It's been about 15 years since we were last about to play a Mario Soccer (Football) game. The last game being Mario Strikers Charged on the Nintendo Wii.
Before that title, there was Super Mario Strikers on the Nintendo GameCube.
Both titles were loads of fun and took the realism out of what we are used in seeing in any soccer title - FIFA, I'm looking at you - and made a fast paced, frantic party. They were enjoyable alone but, even more fun with a group, with both games supporting four players. Fast forward to today, and now we have the newest entry in the series, Mario Strikers: Battle League that was just released on June 10th.
I'll start with the negatives first when it comes to this game. With the recent practices of other Mario sports titles, like Mario Tennis Aces, it seems that there will be characters and possibly other game modes added as DLC for this game at a later date. I'm not a big fan of this practice because, to me, it seems like the game is unfinished and it can kill player interest. One search around the internet will show you exactly what I mean.
To start, the character selection is very low at only 10 characters.
Yes, 10. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Rosalina, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Yoshi, Wario and Waluigi. In a 5 on 5 soccer game where everyone except the keeper is chosen (The keeper is Boom-Boom, replacing Kritter from the previous two titles). This means that when playing against the CPU or online, you WILL eventually match up against others that will have some of the same players as you.
Single player mode is barely an experience and can be completed in a few hours. Quick Battle is just like it sounds and it's the fastest way to get in to a match online or offline. Just select your settings, team, look, and stadium, then go. You can be playing in a minute, literally.
The problem is you are limited to those options. The time limit features are only, three, four, five or ten minutes a match (that all give the same coin reward) and adjusting certain features. I would have liked to see a first to "a specified number of goals" option to play or even the chance to play in a best of three or five series like you could do in the previous two games.
The Cup Battles do return from the previous titles but, unlike how they were excellently implemented and robust in the Road to the Striker Cup mode in Charged, and even the Cup and Super Cup battles in the original Super Mario Strikers, the battles here are a double elimination tournament and, with so few characters, you only have to win three matches to complete the cup if you don't drop a match. If you lose a match, you fall to the loser's bracket and would have to win twice at the championship round without losing again the rest of the way. If you don't lose a match along the way in both normal and galactic mode, you're looking at a total of 36 matches played. Seems good when compared to Mario Strikers Charged's 37 matches in the Road to the Striker Cup when you go undefeated across the three seasons but, a lot of the meat was taken out. No mini cutscenes, no newsflashes, nothing like that.
Just the bracket and go.
There are six cups with the first five, with teams specializing in a specific stat,
needing to be completed before getting the sixth and, once completing those, you unlock a harder version of those same six cups called Galactic Mode. Right now, the challenge is nice but the reward is not worth the struggle. I was able to complete if after playing the game for about a week, but there is some cheap AI. I love the double elimination bracket but the round robin season mode, that is very similar to how actual soccer matches are played in leagues around the world, and then the tournament that followed it if you qualified, extended the single player experience immensely. Obviously, with a lack of characters in this game, that round robin mode wouldn't make too much sense. It is sill a huge loss, in my opinion, and it does kill some excitement. You'll learn quickly that this game is heavily multiplayer focused in its current state much like a live service game. Which is not a bad thing, let me say, but some players do prefer to play alone or do not like being online very much. Also, matchmaking online is unbalanced right now. Especially in league play where you can find yourself playing 2v1 quite a bit which would put you at a disadvantage if they are decent at the game. It's even worse when you realize that the AI teammates that you have are not good. (This applies to all games modes, not just online - your AI teammates are not good.) I don't think a solo player should be matching up with two human players. And, for some unknown reason, there is no four player online. A 4v4 match online where each player individually controls their character would be fantastic. This is a huge oversight that much of the community is upset about.
Also, and this is likely no fault of the developers, your keeper will at times seem to be unable to stop anything while your opponent, human or AI, will stop everything. This is just part of the game but it will leave you feeling salty at times.
There's no record keeping of any sort in the game outside of Strikers Club. You can't track how well you've done in Cup Battles. You can't track your total wins, losses, goals scored or even when you first completed anything.
