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darksnowman

Mario Strikers: Battle League Football

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Lookin' forward to more Mario footy and have been listenin' to some of the old music recently, such as this one:

...But then I thought, "What if I added that song to it?"

Ahh... I really shouldn't be allowed near computers...

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English version of the previously released Japanese overview trailer is up:

 

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mariostrikersbattleleagueoverviewtrailerbanner.620x0.webp

Mario Strikers: Battle League Football overview trailer

All up on the main site.

Full press release and video embed.

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Looks awesome. I do hope there is a mode that doesn't have all those extra bits in. Just straight up football.

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1 hour ago, BowserBasher said:

Looks awesome. I do hope there is a mode that doesn't have all those extra bits in. Just straight up football.

Have you ever played Mario Strikers? Normal football would be boring with that setup.

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15 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Have you ever played Mario Strikers? Normal football would be boring with that setup.

That is true, and I. have. Just thought it might be interesting to see uf ut played different without all those specials and shots that score two goals. But then Charged had those mega penalty shots where you could get like 6.

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If anything football should be more like Mario Strikers

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1 hour ago, Ashley said:

If anything football should be more like Mario Strikers

Now that... that is something I can get behind.

I don't even like Mario Strikers that much, but the Wii one is easily the best football game I've played.

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13 hours ago, Ashley said:

If anything football should be more like Mario Strikers

Now that I would watch. 

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I have a friend who is very much into Strikers but I never really played it. Might want to try this one out, it does look fun. 

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A bumload of news about Mario Strikers came up today. First there's a demo that lets you play the tutorial. June 4 and 5 there's an online play test:

Next, Nintendo has confirmed that there will be free post-launch updates, including characters. So I guess the same tactics as we've seen with Golf and Tennis.

Last, hands-on sessions can be found online:

https://www.nintendolife.com/features/hands-on-mario-strikers-battle-league-makes-a-furiously-good-first-impression

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/features/mario-strikers-battle-league-could-be-the-best-mario-sports-title-yet/

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1 hour ago, Dufniall said:

Next, Nintendo has confirmed that there will be free post-launch updates, including characters. So I guess the same tactics as we've seen with Golf and Tennis.

Just like that my interest in the game has lessened. I hate this service/Gaas type of model for these games. What's wrong with sending out a game that's finished, just like they used to do with the Gamecube and Wii entries? Signs of the times I suppose. :( 

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Just now, Hero-of-Time said:

Just like that my interest in the game has lessened. I hate this service/Gaas type of model for these games. What's wrong with sending out a game that's finished, just like they used to do with the Gamecube and Wii entries? Signs of the times I suppose. :( 

Online gaming happened.

Constant player engagement has become a seriously big thing for online multiplayer games. It's not good enough that a game sells well, it has to keep people playing long after it's released.

It was pretty obvious they were going this route when it became apparent that Daisy, Miss Mario Spin Off herself, wasn't playable.

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Just now, Glen-i said:

Constant player engagement has become a seriously big thing for online multiplayer games. It's not good enough that a game sells well, it has to keep people playing long after it's released.

It was pretty obvious they were going this route when it became apparent that Daisy, Miss Mario Spin Off herself, wasn't playable.

Yup and it sucks.

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19 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yup and it sucks.

I don't mind content being released after a game comes out but I do mind when unlockables are tied to having to play at specific times :hmm:

I love Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Golf Super Rush but it bugs me that I'm required to play them every month in order to obtain new colours or costumes for characters.

For those games, it doesn't take too much time to get what you need but then we come to Nintendo Switch Sports and every week there's a host of new things to try to unlock before the time runs out. It's made all the more irritating by the fact that I can't obtain points by playing with friends or that there aren't any fun single player minigames that could also have allowed rewards to be obtained.

Again, I like the game (despite it ultimately being something of a disappointment so far) but to add yet another game in Mario Strikers that I'll probably have to play every month to not miss out on anything? It's becoming too much!

My time is seriously limited enough as it is and, to reiterate again, while I like all these games, I hate the pressure. There are loads of other games I want to play and in some ways I just feel obligated to keep playing these select few titles because I don't want to miss out on anything really.

Even now, I'm still wearing the same outfit I wore on day one of Nintendo Switch Sports, though :grin:

I think what it'll end up coming down to is that after having missed a few Tetris 99 events, I stopped caring about having to have all the themes. I was only ever playing it for those!

The same will happen in Nintendo Switch Sports and no doubt when I have my desired lineup in Mario Strikers I'll not be quite so bothered about missing out on gear!

