Mario Strikers: Battle League Football review – slick but slim fun
I’d been looking forward to Mario Strikers: Battle League Football because of the chaotic fun I remember having with Mario Strikers Charged, the incarnation of Mario’s souped-up sort-of footy series which launched on Wii an astonishing 15 years ago. Battle League (without the Football outside Europe), which arrives this week for Switch, is the first new version of Strikers since then. But the more I played, the less I found of what I used to enjoy.
Mario Strikers: Battle League Football reviewPublisher: NintendoDeveloper: Next Level GamesPlatform: Nintendo SwitchAvailability: Out on 10th June
Battle League is, arguably, a more focused game – and ultimately likely the better representation of small-team football. Aside from the occasional frame-rate wobble, it is also slicker in presentation, and certainly hosts the most visual customisation seen in the series to date. But I don’t really play Mario Strikers for football, in the same way I don’t really play Rocket League for football either. I play Strikers – or I did, back on Wii – because it was a weird and very Mario version of football. To Battle League’s detriment, it feels like there’s less of that this time around.
The game’s core offerings are its Cup Battles – a series of small tournament brackets where up to four players can make progress to earn customisation-unlocking coins – and Strikers Club, an online mode where your victories contribute to a weekly seasonal ranking for Clash of Clans-style groups of up to 20 members. At the end of each week, your club’s founder can use tokens earned by members to tweak the look of their preferred pitch.
Cup Battles are entertaining enough, though after each cup has been beaten once these offer a substantially reduced number of coins. You’ll need this currency to purchase gear upgrades which customise Battle League’s opening selection of 10 Mushroom Kingdom characters. As ever, Mario is your all-rounder, Bowser is slower but beefy, while Toad (in his fully-playable debut for the series) is speedy but prone to getting beaten up.
