The sweat running down the temples, the breathlessness trying to regulate itself. The ball on the spot. The decisive rigor. The Tears, ours, for the opportunity failed. When we first told you about it we hoped we were wrong, yet it really happened: Nintendo with Mario Strikers Battle League Soccer it hit the wood so loud that it is still vibrating. Mind you, there is no talk of a failure from a sales point of view, as they are constantly growing (because despite everything the game works, and it's fun), how much more a failure from the point of view of the offer, of the ideas, of the “meat”. But let's go in order, and find out why in the Mario Strikers: Battle League Football review.
Sport where everything is worth it!
Sport, the "Strike", is a lot similar to football, with the additional rule that… there are few rules! Matches in this particular sport take place 5 against 5, but where the goalkeeper will be controlled by the computer. Players will be able to choose their players on the pitch from among the 10 available, which can be exploited in their classic form or with equipment active. The latter will go to change the characteristics of the characters, giving us the possibility to enhance them where we want and adapt them to our sporting needs (Shooting, Passing, Speed and so on).
We will play in a relatively small field, in which we will have to pass the ball, sprint, dodge and counter the opponents, but also use objects (shells, bananas, bombs, stars ...) that will be randomly thrown onto the field ... and obviously shoot at goal! As in football, to win we will have to score more goals than the opposing team, but with the possibility of scoring super-shooting: these can only be activated if the player collects a ball of energy, and the effectiveness of the shot varies according to the result of a QTE, if the result is perfect ... the shot will be unstoppable! Not only that, if the ball enters (whatever result you have obtained in the QTE) the goal will be worth 2 points, so the last word is never said, and the comeback is always around the corner.
The gameplay also consists of other micromechanics, such as the perfect passes and shots, the angle of the shots to be more precise, the contrast on the opponents to make them land on the wall and electrocute them, and more. In short, a general chaos where he will have won it the most capable and daring team.
A fun with friends ...
The matches of Mario Strikers Battle League Soccer as you will have understood by reading the previous paragraph of the review, they are very hectic, and rely heavily on responsiveness, team building and personal skills. These features go hand in hand, to say the least, with the core of the game, which is multiplayer matches! What are you playing with friends 1v1, 2v2, or even 4v4, this new title from Nintendo proves to be a lot of fun, and even more chaos will reign, creating games that can change face even at the last second.
Despite this, the method used to change the control of the player (with and without the ball) when in manual mode may be quite inconvenient, and we recommend using the automatic.
The chaos on the pitch, however, is also given by other factors, even negative ones: for example the smallness of the field and sometimes of the players (think of when you play on the small screen on a laptop, or worse, on Swich Lite), makes very easy to get confused, especially if we think that very often between different teams there will be duplicates of characters (there are only 10 to choose from, an exaggeratedly low number if you have in mind the number of characters that the Mario “brand” has) e we will lose sight of those of our team. We then add that the coloration uniforms and their variables do not use opposite colors, and we will often find ourselves on the pitch against teams with very similar colors, which makes our life even more difficult. Certainly these are problems that could be overlooked, but they risk making - more often than not hoped - some extremely tedious games.
Things don't get much better online and, in which the games (pending the classified, which in any case will not add too much to the offer) will be ends in themselves, and with the only advantage of being able to be played with a guest from the same console, so as not to be forced to play 1v1 all the time when there are 2 at home.
… And little more
The biggest and most unforgivable flaw of Mario Strikers: Battle League Football, which not surprisingly we left in the last part of the review, is obviously the scarcity of content regarding the single player. During our preview a few days ago we had already talked about our fears, fears that unfortunately found confirmation at the release of the game.
In fact, the activities are reduced to tutorial, single matches personalized, and to cups. end.
It would also make sense if the cups weren't only 6 (12 if we count the Galactic mode, which is nothing more than the repetition of the first 6 with greater difficulty) and if they were not composed of 3 / maximum 4 matches. Mario Strikers: Battle League Football is a game son of laziness, a simple homework which takes advantage of the now big name of Mario and the moderate success that previous versions of Strikers have had. But we are in 2022, players expect - and deserve - much more. Because there is NO similar mode history andOr a career? Or maybe gods championships? Or something that goes to give a narrative incipit all in Super Smash Bros style? Even Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, on the more limited paper, manages to offer more acceptable variables, including tracks, tournaments, characters, vehicles, and various battle modes.
We do not know if there will be updates to include new modes or new players, but for now, Mario Strikers: Battle League Football is a real missed opportunity, a fun game to play in company but nothing more (a deja-vu by Nintendo Switch Sports), which almost does not justify the price paid.
Review- Mario Strikers: Battle League Football (Tested on Switch) 6.5 Final grade
Mario Strikers: Battle League Football is not a bad game, on the contrary, it manages to entertain the players, but by focusing extremely on local multiplayer, with online being a simple filler. Those who want to enjoy the game alone will be able to count on 6 cups (plus the same 6 that will be repeated at higher difficulty) and ... that's enough, if we don't count the training and the simple quick games. No championship, arcade or story modes to be the background, no contextualization, nothing at all. A paucity of content of this type can in no way be justified by a multiplayer that allows you to actually play as many as you want (compared to the sound expense of € 60). Fun with friends, but otherwise a trivial joke.
