Oh man, where do we start with this...
Okay, so Xbox has now got its very own Mario Strikers knock-off game with – wait for it – Mariostro Strikers: Soccer League. Oh no, not at all copied from Mario Strikers: Battle League, no your honour, purely a coincidence.
Sigh. Released on 10th January 2025 by LightGamess (yes, the extra 'S' is intentional), Mariostro Strikers is perhaps one of the most shameful knock-offs we've ever seen. Let's look at the key art above, to start. It's purely AI generated, and it's one of those images that simply gets funnier the more you look at it.
Observe the controllers in the foreground, the dodgy iPad on the pitch, the multiple footballs, and the facial expressions... Oh God, the facial expressions. It's just so, so bad.
Now let's look at the official description as seen on the Xbox storefront. This is a killer, folks:
"Dive into the thrilling world of arcade-style soccer with [Your Game Name Here]! Experience the excitement of 4v4 matches, where every player counts. With 10 unique and fun teams to choose from, you’ll dribble, pass, and shoot your way to victory while defending your goal with a skilled goalkeeper."
No, your eyes don't deceive you: the developers actually forgot to insert the name of the game into their own – likely AI generated – description. Strewth.
And of course, while we can't really draw any conclusive opinions on the actual quality of the game based on a few screenshots, let's just say they don't exactly fill us with confidence. It looks incredibly generic, and we'd be willing to bet that the team logos have also been generated by AI. Note how 'Skybreakers' sounds suspiciously like 'Skylanders', for instance.
If people keep putting stuff like this on digital storefronts with the hope that users might be duped into paying honest money for it, then quite frankly, we'll just keep on mocking it.
At least it's not on Switch though, right? Yet...
What do you make of this latest shameful knock-off? Leave a comment down below and let us know.
Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
[source xbox.com]
Comments 70
The audacity
The scam
The shame for all of us 😑
Least they aren't charging full price for it.
Nintendo needs to do something to curate their sto-
Oh wait.
If people still don't know that Nintendo games aren't on other systems (with the exception of the few mobile titles) or immediately find that out with a quick search and fall for this...
It looks like a pretty terrible game. They copied that from Battle League too.
I'm so sick of AI generated art being used for cutting corners
@PipeGuy64Bit It's terrible, they all have the same face in the picture. And what's with that Mortal Kombat looking font for "Goal" in one of the screenshots, WTF?!
There's some seriously dodgy knock-off stuff on the Xbox store. They have some Sanic The Hedgehog games on there too! Well they definitely had one called Sanicball when I have an Xbox Series X... it even had proper music from Sonic games in it, not even remixes but the originals.
@Clyde_Radcliffe In that game's defence, Sanicball is more of a ***** post not meant to be taken seriously
Growing up my brother and I used to play Mariostro Soccer Legue evey day. We love Soccer Leagey and people who do not like this good game are the haters.
We would wake up early on Saturday morning and Do our chores so that mother would let us take turns on the Mariostro. Kids these days do not have manners. I think that just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it is not the goods. My mother and brother also were loving Soccer Times. Why are you not liking it and being hater here? So what if ai this game is my childhood and all of the good childhoods Xbox gets it and that is why Sony and Nintendo are snoozing right now.
I shill for Nintendo harder than just about anybody, but when it comes to this sort of thing, Nintendo absolutely has it coming. It's hard to feel empathy for them in scenarios like this when they allow all sorts of copyright-infringing slop just like this on their own storefront. Games that use stolen developer assets, eShop listings with AI character art that looks copied and pasted straight from Zootopia--frankly, it's a wonder Nintendo hasn't been sued by various companies like Disney for allowing those kinds of games on their eShop. They kinda deserve to get a taste of their own medicine and have no right to get offended if they think this will damage their brand. At least, not until they do better. Whatever happened to the Nintendo seal of quality? Can we bring quality assurance back for the Switch 2, please?
Some of the fault also lies on the gamers themselves, if we're being honest. I'm not sure how many people actually fall victim to these scams, but the companies that release this drivel still profit off it because content creators buy these games and give them free publicity in their videos of "Worst shovelware of all-time" and those videos perform really well with hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of views. Then the gamers themselves go and buy the games to have a laugh with their friends. I'm not singling any one person out, I think we all carry a degree of guilt, myself included.
