Mario Strikers / YMMV

And You Thought It Would Fail: When the first Famitsu charts were released, including Mario Strikers: Battle League's physical sales in Japan, a couple of people expected it to underperform due to the game using the infamous Nintendo "free update" model since it only sold around the same as Charged did in its first week. Not helping matters was that, in the UK, it was reported that it sold less than Super Rush and Aces in its first week. Fast forward to August 3rd (and nearing the end of Nintendo's 2021-2022 fiscal year), where it was reported the game sold 1.91 million units by June 30th, making it the biggest launch for a Mario sports game in series history.
Awesome Art:
- The nitty-gritty hand-drawn art style still remains eye-catching to this day.
- While the original and Charged were no slouches in the animation department, Battle League outclasses them in that regard thanks to being released on more powerful hardware compared to the GameCube and Wii respectively, specifically with the squash-and-stretch movement of the characters, drawing a few comparisons to Pixar's films of the late 2010s and early 2020s (namely Luca and Turning Red), as well as the works from Illumination Entertainment.
Best Known for the Fanservice: One of the first things that people tend to bring up about the first two games are the Hotter and Sexier nature of Peach and Daisy compared to anywhere else in the series — their Striker attire are sports bras and hot pants, they have victory animations which have them show off their butts, and both act in an overall more sensual and flirtatious manner.
Contested Sequel: Battle League is this to Charged, which is widely considered to be an Even Better Sequel of the original game. The series' over-the-top dark feel was significantly toned down in Battle League, and the game was criticized for the removal of the sidekicks^note; the goalies' A.I.; the stages being smaller and less varied than in Charged^note; the lack of staple characters such as Daisy^note, Bowser Jr. or Diddy Kong^note when the game first released; and being bare-bones, also lacking modes that Charged had like Strikers Challenges. However, the customization aspects received praise, some preferred every character being able to be both a Captain and Sidekick; the overall gameplay was still seen as strong; nerfing the Hyper Strikes to be more like the Super Strikes from the original was seen as much more balanced^note; and the announced updates helped make up for the lack of initial content, at least in terms of characters.
Critical Dissonance: Despite scoring lower than its predecessor on Metacritic, Battle League still received a generally positive reception from critics (a Metascore of 73). Fan reception, on the other hand, skews much more negatively compared to Charged, for reasons explained in Contested Sequel (particularly the scarcity of single player content, questionable A.I., and lower roster count/omission of series staples).
Crosses the Line Twice:
- Many of the characters' losing animations. Of particular note is Wario deciding to blow himself up in one of his animations. Doubly funnier in that they can do while their team has a commanding lead.
- The sheer Darker and Edgier nature of the series (compared to pretty much anything in the overarching Super Mario Bros. franchise) is so over-the-top it makes the whole thing both awesome and hysterical.
Cult Classic: The series isn't quite as popular as Mario Kart, Mario Party, or even the two RPG series, but it has a very dedicated fandom that loves its surprisingly skill-based gameplay and Darker and Edgier aesthetic. During the 15-year hiatus following Charged, many fans clamored for a third game, and their prayers were answered with the release of Mario Strikers: Battle League in 2022, though not without caveats.
Even Better Sequel: Charged adds a great deal of depth over the original by adding the "charge" mechanic to the ball, giving the ability to mix-and-match sidekicks while giving them their own abilities, giving the Captains special items, making the stages have unique obstacles, adding extra content such as Striker Challenges, and adding Mega Strikes (even if somewhat unbalanced) with a rather cool way of blocking them using the Wii Remote. The fact that it's even Darker and Edgier and more over-the-top than the original doesn't hurt either.
Game-Breaker:
- The Super Team in Super Mario Strikers has the very blatant advantage of each member being able to perform a Super Strike in contrast to every other team, where only the Captain can use this mechanic.
- In Charged, Daisy, Waluigi and Dry Bones have a teleport deke that lets them easily warp right past the goalie and into the goal with minimal issues. While it is possible to overshoot and electrocute yourself with a teleport, not much of a charge is actually needed to get the goal, making it the best way to shoot goals in the whole game.
- Boo has an instantaneous teleport that allows him to phase through the goalie and shoot with ease, or just use the quick warp as a way to sidestep the goalie. Boo was so strong that many considered him, a Sidekick character, as the best character in the game, to the point where any serious team online "required" at least a single Boo.
