Topic: Mario Strikers Battle League

@Pizzamorg nice. Hopefully mine should be here after work.

Now that it's finally out, can I just say how happy I am that this game even exists to begin with? Strikers was/is one of Nintendo's most out-there ideas for a game series that I was sure would never leave the GCN/Wii era so to see a brand new one with all the swagger and pizzazz of those older games makes me extremely happy. I probably won't be getting it myself since I'm more of a single player than multiplayer kind of guy but wow is it cool.

@Fizza Yeah I'm really just happy to see more Strikers. It doesn't really seem like this one is changing up the formula in a major way or anything, and that's fine for me. I'm just super excited to finally be getting another Strikers game so many years later

So I had a quick hour break before making a start on some OT at work. There were some highs and woes in that first hour.

I played through the first cup and this seemed like a way better tutorial, than the actual tutorial. Not being required to do X thing X times and just being able to use mechanics at my own pace really allowed me to just have fun and learn things far more enjoyably.

Of course, the CPU is super easy (at least on this opening cup), so this won't prepare you for online play (I didn't need to use the dodge once, which I am assured is a central mechanic online), but it will give you a relaxed environment to get used to the controls and mechanics (assuming the difficulty doesn't just spike further in, like it did Tennis Aces). And just generally you can enjoy the chaos because you aren't playing some super sweaty match.

Even though it was pretty easy, I think there needs to be some AI tuning to the goalies because holy crap, outside of like perfect or hyper strikes, nothing was getting through them unless it was an unlucky rebound. My goalie pretty much carried me through the first match, as it saved like ten attempts at once.

On the woe end, the online still does not work for me. I tried a couple of times as time was running out, got errors every time. I did wonder if maybe it's because my Switch is on Wifi and wondered if a ethernet connection would be more stable, but I got constant error messages when trying to connect my Switch to the internet via that method. It worked a few months ago, and I am using the exact same cable and router to type this, so I dunno if my dock is just busted (as it is the OLED dock with the built in ethernet) or if it's the Switch just being an arse with my internet like it always is for some reason.

Tbh, I'm unfortunately getting more disappointed with Strikers Battle League the more I delve into exploring the online options. The actual on the field gameplay and animations are solid for the most part. But for the most online-centric game Nintendo has released in a long time, where the general marketing is so heavy on the online component of the game:

*It does not use Switch Game Invites for Quick Play or for Strikers Club. (Mario Golf used them; this is a another step backwards)

*You cannot play 8 players simultaneously (4v4) in Strikers Club matches online, it's only limited to 2v2.

*In online 5-8 player with friends, you cannot have more than 4 switches max. So to get 8 player, you can do 2 x 2 x 2 x 2, but you cannot do 1 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 1. This is a big deal for me, as a bunch of my Switch friends all live far enough away from each other, almost always play solo, and/or don't have SO's, family, or friends interested in joining them. We've waited years for another quality Nintendo online game with 5-8 simultaneous players, last one was Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. (Luigi's Mansion 3 is great and had 8 players, it's just more of a niche game that not everyone has though. Rocket League is another great one too, but 3rd party).

*Only 2 local players can join up on a single console for online (yet again for a Nintendo multiplayer game)

*In Quick Play online against randoms, there's no option to choose a simple mode without Hyperstrikes and/or items. Mario Tennis and Golf, with all their flaws, still had this option.

*You do not have the option to turn off draws, when tied at the end, it's always 2 minutes of sudden death then a draw.

*When playing Strikers Club solo, besides the captain character of the team, you cannot fully choose your teammates. E.g. My captain is Toad, and first match I could only choose Mario, Luigi, and Wario, next match I could only choose Luigi, Yoshi, Rosalina. This is not the case in other game modes. Nothing wrong with a player willingly choosing random via a button press, my issue is that it is forced. If they did this forced randomizing because they were afraid of an unstoppable combo emerging, then they probably did not balance the game well enough.

@ChameleonBros Luigi's Mansion 3 multiplayer worked the exact same way this game does: the only way to get 8 players is with two players each on 4 Switches (the second player on each controls Gooigi).

If Quick Battle had to account for all the possible variations in rules then it wouldn't be very quick now, would it? Also, you may find this hard to believe, but competitive players actually very much prefer items on, because otherwise the game devolves into players hitting each other constantly with no penalties.

News flash: online games don't want to go on forever, especially if both players are collectively screwing around.

I don't know where you got this idea that playing a mode based entirely around joining or managing clubs of up to twenty players would go well with you all by yourself in one. You are supposed to pick from the roster of strikers registered by other members. It has nothing to do with balance. The other option would be to just impose a hard minimum of 4 players in a club, but that would make it hard to make public clubs.

