gorgeous cutscene, and each character has a different shot. Perhaps the most powerful one for my money was Princess Peach’s Charm Shot.

It charms all the opponents it flies near, and the goalie occasionally turns around and rolls the ball into the goal. These shots also grant two points instead of one, making it an excellent comeback mechanic or simply a way to dominate matches even further.

Some may not like Hyper Strikes, but as someone who is not exactly an outstanding soccer player, I love this mechanic. It allowed me to win far more matches than I would usually have.

After a player scores, terrific highlights get shown, so players can see how it went down (Image via Nintendo)

The gameplay is the best part about Mario Strikes: Battle League, as it should be. Even when I was getting stomped by players online, I felt like there was something I could do differently or that I was being outplayed. It didn’t feel like Mario Strikers: Battle League's balance was off.

Visuals are amazing, but the music is a letdown

Mario Strikers: Battle League looks gorgeous as expected of a Mario game. The fields on which players duke it out look fitting for the Mario universe. The characters look exactly how I figured they would.

Visually it’s striking without being overdone, but the music is the weakest part of the game. When characters appear on the field, a generic rock/metal track plays, and that’s where I was let down for the first time.

The various Mario characters look terrific, but their background music is just weak (Image via Nintendo)

It seems like a missed opportunity for Mario Strikers: Battle League to not feature remixes from classic Mario games. There are hundreds of tracks that could be used. To give one expositionary example, the team captain can inform players about the music as the team comes out. The actual gameplay music is unremarkable in every way.

It’s not bad, but it doesn’t make me hum it at random times in the day. I couldn’t even remember what the music was. I had to go back and play a match to remember. While the gameplay is sharp and responsive, the music is just a letdown.

In conclusion

The gameplay is great, and the look is exactly what I was hoping for, but it is nothing new for the Mario Strikers series. It has fewer characters than previous entries, clocking in at 10. The lack of exciting game modes was disappointing, and the music was bland.

Even with that, there’s a lot of hope for competitive Mario Strikers: Battle League gameplay, especially thanks to the Strikers Clubs. Mario Strikes: Battle League feels like a part brawler, with all the items, tackling, and a skill-based, challenging soccer game. It matters what members make up a team, and practicing goes a long way. While it doesn’t innovate the franchise much, it handles everything else well.