Good Bad Bugs: In Charged, when the match ends outside of a Sudden Death, the A.I. can still try to attack your team and score a goal despite there being no point to doing so now. If the match ends with you winning, it makes them look hilariously petty.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Turns out, Charged was the first game to feature Luigi's Death Stare.
- Bowser's brief transformation during his Mega Strike looks strikingly similar to his Fury form.
- Fan art depicting Rosalina as a Striker was a popular subject long before Battle League made it real.
I Knew It!: Pretty much everyone and their mother knew that Daisy was going to be among, if not the first DLC character revealed when it was revealed she wasn't on the base roster of Battle League. To a lesser extent, Pauline was also very highly predicted to be part of the free updates for Battle League, given her increased popularity in the series following her return in Super Mario Odyssey.
Low-Tier Letdown: While Shy Guy was positively received in Battle League as a player character choice, his class as an All-Rounder was not, as the game's customization mechanic clearly incentivizes Min-Maxing and makes his balanced stats sort of a burden as a result.
Memetic Badass:
- The Kritter Goalies from the first Strikers and especially Charged get this for being able to withstand the toughest of shots, particularly the Mega Strikes from the Captains.
- Luigi in Charged, thanks to his epic theme which perfectly captures his underdog status and feeling of going to rule this match in a Flamenco-heavy theme, being widely recognized as one of the best themes — if not the best — Luigi has ever received.
Memetic Loser:
- On the other hand for Battle League, the Boom Boom goalies are mocked for their terrible A.I. and are portrayed as being unable to handle the simplest of shots.
- Daisy also gained this status, due to her not being in the base roster of Battle League (only being added later in a free update instead), with people claiming that Toad and Rosalina, respectively someone who was a Sidekick in the previous games and someone who made their Strikers debut in this game, were chosen over her just to rub more salt in the wound.
Memetic Mutation:
- From the first game, Peach's scream after being hit by a fence is this because it's a bit too realistic and violent-sounding for many fans.
- Waluigi's crotch chop in Charged, as well as... whatever this is in Battle League.
- Donkey Kong's breakdance in Battle League, especially since it comes out of nowhere.
- Daisy's victory dance in Battle League has been compared to that of Bully Maguire.
Moe: While he's normally not this, Bowser Jr.'s Away intro has him try to imitate Bowser and, suffice to say, look utterly adorable while doing it.
Narm Charm: Because Boo has short arms, he can't mimic Waluigi's crotch chop and is only able to nod... which is touching in its own right.
Nightmare Fuel:
- When characters get knocked into the electric fence, they let out cartoony yelps of pain. When the character in question is Peach in Super Mario Strikers or Daisy (as well as Peach again) in Mario Strikers Charged, however, the screams sound startlingly realistic.
- The Mega Strike animations in Charged. The faces (especially the Glowing Eyes of Doom) practically scream Implacable Man and No-Nonsense Nemesis. Some players may also find Wario's Mega Strike — where he inflates like a balloon and then pops — quite disturbing.
- Thunder Island in Charged can easily unsettle those with phobias of severe weather.
- In another Charged arena, Crystal Canyon, the characters are rather violently incinerated by the focused solar rays. They all reappear at the start of each round, but it's pretty disturbing.
- Donkey Kong in Charged can be quite intimidating despite generally having a smile on his face, with his manic expressions and being incredibly violent, showcased in his reaction to the opposing team scoring a goal, where he'll outright unleash his special on his team and cause them to bounce about in his temper tantrum. Even in one of his goal-scoring animations, he'll punch out one of the cameras in his exuberance.
- Bowser's reaction to getting scored on in Charged as opposed to simply screeching and slumping in despair? He'll set his whole team on fire. Not helping is how it starts with one of his teammates facing the screen and screaming at it, which can make for quite the Jump Scare.
- Petey Piranha's losing animation Charged has his teammates fearfully running away as he proceeds to eat one of the opposing team's and spits them out.
Nightmare Retardant: The Super Team in the original game is a group of black and red, menacing-looking robots designed by Bowser to beat your team, no holds barred... And then they start doing backflips and dancing the Robot. Even more so in the sequel, where the only Super Team robot we see is a janitor cleaning a theatre in the end credits.
Nintendo Hard: In Mario Strikers Charged, just wait until you reach the Striker Cup. Then wait until you reach the knockout stage. Then attempt Yoshi's, Bowser Jr.'s or Diddy Kong's challenges. Most of the game is actually pretty easy, but the difficulty spike you have to overcome to reach 100% completion is absolutely insane.