There's also no challenges such as the Striker Challenges from Charged. These unique challenges allowed you to play matches with specific characters and complete specific conditions such as win by a certain number of goals or come back from certain amount of goals down and win.
This challenge had you play as Diddy's team against Yoshi's, and you had to win while scoring at least seven goals.
This challenge had you play as Daisy's team against Waluigi's and you had to win while allowing no goals.
Certain items have been removed causing for less variety.
There are no more triple red/green shells, no ice/spiky shells at all, and no triple bombs/bananas. Some of those items even came in a five-pack. With that, you're limited these items in single giant form: red/green shells, banana, bomb. You still have the mushroom and star (which is severely overpowered) as items that can be obtained. Also, the method that you can obtain the items are different. The same getting-hit-without-having-the-ball method is still there. The sliding tackle is SEVERELY missed. This is nearly a fatal flaw in the game as now you have to fully charge a tackle to get a sliding tackle move. I REALLY don't like this feature. To me, it's a little harder to play defense as you now rely on light and charged tackles as your main source of defense. Which, at times, isn't all that fun. As a nice touch, the crowd will throw an item box in your team's color onto the pitch for your teammate to pick up. They will also occasionally throw rainbow colored boxed for anyone to get.
That's great and a nice touch. But, the removal of getting an item when performing a charged shot seems to be penalizing good offense. Having to retrieve your item a la Mario Kart style running in to the box when it is thrown on the pitch can be a bit cumbersome at times depending on what is going on in the match. Also, at kickoff, the team that is losing with get an item thrown on the pitch in their defensive backfield. Once the lead reaches two goals, TWO items are thrown. Against skilled players or really cheap AI, this can easily trigger comebacks and quick goals. I'll be the first to admit, this is good and bad. (The fastest I've scored a goal is two seconds after kickoff.) Character specific items are also gone from this entry.
While the music and presentation are good, I'll admit that the music for Battle League is really good, it lacks the energy from the previous titles. From the entrance, celebrations and frustrations, everything has been changed and, for the most part, tuned down several notches from the previous games. In Super Mario Strikers, we were used to seeing the characters taunting each other and talking a little trash before a match and after a goal scored.
In Charged, the taunts and aggression were more intense and the "home team" captain literally flew down from the sky at kickoff as their theme played while the teammate sidekicks pointed up at your character and cheered. The road team captain also came from the sky but the below cinematic was not shown.
The celebrations and frustrations were also a major highlight. It'll never get old seeing Waluigi doing the D-Generation X "SUCK IT!" pose after a goal or taunting an opponent by throwing the ball at one of the opposing team's players after his team scored.
"You want the ball?! Here! HAHAHAHAHA!" - Waluigi
Donkey Kong literally punched the camera out of excitement when he scored at times.
In Battle League, the stadium seems to be in a glass sphere in the day or night sky (the game defaults to night - I prefer day) that and the sides of the stadium (more on that in a bit) form out of nothingness. The players then warp in - think the game Portal crossed with Tron - and land on the pitch and make a somewhat aggressive pose.
I mean, it's not bad. And the character designs are fantanstic.
The celebrations are toned down and also seem empty as you only see the character that scored on the pitch during the celebration - the exception being Toad since multiple Toads will be seen running in a v-formation during one of the celebrations. Also, Battle League only has TWO different celebrations after scoring a goal per character, that alternate when you score, while ONE when being scored on - not including Boom-Boom's frustration scene. The previous titles had TWO frustration scenes when you were scored on while having about FIVE celebrations per character. The two above from Waluigi in Charged were not the only ones. He had a few more. The previous titles saw many characters, FROM BOTH TEAMS, on the screen after a goal was scored. There was more immersion in that aspect. I will give credit though, the victory celebrations at the end of the match are new and usually involve the entire team. Save for Toad, apparently. I also preferred the red carpet and podium treatment that Charged did when completing a cup and getting the trophy. This game has just your four characters, sorry Boom-Boom, waving to the crowd before the captain takes the trophy that appears out of nowhere from a portal. The thing is, to sum it up, is that there isn't a huge amount of variety in the scenes and they get stale quick, prompting a bunch of skips and mashing the + or - button to get back to the match.
