Nintendo has announced that the first free content update for Mario Strikers: Battle League – known as Mario Strikers: Battle League Football in Europe – will be made available later this week.
This will add Daisy and Shy Guy as new characters, the Knight Gear set and the Desert Ruin stadium, with the update to be pushed live on Friday 22nd July.
Nintendo has clarified that there will be two more free content updates “arriving before the end of 2022” – Wave Two and Wave Three – which will similarly add new characters, stadiums and gear sets.
This latest game in the Mario Strikers series challenges you to tackle, pass and score with the Mushroom Kingdom gang in Strike, a five-on-five, football-like sport with no rules in which you can do whatever it takes to win.
Stopping at nothing to score, you will need to tackle your rivals, use items and pull off score-boosting special shots, with the chance to customise your characters with gear that can augment their stats and appearance.
There’s the chance to “pummel the pitch” with up to eight players on one Nintendo Switch system, with local wireless play or online. In local play, four players on each team face each other on opposing teams.
You can also join an online club with up to 20 players online, with which you will compete against other clubs for points to increase your rank and strive to become the world’s top club each season.
We enjoyed our time with the game, however, concluded in our review: “Mario Strikers: Battle League Football plays a mean game of soccer, proving to be just as much fun, chaotic and satisfying as its predecessors. Unfortunately, what surrounds it is a package that feels light on content and options limiting it from reaching the dizzying heights of the series’ best. As a result, Mario’s latest sports outing is a solid goal rather than a full-blown hattrick.”
Mario Strikers: Battle League is now available at retail and digitally on the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch worldwide.
