Mario Strikers – Battle League

Mario Strikers: Battle League is a 2022 sports video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch console. It was released worldwide on June 10, 2022. It is the third game in the Mario Strikers series, which is part of the larger Mario franchise. The game received mixed reviews, with critics praising its gameplay mechanics, multiplayer, and presentation, though it received criticism for its limited single player content and character roster. Mario Strikers: Battle League is a five versus five association football/soccer video game. 

The game shies away from realism, in favor of chaotic, over-the-top gameplay. The game maintains the main premise of the sport, where players maneuver players around a field in efforts to pass and shoot a ball into a goal to score points, with the team with the most points at the end of a game winning the game. However, the game takes many liberties with the sport. Aggressive tackles and attacks are completely allowed, though they give the opposing player “items” to use at their disposal. 

Items often function in the same way as Mario Kart or Mario Tennis – banana peels can be placed on the field and characters will slip on them, while shells can be shot at characters to temporarily knock them over. No “out of bounds” exists on the field, instead, an electric fence is placed around the field; players can check and knock opponents into this fence to stun them. Additionally, collecting a glowing orb that appears on the field allows the player to perform a “Hyper Strike” and score a 2-point goal if the move is charged up without interruption. In the game, the player picks a major Mario franchise character like Mario or Princess Peach – and a team of three other characters to round out the rest of the team. 

All characters have various strengths and weaknesses, and Battle League additionally allows for the customization of equipment on characters as well, affecting character’s stats for things like speed, strength, and pass accuracy. Up to eight players can play local multiplayer matches, with players using just one Joy-Con each, allowing for four versus four game, with the computer handling goalkeeping. Online multiplayer is also available, including a “Club Mode” where groups of up to 20 players can create their own game season, with leaderboards tracking scores.