Clubs are made up of up to 20 players, and they’re a bit like the ones found in a lot of fighting games, allowing you to stipulate a region, a club mantra/policy (ie playing for fun, playing to get better, or playing to be the best), and choose from a limited range of kits.

The titular Battle League is an online format that allows you to form a ‘club’ with other players, then rank up leaderboards by winning online. You can set up a quick match on or offline, or head into Cup mode where one or more players can take control of a single team and guide them through double elimination bracketed tournaments of various difficulty levels versus computer-controlled opponents. There’s a number of different ways you can enjoy this action, of course. It’s the perfect blend of pick-up-and-play action and rewarding intricacy. In your first couple of matches, it’s easy to be misled into thinking that matches will be decided by Hyper Strikes - but in no time at all, you’re sliding balls past the keeper with a FIFA-like finesse. You’ll soon learn about the advantage to swift, mixed passing, or even playing a through ball as an indirect pass. That’s the beauty of a game like this done well - it’s deceptively deep. It’s brilliant to see this feeling and tempo of play alive and well in a new, major release.Īs people familiar with those sorts of games will know, however, none of this is to say that Mario Strikers doesn’t have complexity or depth. The previous Mario Strikers games also had this energy, the sort of thing I mostly associate with classic arcade sports games like NBA Jam and NFL Blitz. It’s the sort of magic that in the age of online play isn’t as common as it should be. The action is frenetic and thrilling, the sort of sports game that in a local multiplayer session will inevitably result in screamed expletives and jumping up and down. Collecting this gives your team a limited amount of time to execute a ‘Hyper Strike’, where if you can get some space from the opposing defenders on their side of the pitch you can charge and unleash a huge shot that, if successful, results in a two-point goal. Most important is the glowing orange orb, a football equivalent to the Final Smash-enabling ‘Smash Ball’ over in Smash Bros. Power-ups augment the action with a little Mario flair - so a banana peel tossed onto the pitch can make a difficult midfield to press up through, or a Bob-omb can be tossed to explode, sending players and the ball flying to break up possession. A walled-in arena means there’s no need for throw-ins or corners - the ball simply bounces back into play. Tackling is allowed regardless of if your target has the ball. Like the previous Mario Strikers titles, this is a faster-paced, rule-free version of the sport. Battle League nails that, just as its predecessors do. Those mechanics have to be sharp as a tack, and that’s all that matters. But what becomes quickly apparent is that all that really matters is how the game plays - because in soccer, you’re always going to be doing roughly the same thing, which in turn is accomplished through a few basic mechanics. When you first boot the game and peruse its menus, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s a little thin on the ground. It can be played against AI or other humans, online or offline, in a few different formats. This is a more simple affair: you get a unique, fun, and twisted version of five-on-five football action starring Mario characters. It’s about as simple as a game comes, in fact, the sort of release that isn’t very common these days because publishers and developers feel like all modern games need to be stuffed to bursting. To be completely honest, there isn’t an enormous amount to Mario Strikers: Battle League. Today, after a fifteen-year hiatus from football, we can make that three. Though he hasn’t had as many outings onto the soccer pitch as he has onto the golf course or tennis court, his track record there is unimpeachable, two for two with undeniable bangers. Of his many vocations and achievements, I’d argue that one of Mario’s most successful careers has always been in football.

Mario skat