Putting aside that Battle League only has ONE stadium with five variations that can be mixed and matched (compared to 17 in Mario Strikers Charged), the stadiums were larger and the pitch was bigger in the previous titles. The trade off is that now, in Battle League, the pitch is smaller and the character speed is slower than the previous games. The stadiums themselves are smaller, despite the environment around it being huge, and it's noticeable with less of a crowd and no things like team flags or anything waving in the crowd during a match. The design of the stadiums have also fallen to a more generic state. While the outer designs are different - there aren't many choices (Jungle Retreat, Mushroom Hill, Royal Castle, Spooky Mansion, Lava Keep) - the pitch itself is pretty much the same - there is just an emblem on the pitch based on the stadium you chose. A nice touch is that two different designs can be shown. For example, you can choose the Royal Castle as your pitch and your opponent can have the Spooky Mansion as their pitch, allowing for some crazy looking stadiums. The thing is, also, the angle of the camera during gameplay will prevent you from seeing the stadium. You only see it during the intro and celebrations, which was previously mentioned as empty or hallow.
But, there are no hazards, no lava spewing, no icy ground, no mud, no tilting field, no lightning striking the ground, nothing.
Desert themed pitch with Thwomps in it from Charged. The sand on the edges had you move slower while the hardened rock center moved you at normal speed.
It's a nicely designed but static and generic pitch that you play on. Only the fact that you either play at night or during the day changes as well at the grass color depending on the theme chosen.
Much of the music is also different. Again, it's good. While the main menu song is catchy, the Charged menu song was better, in my opinion, and Super Mario Strikers' menu was also catchy. The gear menu song is welcome and fits what you are doing at the time. The music during the game at all times is mainly of the rock variety. There are nice remixes to be heard, though, such as Super Bell Hill and Peach' Castle, for example. As a nice touch, when time is getting low during a match, the tone of the song changes. As a whole, I preferred the variety of music types that played during Charged and not just a bunch of rock songs. The remixed cup battle music is nice - the song that plays is a remix of when you first start the Cup Battles in Charged. Or, if you prefer, it also played when you were in the middle of the pack during the checkpoint of the round robin stage of the season. All the character themes are new, too. Characters like Rosalina are new, and I can't say much on that, but everyone else has a new theme and I'm mixed on it. I do enjoy Bowser's and Mario's new themes, but nothing will replace Luigi's Flamenco, DK's heavy jungle conga, Wario's accordion, Waluigi's banjo, Toad's hip-hop and a few others for me. But, there are all gone. I would be ecstatic if future DLC allowed us players to listen to classic music in game. For now, honestly, the music now feels a bit forgettable, it gets stale quickly since it's all some kind of hard rock, and I haven't gotten a theme in my head, outside of the main menu, that I can hum right now. There wasn't any music playing during matches in the first Strikers game but, during Charged, unless you played on a classic Strikers game stage, there was always a song playing while you ran around the pitch. I've already mentioned The Classroom, but listen to The Vice, The Wastelands, Galactic Stadium or Stormship Stadium. Great songs while playing. Each stadium also had it's own unique sound effect when a goal was scored. This wasn't present in the first Strikers as you heard the same horn regardless of where you played, followed by an announcer, who is missed from the first game, yelling GOOOOOOOOOAL, and then saying "Goal..." and the person that scored if they were a captain. Battle League simply plays a horn, a small message appears letting you know you scored, the player that scored celebrates, seemingly alone, then the replay, and back to the action.
The tutorial has a forgettable robot named Futbot, and it does it's job extremely well (trust me, do the tutorial at least once) teaching you the game on a generic soccer pitch...
But the absence of The Classroom (seen below) and its song from Charged for the tutorial hurts.
