Mario Strikers – Battle League Football Review

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After 15 years offside, Mario and his friends are back on the pitch with some new tricks. The core mechanics make for joy and fun, but there is a lack of motivating elements.

All screenshots and video scenes are from GamersGlobal

When it comes to the Germans’ favorite sport, there is probably little discussion. King football is at the top of the list, when the round clatters into the square, entire streets cheer and as soon as the World Cup takes place, the audio backdrop of large and small cities is dominated by horn concerts. But eleven-a-side games are not only popular here, many other countries also have a huge football culture. However, the popularity of the sport is so high, especially in Europe, in other latitudes it tends to lead a shadowy existence. But that didn’t stop Nintendo from launching Mario and friends in 2005 Mario Smash Football send to the field. However, after the 2007 released Mario Strikers Charged Football first end.

For a long 15 years, the sports aces sat out and had to enjoy themselves in other sports such as golf, tennis and go-karting. Now stand with me Mario Strikers – Battle League Football a new football offshoot on the touchline and will be substituted in shortly. It continues the tradition of the series, so it relies on fast, colorful and rough games between two teams of five players each. Realism is of course a foreign word, even without knowledge of the real sport you should have your friends at the virtual matches. So I’m the perfect test candidate, because if there’s one thing that really doesn’t look right to my back, it’s football.

How much fun you can have in Battle League Football and where Nintendo could have done more, you will find out in the following text. Or you can watch the test video attached above, which I would also strongly advise you to do. Otherwise you can’t get a picture of the wonderfully silly animations.

With the star activated, Luigi isn’t even scared of Wario and simply rams the garlic freak.

You must be five friends

It is always played in teams of five. However, you don’t control all the characters, but only four characters, the goalkeeper is always taken over by the AI. Boom-boom behaves in a sensible and understandable way, without making any major mistakes or acting too skilfully. Overall, he holds a large number of balls, but sometimes has to capitulate with particularly well-placed shots or after excessive fire. By the way, unlike all the other figures on the field, you can’t knock him down.

All of the other characters that make up your team are familiar noses from the Mario universe. You have a total of ten characters to choose from: Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Peach, Toad, Rosalina, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Wario and Waluigi leave nothing to be desired. However, I would have liked more unlockable characters. Because you have the full player field available from the start. In general, it wouldn’t have hurt Battle League Football to provide more motivation. Because apart from two minor secrets, you have access to all content right from the start.

The games themselves are very rough. Tackles and blood slides are not punished, the referee is clearly on vacation in the mushroom kingdom. There is no real end, instead the fields are surrounded by barriers into which your opponents can rattle. You pass the ball to yourself with passes and high crosses, which you can also place more precisely or play into the run. This takes a lot of practice, but rewards you with some beautiful goals. With a little practice, you can perform powerful maneuvers, so Battle League Football motivates you to get better.

After Peach’s hypershot, Boom Boom is so in love that he rolls the ball into the goal himself.

hyper, hyper

In addition to normal shots, passes and crosses, hyper shots are of the utmost importance. But you can’t just use these special maneuvers, you have to collect the strike ball first. This appears randomly on the field. Once you’ve caught them, you have twenty seconds to reach the opponent’s half of the field and hold down the shoot button until you have to complete a quick time event. It is important to hit the two blue areas of a bar. In any case, you will be rewarded with a strengthened cutscene, if you didn’t hit exactly the wrong spot, your opponent can also stop the ball in a quick time event. Otherwise he hits in any case and you get two points.

But skill and hypershots aren’t your only means of victory. Items are thrown onto the field at regular intervals, which you can take advantage of. They are known from Mario games and have adapted effects: a red tank follows enemies and knocks them down, a mushroom lets you run faster and the star makes you invulnerable and very strong for a short time.

So that you are ideally prepared for the matches, you should not skip the training mode. In numerous lessons you will be introduced to all game elements. Dodging, shooting, passing, hyper shots, charged crosses and much more are on the curriculum. A nice side effect if you win the final training match: you get 800 coins that you can invest in equipment.

Rosalina already has an excellent Shooting stat. You can increase it even further with equipment.

Clothes make status values

When putting together your team, you shouldn’t just be stubborn about choosing your favourites. Character values ​​are also important and can make a difference in victory and defeat. Power, pace, shot, passing and technique. These stats determine who can tackle who, how accurate crosses and passes are, and how easily a character can hypershoot.

If you don’t like a character’s stats, you can adjust them via equipment. You buy new clothes with coins that you earn by completing games and winning tournaments. This never degenerates into grinding, the 800 coins mentioned for the training match won, for example, are enough for eight objects, i.e. the equipment of two characters on the head, arms, torso and legs.

Online, local and on one console

It is praiseworthy how many possibilities Nintendo offers you for interaction. There are four playable characters per team, for a total of eight characters. And exactly this number of players allows Mario Strikers – Battle League Football. Whether you sit together in front of a switch, connect two devices in local multiplayer or compete online is up to you. In any case, anything is possible. However, some of my online matches during the test period were still characterized by strong lags, and I hope for improvement here.

Author: Dennis Hilla (GamersGlobal)

Opinion: Dennis Hilla

I was really excited to play Mario Strikers – Battle League Football after my recent playoff session. Because the multiplayer games were a lot of fun, which is not least due to the classic “easy to learn, hard to master” principle. And this impression came true during my test period. The brisk games with their cheerful atmosphere, the fantastic animations and the powerful hypershots are a real guarantee of fun, especially in a group. But they are also good on their own for a brisk round in between – and if it’s just for training, to shoot your friends out of bounds at the next game night using all the rules of the art.

However, after a few solo matches, the worst element of Battle League Football becomes apparent: the lack of long-term motivation. The only thing that can really drive you is the will to get better. Because there aren’t really anything that can be unlocked apart from the equipment. That’s a shame, at least a little story mode would have really delivered a lot of added value for soloists. For more social warriors, however, this factor should be less important. Because together in front of a TV or online, every match is exciting again. You can also create a club and compete against other teams in seasons around the world.

Ultimately, Mario Strikers – Battle League Football didn’t really excite me. I did have fun with it, but primarily in multiplayer. But there are also no game modes here, at least two or three variants would not have hurt. If you’re playing a fun, fast game for evenings together, it’s definitely worth a look. As a solo player, you should really think twice about buying it.

Mario Strikers – Battle League Football switches