Mario Strikers: Battle League

Mario Strikers: Battle League is a five versus five association football/soccer video game.[2] The game shies away from realism, in favor of chaotic, over-the-top gameplay.[2] The game maintains the main premise of the sport, where players maneuver players around a field in efforts to pass and shoot a ball into a goal to score points, with the team with the most points at the end of a game winning the game.[3] However, the game takes many liberties with the sport.[4] Aggressive tackles and attacks are completely allowed, though they give the opposing player "items" to use at their disposal.[5] Items often function in the same way as Mario Kart or Mario Tennis - banana peels can be placed on the field and characters will slip on them, while shells can be shot at characters to temporarily knock them over.[4][6] No "out of bounds" exists on the field, instead, an electric fence is placed around the field, which players can check and knock opposing characters into.[7] Additionally, collecting a glowing orb that appears on the field allows the player to perform a "Hyper Strike" and score a 2-point goal if the move is charged up without interruption.[4][7]

In the game, the player picks a major Mario franchise character like Mario or Princess Peach - and a team of three other characters to round out the rest of the team.[8] All characters have various strengths and weaknesses, and Battle League additionally allows for the customization of equipment on characters as well, affecting character's stats for things like speed, strength, and pass accuracy.[6][9]

Up to eight players can play local multiplayer matches, with player using just one Joycon each, allowing for four versus four game, with the computer handling goalkeeping.[6] Online multiplayer is also available, including a "Club Mode" where groups of up to 20 players can create their own game season, with leaderboards tracking scores.[6]

The game was first announced during a Nintendo Direct on February 9, 2022. It is the third entry in the series, and the first new entry in almost 15 years, following a lengthy gap in releases after Super Mario Strikers (2005) for the GameCube and Mario Strikers Charged (2007) for the Wii.[5][6][9] The game is being co-developed by Next Level Games and Nintendo EPD.[10][11][12][1]

• Official website