The tutorial is a great way to learn how to play but the problem with it is after you've had your lessons, you are given a "test" where you have to do everything you learned in three minutes while going up against a team full of Yoshis that are semi-aggressive. That's not a way to learn and apply what you are doing. Especially with a time limit. If you don't complete them all, the section is complete but, if you want to repeat it, you have to do the ENTIRE lesson over, not just the "test".
Unlockable things are gone. Aside from the bushido gear set from beating all six cup battles on normal (and giving you the brutal galactic mode versions), there's nothing to unlock here. The previous titles rewarded you for doing certain things like characters or alternate ways to play. For example, beating certain Striker Challenges in Charged would unlock cheats to use in single player mode.
I know if you're reading this that it seems like I'm piling on, but I loved the previous games and really looked forward to this one only to be vastly disappointed in what's been shown. Even simple things are gone like the slo-mo effect when about to hit a fully charged perfect shot from a pass or the teammate (usually a Captain in Charged) calling for a pass to them when open to take a shot.
Enough negatives, let's talk about what makes this newest entry fun! First, the action is frantic and, even with a slower speed overall, the small pitch makes up for it. It gets very hectic with items and feels great when playing. I had my kids play with other members of the family and nobody wanted to put the controller/joy-con down! Controls are responsive, as usual, even online, and the newer visuals area great. There is actual accurate mouth movement when the characters speak. Don't believe me?
Look at Rosalina at the start of the match when she says "Let's go!"
As I mentioned before, you get to choose how the stadium looks. When playing the CPU, you have full control over everything - both halves of the stadium, day or night, uniform colors, length of the match, items and Hyper Strikes.
Speaking of Hyper Strikes, these are the equivalent the Mega Strikes from Charged or the Captain Strike from the first game. Mega Strikes were incredibly broken, allowing up to SIX goals if done correctly, and they could be done at any time, leading to some very wild scores depending on the matchup. Looking at you, Waluigi...
Hyper Strikes follow the same formula from both games. After getting a hyper orb, I'll describe this in a moment, you charge your shot and a meter displays. You want to land in the blue section on the left and right sides, this ensures a perfect unblockable shot that gives two goals. Characters with a high technique have an easier time doing this.
When perfect, this happens.
Anything less can be possibly turned away. If you are defending a Hyper Strike that isn't perfect, you have to mash the buttons and fill a meter within a certain amount of time - seems to be about 5 seconds - to turn the ball back. Also, note that even if you do fill the meter, the shot may still go in. I'm not sure what determines this as of yet.
You can be stopped before getting the shot off by being tackled or hit with an item. Now, to prevent spamming Hyper Strikes, you can only do it when you get a hyper orb, it's orange in color and you can't miss it, that occasionally appears on the pitch at a random location near the players.
Once collected, the entire team of the person that collected it will be able to do a Hyper Strike. Beware, once you start charging the Hyper Strike, if you are hit during it, you still lose the effect of the orb even though you never got the shot off. Also, you have 20 seconds, which is an eternity when playing keep-away with the ball, to do the Hyper Striker after collecting the orb before the effect wears off. If you are under the effect the mushroom or the overpowered star - seriously, it needs a nerf - its effects end when you charge the Hyper Strike and the effects of the item goes toward your Hyper Strike meter, making it easier for you to get a perfect strike. Also, the artwork during the Hyper Strike is sick. Seriously, it looks so good.
So. Freakin'. Cool.
Clearly the best in the series.
This is great stuff.
Great to look at and even more refreshing when you score.
Huge applause to the developers for choosing this style.
The perfect strike is a thing. When you charge a shot, if you aren't on a Hyper Strike, then eventually you will charge your shot to its max. If you release the button as you reach max charge, you will let go a much more powerful shot that goes faster, curves more, and can also stun Boom-Boom, allowing for a goal off of a rebound. Characters with a high shooting stat will have faster shots and characters with a high technique stat will have an easier time getting a perfect strike (and also a larger sweet spot for Hyper Strikes) and will put more curve on the ball when shooting, making it harder for Boom-Boom to block your shot.
