Mario Strikers: Battle League

Mario Strikers: Battle League (known in European languages as Mario Strikers: Battle League Football) is a game for the Nintendo Switch. It is the third game in the Mario Strikers series and the first one since Mario Strikers Charged over 15 years prior, featuring new gear, items, and moves. Up to eight players can play the game in multiplayer. The game also features an online Strikers Club mode where players can host clubs with up to 20 players and compete against other clubs to earn points and increase their rankings. The game released worldwide on June 10, 2022.

Opening cutscene
The game's opening begins with the Mushroom Hill and Lava Castle stages combining to one field in space. The camera moves across the soccer field to then show two portals appearing, one for Bowser's team (consisting of Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and Rosalina) and one for Mario's (consisting of Luigi, Toad, and Peach), both transitioning to a cel-shaded style. Once both teams landed, Mario and Bowser stare at each other, the latter manages to get the soccer ball first, and the game begins.

Mario passes the ball to Luigi, where the latter soon dodges a tackle from Yoshi. Rosalina walks in sight, stares at Luigi, and then tackles him with a dash, which throws the ball away from Luigi. The ball bounces as Bowser and Peach try to get it, with the Peach throwing a Bob-omb right to Bowser before he could get ball and has him flying off the stadium. Peach dribbles the ball out of the explosion and gets to the Lava Castle part of the field, passing the ball to Toad, which he then shoots it. Bowser's Boom Boom goalie blocks the ball, and the camera moves to Bowser getting upset and breathing fire from his mouth upwards.

The fire makes a transition to Luigi passing the ball to Toad, but Bowser does a Team Tackle with Donkey Kong, launching and punching Mario and Toad out and throwing the ball to Yoshi, who does a few twirl moves before passing it to Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong performs his Hyper Strike, knocking out Mario and Peach, but the team's Boom Boom goalie manages to block the soccer ball from scoring. The ball then reaches Bowser, who breathes fire toward the ball and then tries to throw it, but Luigi slides and tackles him, losing the ball in the process. The ball goes back to the ground as the fire burns out and Luigi passes it to Mario. He then executes his Hyper Strike, and while preparing to kick it, gets flames in his eyes. Mario then kicks the ball as Bowser's goalie prepares to block it, and the ball circles across the air towards the goal, leading to the title screen.

Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to that of previous Mario Strikers games, where two teams of five (four players and a goalie) compete for points by getting the ball into the opposing team's net. Following the rules of street soccer, there are no penalties like fouls, meaning that players are able to tackle their opponents around the field. Like previous games, items and special moves are used to the turn the tide of gameplay. Unlike in previous games, rather than having one main captain and three generic sidekicks as teammates, teams in this game (apart from the goalie) are comprised entirely of main playable characters.

A new technique introduced in this game is called the Team Tackle. If a player tackles their own teammate, they send the teammate quickly across the stage. This can be used both defensively, by using Team Tackle at an opponent and stealing the ball from them, or offensively, by getting the teammate close to the goal. Similar to the Super Strike from Super Mario Strikers and Mega Strike from Mario Strikers Charged, the new Hyper Strike acts as the game's special move, and is activated in a similar manner as the latter. Unlike those moves, however, Hyper Strikes must first be obtained by collecting a Strike Orb that occasionally appears on the field. Additionally, rather than just having aesthetic differences, each character's Hyper Strike has different gameplay-related properties, making them similar to that of the Special Shots from Mario Sports Mix. Hyper Strikes are also able to bypass goalies.

Another new concept introduced in this game is customization. In addition to aesthetic customization options, like team color, gear can be purchased from the in-game shop with Coins, which allow the player to adjust various attributes such as their movement speed, curve shots, resistance to getting the ball stolen from them, and more. When selecting characters, the player can choose whether to equip their character with gear or not.

Power-ups
Power-ups return from previous games, though this time, they are obtained from ? Blocks like other Mario spinoff games.

Characters
There are 10 playable characters available in the game. Of those characters, Rosalina and Toad (as a primary character) are playable for the first time in the Mario Strikers series. Although sidekicks do not return in this game, the player has the option to have multiple Toads or Yoshis on a team, in a similar vein to sidekicks. Themes for each character when they shoot a goal make a return from Mario Strikers Charged, but unlike that game, they are all rock-and-roll-themed. Boom Booms are seen as goalies, taking over the role from Kritters in previous games. It is also confirmed that the game will have post-launch updates, with additional characters being included.

Every character has five different attributes:

The stats in the following table are the characters' default stats, without any gear applied.