If we just ignored garbage like this, it would go away. But we don't. Mediocrity makes for widespread publicity, so games like this always have a chance of finding moderate success. I guarantee the creators of AAA Clock have made all kinds of money from people buying the game for the memes and for the "lolz." It released years ago, yet I still hear people keeping it alive by joking about it on the internet. Meanwhile, stuff that's actually good falls under the radar because they aren't offensive enough to get attention. We thrive off of shock value.
How does our species build massive skyscrapers and other technological marvels when we're all such simple-minded and degenerate creatures? Just look at me, pondering over the absurdity of this article because I have nothing better to do with my miserable life. I'M PART OF THE PROBLEM, COMPLICIT IN A SEA OF BRAIN ROT!
This is even worse than that Animal Crossing knock off we had a few weeks ago.
Can't be much worse than the actual Mario Strikers on Switch
@drypaphmrbro Yeah true, but it's still weird they could get away with using SEGA music (including vocal tracks like Live and Learn) and have it on the Xbox Store!
Ah yes Mariostro, Mario and Astro Bot's half-brother, his soccer skills are unrivaled.
@BenAV Battle League is a good game, the foundation is there, It Just needed more game modes and characters. As of now, Charged for Wii is my favorite Mario Strikers game. Let's hope next generation Nintendo on Switch 2 stops with the artificial updates such as Battle League got of releasing the game in parts. If Battle League didn't kill the franchise, Mario Strikers Will be back in the Future.
Man i am loving the first picture, look at the person's arm on far top left, tiny hand on an octopus arm?
But that gameplay looks terrible
@Bunkerneath Spaghetti Arms Striker League 😋 👌
Look at mateys left arm in the black and yellow shirt on the right, it looks like it just got broken by Frank Mir 😄
Why do all the players look like Lloyd Christmas?
@Paulo Yeah I agree that the general gameplay is fine but it's pretty pointless if there's nothing to do or any reason to play. The single player content being a step back from Charged was one thing but the crazy thing is that the online multiplayer was too. Battle League is basically just a full retail price demo.
The corporations are huge and they can’t do a basic quality check. God that looks abysmal. The people who “made” it should be ashamed tbh.
LMAO this is absolutely terrible, you can't even give A for effort because there's zero effort here.
I may not be a big fan of Mario Strikers Battle League but that game is at least treated with care.
I am- ahem, aspire to be the last person to throw around "clone" and "ripoff" accusations, but this looks like one of, if not THE most unequivocal case I've ever seen. Oh well, at least I learned another new word from the article itself.
Out of all games to copy they pick the one that solidified the downward spiral of mario sports this generation
Or I guess, the ai picked it lol
that AI garbage can be seen from miles away
Thank you for showing us games like this. It is really entertaining.
I'm genuinely impressed by how bad it looks. Obvious ripoff with several key features. I'll be oh so disappointed if it doesn't have a Yoshi-alike gulping down a ball to lay an egg to do some massive shot using every part of its body except the hands.
Scum bring scum. The repercussions for such behaviour should be much more than simply delisting the title.
I can't get over the one-legged guy wearing VERY heavy eyeliner with the laser shooting in front of his face. Or not being able to pick out a single face in the grimy sea of the crowds. That blue hair guy's tentacle arm is just a funny mishap!
Oh good god!
Couldn't they have at least made him...blonde or something?!!
WHY IS THERE A GUY WITH AN ARM FOR AN EAR? Or elephant trunk...or something.
I'm rapidly starting to change my mind on AI slop in games - it won't be used to improve anything I fear, quite the opposite. It'll be the sign of corners cut...
Setting aside the blatant Mario rip off going on here. That’s some of the worst use of AI I’ve ever seen. The soccer players on the left are each missing a leg, various hands and feet are missing, the balls don’t look right with their patterns, and what’s with the strange rubber band arm in the corner? No matter how much of a budget you have, you can pay a couple hundred bucks and pay a real artist and get something that’s not embarrassing. Pay people, not AI, you’ll sleep better at night.
Is it me or on the "key" art the middle player of the left side is s#!tt!ng the leg that's missing from the yellow player next to him?
It looks like someone who opened ChatGPT filled in:
Hey ChatGPT i want a game just like mario strikers. And then you get this game as a reply.
Pre-order in for the early access digitalé whorld cůp edicionę
It's okay to be inspired by a game, but this is laughably put together. Have a word, quality control.
