Oh brother you'd better have some friends around to play with for this one because otherwise you just bought yourself a $60 coaster.
It sucks because there's a great game buried in here! The classic death metal grungy Strikers aesthetic has been toned down a bit to match Nintendo's modern, more generalized approach to the Mario series but it's still there in spades, plus Next Level Games has brought their amazing and personality-filled animation style from Luigi's Mansion 3 over here too. The chaotic anything goes approach to soccer still works so well, and I thought switching from 1 captain character and 3 teammate characters to just 4 captain characters was a great idea that makes it feel less like you need to get the ball to one specific character and more like you can change things up on the fly. The mashup courts are a fun idea, although they all feel kind of samey and I do miss more unique courses like the mud pit and windy island from Charged.
But of course, it doesn't take long before Battle League's problems rear their ugly head. Only 10 characters at launch for a game like this is just pathetic and reeks of this game getting forced out the door so Nintendo could have a June release. Series favourites like Daisy, Boo, and Diddy Kong are absent right now, and you can feel their absence when you find yourself seeing Luigi on seemingly every team in the tournament mode. Part of the fun of the game is mashing characters together and see how they combo on a team but with such a limited roster you'll find a team that works for you so quickly that there's really no reason to try anyone else. There are also only 5 possible options to choose from for the mashup courts, which is very disappointing considering they're just backgrounds. Tournament mode is fun if only because it lets you play the game but the AI is laughably easy to beat and it really amounts to nothing, aside from giving you coins that allow you to buy minor upgrades for the characters.
Most disappointing of all is the online mode, which forces you to join an online team to even play it. Most I could see were invite only so that was a wash.
Maybe I'll come back in a year and find Battle League is the best Strikers game ever, but right now outside of local multiplayer there really isn't any reason to check this out, and that's very unfortunate.
It sucks because there's a great game buried in here! The classic death metal grungy Strikers aesthetic has been toned down a bit to match Nintendo's modern, more generalized approach to the Mario series but it's still there in spades, plus Next Level Games has brought their amazing and personality-filled animation style from Luigi's Mansion 3 over here too. The chaotic anything goes approach to soccer still works so well, and I thought switching from 1 captain character and 3 teammate characters to just 4 captain characters was a great idea that makes it feel less like you need to get the ball to one specific character and more like you can change things up on the fly. The mashup courts are a fun idea, although they all feel kind of samey and I do miss more unique courses like the mud pit and windy island from Charged.
But of course, it doesn't take long before Battle League's problems rear their ugly head. Only 10 characters at launch for a game like this is just pathetic and reeks of this game getting forced out the door so Nintendo could have a June release. Series favourites like Daisy, Boo, and Diddy Kong are absent right now, and you can feel their absence when you find yourself seeing Luigi on seemingly every team in the tournament mode. Part of the fun of the game is mashing characters together and see how they combo on a team but with such a limited roster you'll find a team that works for you so quickly that there's really no reason to try anyone else. There are also only 5 possible options to choose from for the mashup courts, which is very disappointing considering they're just backgrounds. Tournament mode is fun if only because it lets you play the game but the AI is laughably easy to beat and it really amounts to nothing, aside from giving you coins that allow you to buy minor upgrades for the characters.
Most disappointing of all is the online mode, which forces you to join an online team to even play it. Most I could see were invite only so that was a wash.
Maybe I'll come back in a year and find Battle League is the best Strikers game ever, but right now outside of local multiplayer there really isn't any reason to check this out, and that's very unfortunate.