Non-playable

 * Fútbot
 * Toads
 * Yoshis
 * Shy Guys
 * Koopa Troopas

Fields
Unlike previous Mario Strikers games, the soccer fields now consist of two individual halves, each with a different theme, and they can be combined into one stadium from either different or the same halves. This also changes what music is playing during the matches, with the same field halves playing remixes of previous Mario songs, or entirely original music in the different field halves. Like in Super Mario Strikers, the different fields are only aesthetic, rather than housing any varying gimmicks like in Mario Strikers Charged, aside from the electric fences that can shock players present around the perimeter of the field. However, a new feature in this game is the ability to visually upgrade the stage's appearance, adding more scenery around it, using a new bolt-like currency. There are four levels of upgrades the player can give the stage, with the first three costing 100,000 bolts and the fourth costing 2,500,000 bolts. In addition to the stage itself, the player can also customize the stage's turf, goal line, electric fence, and goal designs.
 * Lava Castle
 * Spooky Mansion
 * Jungle Retreat
 * Mushroom Hill
 * Royal Castle

Gear
A new feature to the Mario Strikers series is gear, allowing players to buy different outfits to change the characters' stats. Each piece of gear, when applied, will increase a particular stat by a certain amount while also decreasing another stat by a certain amount. There are six sets of gear, each involving increasing a particular stat. Each gear set contains four pieces, including a head, arms, body, and legs piece, which cost 100 coins. It is currently unknown if buying gear will only buy it for the character it is bought for or if it will be bought for everyone.

Promotion
On April 13, 2022, the Nintendo UK Twitter account announced that any pre-orders of the game made through the My Nintendo Store will receive a bonus Fan Scarf. If a pre-order is made through, an exclusive decal sheet featuring the game's artwork is included.

On May 16, 2022, Nintendo's German YouTube channel uploaded a gameplay video of a Mario Strikers: Battle League match commented by German sports announcer.

On May 25, 2022, Nintendo of Japan revealed that Switch icons for the game that can be purchased with My Nintendo Platinum Points will be released on the Nintendo Switch Online app on June 10, the same day as the game's release.

Pre-release demo
A free, limited time demo titled Mario Strikers: Battle League First Kick (or simply Mario Strikers First Kick ) was released prior to the game's full launch. The demo allowed online play via the Versus Everyone and Join Friends modes at set periods from June 3 through June 5, 2022, with single-player gameplay available at any time only through the Training mode. A Nintendo Switch Online membership was required to play online matches.

The following was the schedule for the demo's active online sessions:
 * Friday, June 3 - 8:00–9:00 p.m. PT
 * Saturday, June 4 - 4:00–5:00 a.m. PT
 * Saturday, June 4 - 12:00–1:00 p.m. PT
 * Saturday, June 4 - 8:00–9:00 p.m. PT
 * Sunday, June 5 - 4:00–5:00 a.m. PT
 * Sunday, June 5 - 12:00–1:00 p.m. PT

Staff
As with the previous two games in the Mario Strikers series, Mario Strikers: Battle League was developed by Next Level Games, though this is the company's first game since its full acquisition by Nintendo. The game was directed by Devon Blanchet, who previously served as a design director for Luigi's Mansion 3, while the music was composed by Chad York and Darren Radtke, who composed for every Mario game by Next Level Games since Mario Strikers Charged.

References to other games

 * Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3: Wario's dribble animation with him carrying the ball references his ability to do the same towards enemies in the game, along with his Shoulder Bash being used for his animation when tackling.
 * Donkey Kong Country: An arrangement of "DK Island Swing" plays on the Jungle Retreat stage.
 * Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: Yoshi's dash animation references his run cycle in this game.
 * Luigi's Mansion: An arrangement of the main theme of this game plays on the Spooky Mansion stage.
 * New Super Mario Bros.: The Mushroom Hill stage is centered around the grass world, and the Ground Theme has been rearranged for the stage.
 * Mario Strikers Charged: The Cup Battles mode features arrangements of both Strikers Cup themes that play in that respective mode, along with the winning cup theme. Yoshi's character theme has also been rearranged, a part of Bowser's theme shows up in the track for Lava Castle, and the Golden Goal plays an arrangement of the Sudden Death theme, this time including the parts from the opening theme in this game(The main leitmotif also plays in the beginning of the opening movie. Waluigi's Hyper Strike involving vines going through opponents is taken from his Mega Strike, where he uses a vine whip to shoot the ball.
 * Donkey Kong Country Returns: The decorations of the Jungle Retreat court resemble DK's Tree House as seen in this game.
 * Mario Sports Mix: Some voice clips are taken from this game.
 * Super Mario 3D Land: Boom Boom's voice clips are taken from this game.
 * Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon: The decorations of the Spooky Mansion court reference the Dark Moon, and the game features an arrangement of Gloomy Manor's music.
 * Mario Kart 8: The majority of the characters' voice clips are taken from this game.