Mario Strikers: Battle League First Kick Impressions
Mario Strikers: Battle League comes out quite soon, and in preparation for its release, Nintendo has launched First Kick, an online-play demo, to test their servers and get themselves ready for the big launch. This is basically the game in online form, and although it does not have all of the bells and whistles, there is still quite a bit to digest here and process.
Without further ado, let’s kick some balls, smash some opponents into electric fences, and perform some insane hyper strikes!
Since this is a limited demo, this will serve as simply a preview for what’s ahead. I will have the full review out when the game is released, so look forward to that!
Okay, so Mario Strikers: Battle League First Kick gives us the opportunity to try the new Strikers title online, and it gives us Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Peach, Rosalina, Toad, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Wario, and Waluigi to play with. But let’s be honest, who isn’t picking Waluigi? I mean, really?
The menus in this demo are bare bones, as only online is available to test the servers. I have played quite a few matches already, and I have to be honest, I will be playing as much as I can over the weekend! First Kick has only raised my hype for Mario Strikers: Battle League!
In my time playing First Kick, I experienced very little lag, if any at all, and that is shocking considering Nintendo’s history with online gaming. Maybe they have finally learned their lessons and are beefing up servers to a place where they should have been years ago, but I am just speculating.
Controls are really tight, and I love how each character is significantly more unique this time around, which means team building is a real process and pairing the right characters together is key to a solid game. Getting a chance at this demo has helped to see how well certain characters play together and what happens when you overstack a team in a particular direction (e.g. Like too much shooting skill and not enough speed).
The fields look awesome, and having a crowd really helps to make the experience feel a little more authentic. Sure, it is still a Mario experience, but little details that make for a better soccer experience, even if it is a Mario one, make for a better game, too.
Scoring feels better this time around compared to previous Strikers titles, and I think it has a lot to do with the character balancing. Hyper shots feel like they happen less often, which is good, so fundamentals like passing and creating plays is what is ultimately going to win games.
One of the more interesting things I noticed while playing First Kick is that the goal keepers are so much better this time around. What I mean by that is they are much more competent, they handle the ball well, and much to my surprise, hyper shots do have a chance to be stopped thanks to quick time events that occasional pop up over the goal keeper, evening the playing field a little bit, since hyper shot goals count as 2 goals.
Graphically, Mario Strikers: Battle League is looking really pretty, as the dynamic lighting and shadows look incredible, as well as the awesome character designs and unique fields. Replays are also done differently this time around, and it gives you great angles to see how goals went in from a different perspective. This is such a small change, but I loved it, as it is much easier to see than the dynamic cameras from previous entries.
The last little detail I wanted to touch up on is the soundtrack and the sound effects. One of the things that always made me laugh about the Strikers series are the sounds of the characters being electrocuted when being struck into the electric fence. It was funny on the GameCube, and it is still funny on the Switch. On top of that, the characters’ voices are all wonderfully delivered, and holy cow, the soundtrack is killer! I hope we get a bigger track list in the full game, but from what we hear in the First Strike demo, it is awesome!
Mario Strikers: Battle League First Strike is available for this weekend only, June 3rd until June 5th, 2022. If you have time this weekend, make sure to download it and try it out. If not to experience the game and consider buying it, then at least for the Platinum Coins to buy more icon parts!
Thank you for stopping by Nintendo Link! What do you think of this preview for Mario Strikers: Battle League? Have you tried First Strike? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below! Happy gaming, everyone.
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