Gee, I hate to do this, but: “🎶 I’M GETTING SICK OF IT, SICK OF IT, SEEING IT EVERYWHERE!!! 🎶” Hopefully that was better than the actual song. Anyway, first Animal Crossing coming to the PlayStation, and now this horror from Noriginal (it’s a real place, but it’s so awful that every government makes sure no one knows about it, so hopefully Trump won’t be reading this)?! Alright, Nintendo, forget about what everybody hates you for, let the lawyers loose!
About that cover art… how do you play soccer with one leg?
@HugoGED Every trio has the unmentioned fourth wheel… what was the green guy’s name again?
They even copied football and renamed it "soccer". Who does that?
@Clyde_Radcliffe Yeah. Still funny af that the game exists tho
Removed - inappropriate
@StewdaMegaManNerd Well, normally, amabs have a 3rd leg...
@Anti-Matter I've got the reference
To be fair, other than the title, it doesn't looks like a Mario Striker Knock-off. Too barebone to resemble Mario Striker.
I'm in a state of continuous disbelief that anyone will actually ship with AI art of this quality on display.
The jigsaw puzzle games on Switch eShop with entirely AI generated images are the most awful trash I'm ever witness.
The sigh that escaped my mouth...
Are seals of quality not a thing anymore? I guess Sony or Xbox (and probably Nintendo as well at this point) don't care as long as it makes them money...
There needs to be a policy that any of these A"I" generated games have to go on a separate page. Any failure to declare use of A"I" generation results in your game being delisted.
I'm sorry, but this A"I" trend actively needs to be fought against.
Y'know, before you start accusing Xbox of getting a game MS neither promoted or published, Nintendo might want to do a bit of culling themselves for allowing RedDeerGames to keep their spamware at the top of the 'most-recent' page....
I don't see you making any articles about those guys.
Gotta love the AI art too…
Is that an elephant trunk sticking out of his ear
They all look like Luigi in the AI art and they all look like Mr. Bean in-game
Okay, as much as I despise gen AI and this type of shovelware, this honestly gave me a laugh. It’s still pretty disgusting though. I’m so blooming sick of these types of games, no amount of laughing at how lazy these people are will make it good all of a sudden.
insert .gif of Tom DeLonge mouthing "WTF" from the First Date music video
This is so pathetic Nintendo might actually not even bother going after it…
...Mariostro? Dafuq is a Mariostro? lol
@drypaphmrbro I understand the struggle. I used to work in the UK, and every time a colleague came back from the US, his English was corrupted for a while and he'd say non British words like "garbage". He knew speaking like this was rubbish. You should always stick to proper English, especially if you had the chance to grow up surrounded by a nice accent.
You can tell, that the key art was done with AI.
Yep that art is definitely ai
If the article included the image of the art without the logo, you would see the character the logo blocks is the actual Mariostro.
I love how everyone on the team in the generated image has a constant hair color then there is just ninja on the left for no reason lmao.
“Note how ‘Skybreakers’ sounds suspiciously like ‘Skylanders’, for instance.”
Someone remembering Skylanders?
IN 2025?!
‼️TELL ME MY EYES DO NOT DECEIVE ME‼️
‼️OH WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY IT IS‼️
It must be very difficult to curate a store for it be quality titles without all this ai garbage, but literally every digital storefront suffers from this. PSN, Microsoft Store and of course, the eshop.
Gosh, thanks Nintendo I can finally play Hentai Games Collection on my Switch!
I’ve seen the promo art and images from the actual game and they don’t even look alike. Even one of the characters in the promo art has mismatched shoes (a white shoe and a brown shoe). These kinds of errors happen when you use AI. And the fact the main character in the promo art looks a whole lot like Mario.
Mario StrAIkers: Battle in Court
Wait, you don't even get to play as Mariostro?! Aw come on, that's false advertisement! BOOO!!
AI opens up all kinds of empowering new avenues for artists. Like doing scams, and… well, mostly scams.
they could have at least came up with an original name
@HammerGalladeBro Oh, wow. I assumed Mariostro (he's Mario and maestro?) was the gamer on the left in the blue hat. Or maybe mustaches are back? 😆
@Dev-N To be fair, a lot of us would probably have black eyes if we tried to play soccer with one leg!
Should've just called Sega and made a new Sega Soccer Slam! Or Capcom and made a new Mega Man Soccer.
Both great arcade soccer games, jut as good if not better than Strikers in some regards.
I prefer arcade sports games on Switch of which I’d like to see a new or remastered:
… just to name a few.
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...