Yet another undercooked Mario sports title hits the Switch. I've bought all of them, so guess I'm the person to blame.
The biggest changes here are the mechanical ones. The "captain + sidekicks" setup from the previous games has been removed in favour of picking your four favourite Mario characters. Not a giant issue, if the roster didn't consist of just 10 characters. It leads to a severe lack of team diversity and also means that the captain of your team is considerably less special. These used to be the identity of your squad, with the team's colour and emblem being based upon them. But here they're just the person who starts closest to the ball. The previous game also had 12 captains, which is bigger number than 10. Embarassing.
The sidekicks also let lesser Mario characters get some spotlight and had their own unique skills which just brought so much flavour to the game. Monty Mole, Boo, Birdo and Hammer Bro all doing things unique to their character. The mole digs, the bro hammers, the bird shoots eggs. Here everyone feels the same, they're just a football avatar in a Mario shape.
They've tried to make up for this with the option of adding gear to your character, so you can absolutely ruin their design trying to achieve a "min-maxed" setup. You like Wario? Well, here he is with bits of neon strapped to his arm, a goofy helmet with a light on the side and samurai armour.
The gameplay has also undergone an overhaul which has made it more complex, and thus less immediate. "Charging" up the ball by making successful passes and going for a powerful shot is gone, in favour of "perfect passes" which are exact timed button presses. More skill-intensive sure, but not any more fun. It's maybe something I will warm to with more practice, but the content isn't there to give me the desire to do so.
These changes have likely been in favour of the game's 8-player mode, to prevent sibling arguments over "BUT I WANT TO BE THE CAPTAIN!". Yet, this mode is not playable online. The game has skewed so much towards its online content, but not having the 4v4 mode is so frustrating.
Set up your team and play with your friends. We mean friend, just one of them. Yes, we changed the entire roster and teambuilding mechanics for an 8-player mode, but you can't have it.
Overall, Mario Strikers Battle League is lacking in all departments. For a game released 5 years into the Switch's life, it's a joke. Maybe in a year's time they'll have added more characters and equipment and stages and single-player content, but it shouldn't be this way.
TL;DR no daisy no petey piranha shit game
The biggest changes here are the mechanical ones. The "captain + sidekicks" setup from the previous games has been removed in favour of picking your four favourite Mario characters. Not a giant issue, if the roster didn't consist of just 10 characters. It leads to a severe lack of team diversity and also means that the captain of your team is considerably less special. These used to be the identity of your squad, with the team's colour and emblem being based upon them. But here they're just the person who starts closest to the ball. The previous game also had 12 captains, which is bigger number than 10. Embarassing.
The sidekicks also let lesser Mario characters get some spotlight and had their own unique skills which just brought so much flavour to the game. Monty Mole, Boo, Birdo and Hammer Bro all doing things unique to their character. The mole digs, the bro hammers, the bird shoots eggs. Here everyone feels the same, they're just a football avatar in a Mario shape.
They've tried to make up for this with the option of adding gear to your character, so you can absolutely ruin their design trying to achieve a "min-maxed" setup. You like Wario? Well, here he is with bits of neon strapped to his arm, a goofy helmet with a light on the side and samurai armour.
The gameplay has also undergone an overhaul which has made it more complex, and thus less immediate. "Charging" up the ball by making successful passes and going for a powerful shot is gone, in favour of "perfect passes" which are exact timed button presses. More skill-intensive sure, but not any more fun. It's maybe something I will warm to with more practice, but the content isn't there to give me the desire to do so.
These changes have likely been in favour of the game's 8-player mode, to prevent sibling arguments over "BUT I WANT TO BE THE CAPTAIN!". Yet, this mode is not playable online. The game has skewed so much towards its online content, but not having the 4v4 mode is so frustrating.
Set up your team and play with your friends. We mean friend, just one of them. Yes, we changed the entire roster and teambuilding mechanics for an 8-player mode, but you can't have it.
Overall, Mario Strikers Battle League is lacking in all departments. For a game released 5 years into the Switch's life, it's a joke. Maybe in a year's time they'll have added more characters and equipment and stages and single-player content, but it shouldn't be this way.
TL;DR no daisy no petey piranha shit game