Mario Strikers: Battle League gives Mario’s soccer series a powerful jolt of personality

polygon.com:

After a 15-year break, Mario and friends are headed back to the pitch for more full-contact, over-the-top soccer-style action. Mario Strikers: Battle League, coming June 10 to Nintendo Switch, intensifies the soccer-like game of Strike with new super moves, equippable gear, and an online Strikers Club mode that will let players build and grow a club that works, more or less, like real-world soccer.

Mario Strikers: Battle League brings back Mario sports game veterans like Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Toad, Wario, and Waluigi, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. (Nintendo says more characters will be added for free over time, a la Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Golf: Super Rush.) Players will be able to customize all of the Mushroom Kingdom’s jocks with unlockable gear. Each item, which spans protective gear for the head, body, arms, and legs, can boost a character’s attributes, often with some trade-offs for balance.

Gear is purchased with in-game coins doled out as post-match rewards and can be worn in all of Mario Strikers: Battle League’s game modes.

Nintendo showed off those game modes during a recent presentation viewed by Polygon. They include Quick Battle, a jump-in-and-play option for 1-8 players, online or offline; Cup Battle, a local play option for 1-4 players that includes tournaments against computer-controlled opponents; and Strikers Club mode, a new, online-only feature where players can form clubs, compete with others, and pool their resources to customize their club.

Representatives for Nintendo say Strikers Club will function similarly to real-world soccer clubs, with divisions and seasons, where players will compete to score points in the hopes of being promoted to higher divisions (or risk falling