I've played about 2 hours so far, and my initial impressions are very, very positive. The game feels absolutely fantastic to control once you get the hang of it. It strikes a fantastic balance between chaos and strategy. I love the gear system as it allows you to customize characters to your liking. I main DK in practically every Nintendo game, so I love the choice to either keep him as a slow tank or as a speedy shooter. The graphics and animations are also top-tier, and the music is absolutely banging.

My only real complaint is one that many others share, and that's a general lack of stuff to do outside of standard matches, cup battles, and online battles. Strike is definitely a less flexible sport to do more stuff with, as opposed to golf or tennis, but it would be nice to have at least some extra game modes to waste some time on. However, so far I have been enjoying the core gameplay so much that the lack of extra modes isn't too much of a downside for me. I can see myself playing this game for a long time.

@meleehunter

-Ok, thank you for the correction on LM3, my bad on that. But in that case, why should a completely different game, in a completely different series, in a completely different genre have the same exact online limitations? It makes no sense.

-I should clarify a bit, I'm not saying to create like 50 different queues and 10 additional menus for random quick play involving each permutation of time, items, and hyperstrikes. Here, I'm just talking about simply having one additional simple mode (no items or hyperstrikes) against randoms. Quick play- > "Standard" or "Simple". Mario Tennis Switch, Mario Golf Switch, Rocket League, and even Smash 4 have already figured this out many years ago. I also don't get what competitive players opinions' have to do with the lack of an additional option for any player, regardless of skill. Smash Ultimate's not a good example because of the online queues being a jumbled mess (you never know for sure if the next match is with or w/o items, stage hazards) but in Smash 4, competitive players don't play with items because matches are more fair that way- much less random elements. Does that mean that the For Fun online mode with items should therefore not exist alongside For Glory as a separate option because of pro players' opinions about fairness? For what it's worth, the new whiff+speedy dodge mechanic looks to be a direct counter to opponents excessively spamming tackle.

-I'm not exactly saying games should go on forever. Like, a 15 minute OT would be overkill and tedious for 99% of people. But, again, at least give toggle options of draw vs. no draw, and adjusting the OT time length for when playing with friends. I've had plenty of OT matches in Strikers Charged with friends that went on longer than 2 minutes (say like 3-5 minutes) and we both say that they were some of the most intense and fun matches we've played. Again, I just ask for the option to do so with friends, it's ok if the default across quick play with randoms and the whole game is 2 minute OT-> draw.

-I genuinely don't get what you're trying to say here with the Strikers Club/20 characters comment, I might be misunderstanding. Whether you're playing Strikers Club with 3 friends, 1 friend, or solo, why restrict your or the teammates' selection to a limited pool of forced random characters instead of the remaining available roster? Did you mean like the complexities of managing gear alongside everything?

I'm not telling you how to play or enjoy the game, enjoy it as much as you'd like. Overall, I'm just saying that for me, the lack of options and QoL features is personally very disappointing for a 2022 Switch online-heavy game that is 15 years and 2 whole console generations after its 2007 Wii predecessor.

this game is bullsh*t

@defhed have you lost a few games?!?

@MarioBrickLayer literally every game.. like 10. I mean I know I'm bad but really? I'm not that bad. This game tilted me.

It's definitely a little hard, but not impossible. I completely skipped over the tutorial, lost the first 3 games, and won the next 5 or so all on normal. I focused on soccer only and tackling before I started trying hyper strikes and all that stuff.

@NintendoByNature I mostly skipped the tutorial. I did part of the tutorial before the game released, enough that I felt I knew enough to jump into online and get better as i go, at the end of the day after work and the first person I could tell had been playing all day.. then even against the other bads i'm getting screwed by cheap shots my goalie doesnt block but their goalie blocks basically everything.. i mean, i was scoring at least one every game, but the matches are too short and the game was just against me no matter what.

I can't believe i'm the worst player online....

So, in the credits for this game, I noticed that Retro Studios was listed in Special Thanks. I wonder what part they played in this game?

@StarPoint My initial guess is some visual elements of Jungle Retreat may have been inspired by Donkey Kong Country Returns, which was made by Retro? Or even the modern form of DK himself?

Still working on 100%'ing the tutorial, it's brutal. Once that's done I've dive into the main game, but so far I'm impressing. Everything is very fluid and looks great.

@ChameleonBros That could definitely be, but now I wonder if Retro has been credited in other Mario games featuring DK?

@defhed I have lost loads of games too! I keep forgetting about certain mechanics, like I keep forgetting about to dash!

What combination of players is everyone using? In single player mode I'm beginning to think speed is more important then strength, I've played some games recently with Mario + Rosalina + 2 Toads and I have done OK, slightly more difficult if a team has 2 strong players but I haven't come across that much.

Loving the game so far. Come join my club: Pallet Town FC

24XBTXT

@Rikster Hey hey I'll be glad to join and will add it later today. I'm liking playing this game online, it's just such a mixed bag sometimes. Or at least compared to other online games by Nintendo.