Captain abilities and character specific shots are removed. I like this because, honestly, certain characters were just better than others in Charged. Only Captain shots existed in the first game, like the Mega Strikes from Charged, they could be done at any time, but these skills were a huge part of the competitive scene in Charged. Captain abilities in charged were also rather broken. Daisy's move, for example, launched the characters in the area around her and, when the keeper had the ball, caused him to stagger and lose it, allowing for an easy goal. No other character could do that.
There were other characters with a move that was better than others, too. Waluigi again comes to mind. Along with the sidekicks that had their own unique shot, the made certain teams and players just better than others. Waluigi was considered by far the game's best player and using sidekicks like Boo were usually the meta in terms of best teammate due to the speed of the team and the ability of Boo to warp through the keeper and Waluigi using his teleport deke to do the same along with his captain ability that literally allowed him to wall himself to do an uninterrupted attempt at 6 goals from a Mega Striker. The removal of these skills makes the game a little more skill based and also more dependent on your team make up. The unique dekes will be missed, sure. Peach, Toad and Diddy flipping over the keeper to walk a goal in... Daisy, Waluigi and Dry Bones teleporting behind the keeper... Not that it didn't take skill to win in the previous games, Waluigi and a team of Boos have terrible shooting stats in Charged, but now, everyone isn't racing to pick the ideal captain and then choosing sidekicks that are just better than others. Same with the sidekick shots, some were just better than others. Dry Bones may have had the best one in the game being able to immobilize the keeper with electricity for several seconds and was maxed in speed so it could clearly get its own rebound when the ball bounced off the keeper after the shot to score.
Hammer Bro, despite slow speed, only needed to be in a certain distance and his goal was guaranteed once his shot was fully charged. His hammers immobilized anyone in his path, including the keeper.
Character stats have been fleshed out. In the first game, the stats weren't shown but each character had a playstyle. In Charged, each character had four stats that ranged on three different values - Shooting, Speed, Passing and Defense - and fit a specific playstyle.
In Battle League, each character has five different stats - Strength, Speed, Shooting, Passing and Technique. Every character, without gear, has their stats between 9 and 17 when starting out. All the character's stats add up to 63 and are based on a scale of 1 - 25.
Which leads me to the fact that characters can now be customized. This might be the best new feature in the game.
When you go to the gear customization menu for the first time, you are awarded 400 coins. Winning the match at the end of the tutorial gets you 800. That's an easy 1200 you can start with to buy gear pieces to tweak your character(s) to your liking. You can have gear on the head, body, arms and legs. When selecting gear, you will raise one stat while lowering another.
It is possible to max specific stats of certain characters if you so prefer. A character would need at least 17 in a stat at base to do so, or 15 in a stat at base if using Bushido armor as part of your set. Keep this in mind, as well, the Bushido set does not cover all five stats for each character. From what I've seen, shooting is the stat it doesn't seem to increase. Using gear is not necessary but highly recommended being that it allows you to tweak your character and your team to your specific liking. While the grind for coins is going to be a long one, as 32,000 coins will buy out the entire current cast's gear, it can be worth it to experiment with different builds for your ideal team. Earning coins after that initial 1200 is up to you. Quick Matches are 10 coins per win against the CPU, if you rematch afterwards, you get 2 coins. So, it may be best to go back to at least the character select screen if you are going to run quick matches a lot. Cup Battle wins award 400 coins at the end of the cup on your first win. Assuming that you don't lose any matches along the way, it'll be three matches in each cup. Retrying the cup after winning it gets you 50 coins per cup win. Galactic Mode, unlockable after winning all the normal cup battles, nets you 1000 coins on the first cup win and 1000 more coins for completing them all. Be warned, the AI is cheap, plays perfectly and is fully geared. When doing the Cup Battles, you are going up against team that specialize in a specific stat. Cannon Cup? Teams with high shooting stats. Muscle Cup? High strength and so on.