Edited by nekunando
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It's the classic FOMO strategy that many publishers use. People only have so much free time and it baffles me that more and more games push this kind of thing. 

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If it’s anything like the other Mario sports games, you won’t have to play every month to unlock all the new stuff; you’ll just be given permanent access to the characters & gear a month after it first appears.

Does make buying a physical copy on day 1 a bit pointless though…

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41 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

If it’s anything like the other Mario sports games, you won’t have to play every month to unlock all the new stuff; you’ll just be given permanent access to the characters & gear a month after it first appears.

That's not how it works in Golf. The characters were available immediately, but the costumes/colour changes are still unavailable if you didn't unlock them in the month they were available.

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Anyone tried the Mario Strikers First strike demo thing yet? I know we can't do matches but you can go through the tutorial and get to learn the basics. Seems pretty good stuff, a lot of moves to learn and get down perfectly. Then there are items and straight up kicking other players. I think it\s going to be hilarious. 

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I've had an hour to reflect on my time with 'First Kick' this afternoon (The next opportunity to play is at 8PM BST if anyone is interested)

Let me get the bad stuff out of the way first:

 

The roster of characters is worse.

The passing is worse.

The shooting is worse.

The tackling is worse.

The dodging is worse.

The movement is worse.

Having to pair up to test the game out also wasn't ideal. Never felt like I could properly get to grips with everything as I had to worry about what someone else on my team was doing.. and there seems to be plenty to get to grips with. The controls haven't clicked immediately as they don't feel natural to me :hmm:

 

Now for the good stuff:

My opinion won't affect how much enjoyment you or anyone else gets from the game.

 

In all seriousness, though, I'm praying that it all comes together once I have the full game in my hands and can get used to all the mechanics that have changed since Charged Football. I think it will, but my first taste has not been pleasant.

Maybe I'm asking for too much. Next Level Games haven't made a truly great game since Punch Out in 2009, after all!

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34 minutes ago, nekunando said:

Maybe I'm asking for too much. Next Level Games haven't made a truly great game since Punch Out in 2009, after all!

Get him, @Dcubed!

I also tried the online demo and I share a lot of the criticisms you raised, especially the controls. I probably should have played the tutorial first to get to grips with everything before heading online as there seemed to be an awful lot going on. I don't recall the GameCube version being this hectic.

The connection was awful as well. I only had 1 match where the person on my team was able to stay until the end. Every other time my team mate ended up getting disconnected.

@lostmario I noticed you were playing it. Thoughts?

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34 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The connection was awful as well. I only had 1 match where the person on my team was able to stay until the end. Every other time my team mate ended up getting disconnected.

Switch Wi-Fi, what are you gonna do? People have an annoying habit of using terrible connections with wireless. Especially in a free to play demo like this.

Edited by Glen-i

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I'm gonna stream my session with the demo tonight, however sounds like it won't be a fun time judging by the posts on here of the earlier slots. Maybe it'll be better tonight, time will tell.

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I managed to play a few games with my teammate being from here. @nekunando and @Londragon if I recall, and to be fair the games were smooth and ran perfectly.

Now, I'm sure that the issue was just cause you had two human people controlling essentially 4 players on screen, but that was not ideal (and this seems to be a similar consensus that I've read elsewhere). It can be rather confusing over who is controlling who, and who will control the player that has the ball passed to them. Now I'm sure this will be a lot easier when you are either playing alone and essentially controlling all by yourself, or you have a team of four friends playing and you all know who you are controlling at once. But that needs some rectifying going forward.

I've read people saying either reduce it to 3v3 or make the pitch larger. For me I didn't find either needed that. Yes it can be frantic and sometimes you couldn't always make out what was going on or who had the ball, but I think that is part of the game. It's a frantic free for all football game. I'm sure if you have one person controlling one character, then you will be able to tell. 

Controls weren't too bad for me. There is a lot more going on in this game that past games. Your basic passing and shooting, but then you have tackles, dodges, items, dashing, it does start to feel overwhelming mid match. Most the time I completely had forgot I had items in the two slots, and when I did, I just spammed X to get rid of them. I hardly used the dodge move, again just forgetting it. In the tutorial there is a team-mate take move where you can shove a team mate into an opponent for a harder tackle, yeah just try doing that in a match.

Generally I liked it though, managed to score some pretty decent goals that weren't hyper shots that were actually pretty good team goals.

I'm hoping enough here will get it that we can have a full team of four people which should make it easier on who you know you are controlling. Plus that may make strategy on defence come into play too. Most the time whilst I was playing there were big gaps that you could get into and have a free shot. 

 

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