Mario Strikers: Battle League review: I’m sensing a trend

digitaltrends.com:

If you want a clear picture of how much Nintendo’s approach to games has changed over the years, look no further than Mario Strikers: Battle League. Previous Mario sports games used to be filled to the brim with characters, unlockables, and modes designed to test players’ skills. But Battle League, like last year’s Mario Golf: Super Rush, is more of a sparse framework that Nintendo plans to build up over time with free updates.

It’s an approach indicative of a more modern Nintendo, one that seems interested in getting more mileage out of its titles. To do that, though, it needs to produce games with a rock-solid core experience. That’s what Mario Strikers: Battle League aims to deliver at launch. The title is the first dedicated Mario soccer game since 2007 and as such, developer Next Level Games put a lot of care into refining and modernizing the experience. That part is a smashing success; it’s the rest that needs work.

From a pure gameplay perspective, Mario Strikers: Battle League might be the deepest and most nuanced Mario sports experience yet. The question is simply whether its bare-bones approach to content can hold your interest long enough between its much-needed updates.

While Mario Strikers: Battle League is the first Strikers game since the Wii, Mario did briefly return to the pitch in 2017’s middling Mario Sports Superstars. That game featured sluggish 11-versus-11 soccer matches with hardly any depth or gimmicks to keep things interesting. Battle League’s best quality is that it takes a full pivot from that title to deliver faster games that lean into action and strategy.

I’m surprised by how much nuance there is here compared to other Mario sports games.

“Strike” matches pit two teams of five against one