The game is now multiplayer online. The first game was no online while the second was 1-on-1. While this game is currently only 2v2, you can play online with a friend/family. I mentioned this earlier, but I am hoping that this is expanded on to 4v4, since it is 8 player offline, as well as having a custom room to where friends can play against each other without having to use the matchmaking process.
There is a club league mode. While this needs a bit of tweaking in my opinion, 4v4 and even matchmaking - also mentioned earlier is this post -, this feature allows you to make a club with friends and challenge other clubs online. You choose your character to be your club member and other club members, up to 20 total, will have their characters available, too. Whether or not they are online. This can lead to interesting matchups being that you can only use yours and your fellow club member(s) character(s). This means you could have two Marios on your team and they could be different due to gear.
The season mode is a week long followed by a week long offseason. In the offseason, you can play open matches against club for coins, 30 per win / 15 for loss, and you also get 100 club coins per win, 50 for loss, that can be used by the club's captain to customize the stadium and goal of the club. During the season you get these rewards and well as rewards for achieving certain things during the season such as a number of goals, tackles, matches played and so on. Also, the uniform of your team can be chosen for when you play on the left and right side. And you can even choose the number on the back of your character's jersey. Not your club member's though. I still wish that the black uniform was not right side only and red was not left side only... Once the season ends, your move up of down a division based on how well your club performed. So, join a club if you get in to Strikers Club mode. Many clubs have open membership while some are set up as approved entry only. If you lack friends, go for an open entry club first. I also have a club. Just sayin'...
FC Metro Coast: 43Y8WB5 is the code :)
Sidekicks from previous games are now captains. This is probably the next best feature. As of now, the only sidekick that was in the previous game that is playable is Toad, but he can now be a captain and has his own Hyper Strike. If more characters are added, they will also come with Hyper Strikes for sure.
Now, I want to talk about what I am hoping to see when it comes to DLC. The developers have come out and said that there will be DLC added post launch. Also, the game was datamined (I believe it was the First Kick demo) and it is suggested from that datamining that there will be ten characters added. Also, the clubs in Striker Club mode can only have 20 members. If this is true, my guess that the characters from previous entries will be added. Which would be (sorry Super Robot Team):
Daisy: makes the most sense and has the internet in an uproar for not being included at the start over Rosalina. A lock if/when DLC comes.
Diddy Kong: Also a lock for DLC. Was the second game's second boss in the Road to the Striker Cup.
Bowser Jr.: Another DLC lock, he was the second game's first boss in the Road to the Striker Cup.
Petey Piranha (he was totally meme worthy): I think it's possible since he was the second game's final boss and appears in many spinoffs.
I mean... Look at this walk!
Boo: I think it's likely we'll see boo as they appear in many sports spinoffs.
Koopa Troopa: I think this is a near lock. Appears in pretty much every spinoff.
Dry Bones: Not too sure on this character but I would like to see a return.
Birdo: I think about as likely as Koopa Troopa. Which means she's a near lock.
Monty Mole: I have my doubts. Should return, though.
Hammer Bro: See Birdo and Koopa Troopa.
Shy Guy: The voice actor of Shy Guy is in the credits. Probably about a good as a lock as Daisy, Diddy and Bowser Jr. Also comes in different colors to make him another candidate for multiples on a team like Toad and Yoshi.
I know that his is 11 so, who would be axed? Daisy, Diddy and Bowser Jr. are common in Mario spinoff games and are in just about every Mario sports title to date (Daisy is in all of them since Mario Tennis on the N64 and is playable from the start of both soccer games) so they are locks. Petey was the second game's final boss, and third unlockable character after Bowser Jr. and Diddy, so I'd say he's in. I think Birdo (was in the second game) and Koopa Troopa (in both games) get in. The remaining four slots would go to who I think would make sense as a captain. Not that this needs to make sense. So, I'll go Shy Guy (his voice actor is in the credits of the game), Hammer Bro (was in both games), Boo (in the second game) and Dry Bones (also in the second game and was different than Koopa Troopa). Sorry Monty. Not that Monty SHOULD be cut being that he was in Charged and even was in Super Mario Party's Just For Kicks minigame!
