Today’s Nintendo Direct announced the revival of the Mario Strikers series with the upcoming installment, Mario Strikers: Battle League. It’s been fifteen years since the last Mario Striker game was released, which was Mario Strikers Charged for the Wii in 2007. Before that, the Mario Striker series began in 2005 with Super Mario Strikers for the GameCube, so this announcement came as a big surprise for Nintendo fans.
Mario Strikers: Battle League is a five-on-five game inspired by soccer, where the only rule of the game is to rule the field. Players have no rule limitations and have to get creative to figure out ways to score and win matches. Players will be able to tackle enemies on the opposite team, use items to their advantage, and even pull off special moves to boost their score. After players pick their characters, they’ll be able to customize them with gear to help boost their stats and compliment their appearance.
So far, ten playable characters have been shown during the Nintendo Direct: Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Peach, Rosalina, Toad, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Wario, and Waluigi. These characters all have their own custom player stats that exhibit their strength, speed, shooting, passing, and technique skills. It’s unsure if Nintendo plans to expand the rooster with more characters from the Super Mario series like in previous Mario Striker games, but who knows what plans they have in store for the franchise’s latest installment.
The trailer also showed the game’s co-op system, which allows players to have local wireless co-op matches with up to eight players and four players on each team, all on one Nintendo Switch system. Additionally, players with a Nintendo Switch Online membership can create or join an online club with up to 20 other players and compete against other soccer clubs worldwide to earn points. As your club earns points, you can start making your way up the ranks to become the best club internationally. You can even bring a second player to online matches using the same Nintendo Switch system.
Preorders for Mario Strikers: Battle League are already available today for $59.99, and the game will release for the Nintendo Switch on June 10, 2022.