Mario Strikers Battle League Football Review (Nintendo Switch OLED)

by Jim Smale · June 27, 2022

Its time for some football with our Mario Strikers Battle League Football Review, The team who scores the most goals wins, but with crunching Team Tackles flying in and all sorts of items adding to the chaos (not to mention the electric fences containing the carnage), scoring is easier said than done!

Mario Strikers Battle League Football Review Pros:

Beautiful graphics.
1.8GB download size.
Football gameplay.
An optional tutorial area has you do basic moves, shot types, power-ups, and more.
Three game modes – Quick battle, Cup battles, and Strikers Club.
Quick Battle – single console, local wireless, and online play.
Cup Battles – 2 to 4 local players with six cups against the Ai to play.
Strikers Club – join or create a club and play against other clubs. Earn tokens for customizations and upgrades and each season you can go up and down divisions.
The game guide acts as an in-depth explanation of modes, features, and gameplay.
Earn coins by playing any game mode and buy gear with them.
Gear shop allows you to buy new gear to customize your player but also change stats.
Ten characters – Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Peach, Rosalina, Toad, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Wario, and Waluigi.
Supports all controller types from handheld to Pro controller to single Joycon.
Visual assist option.
Every character has a special move that triggers a cool cutscene, each is unique and is a mini-game of stopping the ticker in the blue zone, perfect shots always score and the others have a chance. Goalkeepers have to smash the A button to attempt a save.
You don’t control the goalkeeper at all in play except when blocking a special shot.
Power-ups will randomly drop down.
Combo passing is a fancy word for one-touch passing and shooting. It does make the shot better, however.
Tackles and shots can be powered up by holding the button down.
Arenas are split in half with each player picking a theme for their half.
In Single-player or vs modes you pick your Ai teammates.
Five outfits to pick from and you choose before each game.
Five stadium choices – Royal Castle, Mushroom Hill, Jungle retreat, Spooky mansion, and lava Castle.
Hit players into the sidelines to electrocute them and stun them.
Goal replays from two angles but can be skipped.
No throw-ins.
End of game breakdown.
Golden goal rule – all level at full time, the game goes on and the first goal wins.
Fast loading times.
Draw – this happens if no goal is scored during golden goal time. You will have a rematch.
No fouls.

Mario Strikers Battle League Football Review Cons:

Cannot skip the special shot cutscenes.
Ai is all over the place in terms of the goalkeepers.
So hard to keep track of the ball.
No difficulties.
Gear is chosen by the start changes and not the appearance or it’s chosen the other way round.
No way to customize your team in offline play.
You cannot tweak settings like power-up drop rates, game time, etc.
Doesn’t have a kit designer offline.
The power-up catalog is small.
The game doesn’t have any accessibility options.

Mario Strikers Battle League Football:

Official website.

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

Store Links –

Nintendo

8/10
Graphics - 8/10
7/10
Sound - 7/10
7/10
Accessibility - 7/10
8/10
Length - 8/10
7/10
Fun Factor - 7/10

7.4/10

Summary

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the game, its core gameplay is solid and a lot of fun but it just doesn’t have enough content. We all know Nintendo love to drip feed content into games with free updates that sound good and that but when the base release is so barebones it feels wrong, like an early access game almost. The modes are all the same it’s just a case of playing against real people or Ai, the online is just club-based shenanigans for rewards, or again just the simple vs players. Power-ups are very powerful but again they drop so frequently that it makes the gameplay a bit more co ordination, players will target the power-ups before the ball because the power stays even if they score, and with the power-up, you will have more chance. No fouls mean you can grieve and ruin the experience very quickly and this is more apparent in online games. I just hate having to say that it’s a good game buuuuut and then I list a load of caveats and ones you wouldn’t expect in a football game full top whether it be a sim or arcade experience. Give us some custom modes, the ability to make our own offline teams and kits, give us game options and more variety, and then we have the makings of a great game. Honestly, I feel the free DLC drip-feed carrot has been eaten, and now people are sick of carrots full stop. Mario Strikers is great for local play but everywhere else it’s a bit of a letdown with so many missed opportunities, not quite an own goal but definitely a down-to-ten-men situation.