I'm actually hoping for more characters than 20. I have said on my Twitch stream (twitch.tv/supernerdyguy) that I would prefer 25-30 characters total for more variety and diversity in teams as well as additional game modes. Yes, it is a lot of work on the developers and I understand that. But, I also look at how Mario Tennis Aces was handled and that game went from 16 to 30 characters by the time DLC was complete. It also makes me feel that Battle League was released this way intentionally. The above characters listed would make 21 characters so what are the other nine if we speculate 30? Here are some ideas.
Dixie Kong: I think she would fit with a different playstyle than Diddy or Donkey.
Noki: She comes in different colors, too, to possibly be selected like Toad and Yoshi and there is also a male variant.
Pianta: Same as Noki.
King K. Rool: Made it in baseball as a strong but low stamina pitcher. Would love to see him as another high strength striker.
Kritter: Should be a keeper again... just look at him! That is official art, by the way.
Pauline: She's already in golf and tennis so...
Funky Kong: This is a reach but, he was in baseball and Mario Kart so you never know...
Tiny Kong: This would surprise me but I think many would welcome her. Maybe she could be the balanced Kong striker?
Goomba: If it can be in a baseball game with no arms, it can do soccer with just feet.
King Boo: This would be an interesting one. Would it be power? Technique?
I dipped in to other Mario sports titles that had these characters in them. This doesn't even include characters like Chargin' Chuck or Spike that are in other Mario sports spinoffs. I don't think they all get in, though. I would be really surprised. Is it also possible to have color variants of the characters? For example, Hammer Bro is normally green. If you have a blue uniform, you could have Boomerang Bro instead. Same stats, just a different look. Red uniforms could have the Fire Bro. Koopa Troopa is green, too. A red uniform could have the Red Koopa Troppa or Paratroopa. Even though I think Paratroopa would have different stats due to a difference in mobility. From the above list, I's think that Dixie would be most likely followed by Pauline since she is in Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Golf: Super Rush and Nintendo seems to like to push the "princesses" of the games in to spinoffs - which is why we see Rosalina in many of the newer spinoff games since Super Mario Galaxy was released. But, we have no clue for now. Also, I mentioned the Kritter, right? I also would like to see Pom-Pom, too, as a keeper option. Just something to switch it up and have different keepers. No advantages, just a different look. in addition to other games modes, FOUR v FOUR ONLINE!!!, stadiums, music and even an option to save multiple loadouts, four gear loadout saves would be good since you can have a team of nothing but Toad...
(HAVE YOU SEEN THE SUPER MUSROOMS IN CUP BATTLES? THEY ARE LITERALLY FOUR TOADS ON A TEAM ALL WEARING DIFFERENT GEAR! YOU CANNOT DO THIS MAUALLY IN THE GAME!)
..or nothing but Yoshi, the new characters would be welcome and breathe fresh life into the game. While online is good right players right now, I think it's only a matter of time before it dies out with the way the game currently is.
In conclusion, the game is loads of fun but I think the product that was released is incomplete. It's heavy on the live service multiplayer side, leaving single mode players with not much to do, unlock or achieve as they are done with the game in a few hours. Online is where it's at in this game right now and, while that isn't bad, some players aren't always going to want to play tackle infested and item spamming matches. Or, even worse, play someone that is completely out of their skill gap. Or, play 1 v 2 and have no chance at really competing. That's literally what online is like so far. Harder AI, Galactic Mode looking at you, also adapts this strategy, too, but, outside of 1000 coins, there's no real point in doing that mode other than completion's sake. I'm hoping that the developers realize that and release additional modes and characters to sweeten up the single player mode and give the ability to play 4 on 4 online like we can offline. Multiple loadout slots for gear customization would also be welcome, too. The game clearly has the potential to be the best in the series, as the gameplay is EXCELLENT, but right now, it's not a complete product and Strikers Charged still might be the better game as of now. Despite how wonderful this game looks, feels and runs.
(Post revised for having played online and correcting spelling and grammar errors.)
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