Quick battles are a decent way to spend five minutes here and there, but with few unlockables and no additional modes, stadiums, or characters, there's not much reason to spend any more than that. The problem is there's just not much reason to stick with it. Swapping your tactics on the fly and doing everything you can to win helps Battle League rise above some of its more noticeable issues, if only because it's so absorbing. For as many matches as I almost flattened the opposing team, there were just as many that could have gone either way. Even though the AI keeper has a weakness for letting perfect shots in, the challenge is positioning yourself to charge and fire off that shot, to begin with. This all happens as you try to pull off a desperate shot that, against all odds, actually makes it in the goal. Battle League is at its best when matches devolve into a mad scramble for ball control, with everyone shoving everyone else into the fence. There's a surprising amount of room to experiment. You settle into a rhythm of strategic tackles, risky trick shots, passing combos, and trying to land a perfect shot after a few matches. The core of Battle League works, at least, and it works quite well. The camera angle during the match means you never actually see them, so it's the same setting each time. Battle League has a good idea of mashing two Mario-themed stadium types together. The original Strikers could hardly win awards for dynamic pitch design, but the fields at least change in each match – grass, wooden floors, and so on. Even with the sometimes-relevant hyper-strike animations, the most personality they show is when you shove them into an electric fence. There just aren't many team-building options, and the characters themselves are strangely flat on the pitch. Three are power characters, two are hybrids, meshing technique and passing, one's speedy, and the other two are all-rounders. You build a team of four players from a roster of eight – and most of them overlap roles. One of the most significant issues is the lack of playable characters. Items are more useful in Galactic Mode, but you typically rely on tackles and clever passing more often. Bob-ombs blow up after walking a few steps, affecting friend and foe alike by interrupting their progress and making them lose the ball. Shells smack into friend and foe alike, interrupting their progress and making them lose the ball. Sure, there's a (small) selection of Mario power-ups to use on the field, but it almost feels perfunctory, and there's not much variety in how they perform. However, it still had the sense of fun that characterizes Mario games – using fireballs to slow opponents down or smacking golf balls off a giant mushroom.īattle League doesn't have anything like that. Mario Golf Super Rush launched similarly, without a decent-sized stable of characters or rotation of courses. Sports games don't need narrative framing, obviously, but the lack of it in Battle League highlights a bigger problem with the experience: It just doesn't feel like a Mario game. It made sense that Daisy suddenly rolled up one day and challenged you to a duel on the field, and it was just a small extra layer of fun.īattle League immediately thrusts you into the main menu with a set of cups or quick battle options. Back in the old days on the GameCube, the first Mario Strikers framed the Mushroom Kingdom's sudden obsession with soccer as a set of friendly competitions between characters. The former lack of fanfare is a bit more complex. Unless you've played the earlier Strikers games religiously, the tutorial is almost mandatory and does an excellent job easing you into the action. The latter is very welcome since Mario Strikers is surprisingly complex and multilayered. Mario Strikers Battle League opens with no fanfare and a massive tutorial. Mario Strikers: Battle League Review - Yellow Card It's a shame there's so little personality and even less to do in the game. At Battle League's core is a smart, tactical soccer game that rewards quick thinking, even more so if your plans fall apart and chaos reigns. It's a mismatched, unbalanced experience that falls short of its potential, which is particularly disappointing given how strong that potential is. Those two scenarios are indicative of Battle League as a whole. The match dissolved into a mess in the best possible way. Color me surprised when I swaggered into Galactic Mode's challenges and could barely keep the ball, and my keeper apparently forgot how to play.
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