“Tackle, pass, and score in this action-packed sport where anything goes!“

Mario Strikers Battle League on the Wii was a fantastic game. I played that game for HOURS, there was so much replay value and unlockable fields / characters. There wasn’t a sequel to the series since, so when Battle League was announced for Switch I was hyped.

Unfortunately, this game did not live up to the hype. While pretty to look at, Battle League suffers heavily from not only the feel of the gameplay but also the fact that there isn’t really much to do. The impact of shots, the intensity of the match, the strange idea to make the “A” button shoot instead of the “B” button – these things make you wonder about the design decisions made.

The single player mode fails in comparison to Charged. Yeah you can win cups to rack up coins to unlock gear for each character, but is that it? What other incentive is there to play that mode, especially for someone like me has no interest in cosmetics? Fields and characters are being added through “free updates” – which I experienced before in Mario Tennis Aces. Not a fan of this method, but I was ok with it in Aces because that game actually shipped with content. Only 10 characters (none of which were new) and 5 fields from launch? Are you kidding me?

I picked up the game after the second free update, which bumped the counts up to 14 and 7 respectively, however after 3 matches I still feel like I saw all the game had to offer. Going from having 1 main character as a captain with minor characters (Koopa Troopa, Boo, Toad, etc) filling in the rest of your team, to 4 main characters as the entire roster makes everyone feel less distinct.And the logic behind Boom Boom still confuses me. He will block every shot I throw at him one match, then easily let in whiffs the next match. I just don’t get it.

This game is fun for 2 or 3 matches every once in awhile, but man am I disappointed. Hope whatever updates come next can improve what we have now.