Mario Strikers: Battle League makes me love Mario and his friends all over again

polygon.com:

Mario Strikers: Battle League could have just been another title in a long series of Mario sports games. It could have rehashed mechanics from previous Strikers games, and then called it a day. But between and throughout matches, the characters flaunt something not present in every Mario game: their personalities. Whether it’s Waluigi confidently lounging on the pitch just before kickoff, or Peach fanning off her frustration before letting her temper get the best of her, Battle League breathes new life into characters that not even mainline Mario games have been able to refresh for quite some time.

Polygon Recommendsis our way of endorsing our favorite games. When we award a game the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the title is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive, or fun — and worth fitting into your schedule. If you want to see the very best of the best for your platform(s) of choice, check out Polygon Essentials.

Nintendo is great at putting out playful games that don’t take Mario too seriously. But Battle League takes itself even less seriously. What stands out most is the willingness of developer Next Level Games to take the Mario characters to deliriously funny heights. In between goals and matches, the characters’ personalities shine. In one instance, Five Toads do a joyous airplane run across the field; in another, Wario butt slams a soccer ball so hard that it rockets forward in an explosive path toward the goal.

The very premise of the game goes unexplained, further adding to the surreal chaos of the matches. The game opens on a giant, translucent, extradimensional orb that soon produces a chimeric monster of a soccer field — a fusion of two completely differently courses