With another year to possibly grace us with a new Mario sports game, I thought it’d be appropriate to reflect on the last one. And how that one quickly become forgotten amongst the Nintendo community. It had been 15 years since the last Mario Strikers game, and to give reference: Rosalina didn’t exist when the last Strikers came out. So needless to say, expectations from fans were high. I personally didn’t grow up playing Mario sports, but I hear endless praise for Charged back on the Wii.
But as we got closer to launch, Nintendo said those five little words that sent off warning sirens in my head: “free updates will be added.” This was immediately concerning. Now I don’t dislike free content updates on principle; after all New Pokemon Snap got one and that was pretty fun. The problem comes when we look back at the previous Mario sports games on Switch. Mario Tennis Aces had some fun competitive gameplay to stave off the monotony, but Mario Golf Super Rush I actually really hated. I was sincerely hoping Battle League wouldn’t fall into the same pit as those two.
But… it seemed like I was right to be worried. Battle League launched in June of 2022 and I bought it day 1 for full price. And I seriously wish I didn’t. There was hardly any single player content to keep me engaged, the stadiums all felt the same, the online was a crapshoot especially if I wanted to play with friends, and the overly precise timing and mechanics did not translate well into Nintendo’s online service. I bounced off hard, and by the time [Daisy was added](https://youtu.be/29qaA3suXBk) Xenoblade 3 was coming out and my attention was squarely on that. Not worth $60.
So that’s my little schpeel on Mario Strikers Battle League, one of the more underwhelming first party games I’ve played on Switch. But what did you think? Did you get more out of it more than I did?