Replacement Scrappy:
- Though Boom Booms playing goalie isn't necessarily seen as a bad choice (actually being Mario characters instead of sister series Donkey Kong Country characters like their predecessors even makes them a more logical pick), some fans questioned the need to swap out Kritter goalies from previous games with them in Battle League. Players quickly began to notice that Boom Boom was drastically worse at blocking shots compared to the previous goalies, as they are more susceptible to stun, have very little range in blocking a shot, and thus completely struggle against most shots at the goal, to the point where shooting at the midline after a goal is viable because they are just that bad at their job. It went so far that critics and players alike label Boom Boom's ineptitude at being a goalie as a major downside that hampers the game significantly. To add insult to injury, the Galactic Cups in the Cup Battle Mode make your Boom Boom even worse at goalkeeping.
- Carried over from other Mario games, many people see Rosalina as one to Daisy in Battle League due to Daisy, who appeared in the previous two games and being a staple of Mario spin-offs ever since Mario Tennis 64, not being present in the base roster of the game while Rosalina, who made her Strikers debut in this game, was. This extends to Toad as well, as he was just a sidekick in the previous games whereas Daisy was a Captain, but he was part of the base roster while she was not.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- Though Waluigi was already heading this way by this point in time (the mid-2000s), many fans will point to his incredibly over the top Heel antics in these games, his notorious crotch chop in particular, as when they started warming up to him.
- Birdo also ended up in this situation, as she became a surprisingly popular sidekick choice for many players thanks to her extremely powerful stats, as well as her reaction to Peach's losing animation.
The Scrappy: The Super Team from the first game aren't liked by many fans. Their design is very out of place even with the edgier tone of the game and the fact that they're both the Captain and Sidekick (which means every one of them can use a Super Strike) makes them much harder to face. Many felt that Bowser should have been the ninth Captain instead of them. Unsurprisingly, when they were Demoted to Extra in Charged, very few people were upset.
Signature Scene:
- The intro of Mario Strikers Charged, especially the moment where each Captain shows their Mega Strike towards the end (except Petey Piranha's).
- Waluigi's crotch chop is easily the series' most iconic animation, with its absence in the third installment being met with universal disapproval.
- However, Battle League has two of its own iconic animations in the form of Donkey Kong's victory animation, featuring an incredibly fluid breakdance sequence, and Shy Guy's losing animation, where he just quietly stands there (MENACINGLY!!), which became instant hits with fans.
So Okay, It's Average: The general consensus is that Battle League was this at launch, with its gameplay and visuals being overall enjoyable and pleasant to look at respectively, but with the game suffering from a terrible lack of content, mainly single-player modes and characters, and thus the experience becoming repetitive and stale very quickly for many players. Not helping matters is the game being worth $60, the price of a full game. After post-launch updates, with the additions of initial glaring omissions such as Daisy, and new additions such as Pauline, the roster was seen as being better than launch but still just "okay" overall. The game also remains rather bare-bones content-wise and while previous games weren't content-rich to begin with, the game still lacks modes that Charged had like Strikers Challenges.
Suspiciously Similar Song: Several in Charged.
- Koopa Troopa's Leitmotif sounds a lot like Madagascar's version of "I Like To Move It, Move It".
- Mario's theme sounds like AC/DC's "Let There Be Rock".
- Toad's sounds very similar to "Another One Bites The Dust".
- Bowser Jr.'s theme sounds like the Dick Dale surf rock cover of "Misirlou".
- Peach's theme is reminiscent of Technotronic's "Pump Up The Jam".
- Yoshi's theme sounds similar to "Linus and Lucy" from the Peanuts specials.
- Charged's theme for winning trophies (which returns in remixed form in Battle League) is very similar to that of the opening of John Williams' "Throne Room" theme from A New Hope.
Tainted by the Preview: A lot of fans were not happy that Daisy was absent from the base roster of Battle League, and even excluding the Daisy issue, the base roster only having 10 characters, especially when eight have to be on the field during a match, made a lot of fans worried that this would yet be another live service Mario Sports game after Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Golf: Super Rush, or something even worse like Ultra Smash, which never received any Downloadable Content. The absence of Sidekicks didn't help matters as well. Their fears were eventually confirmed when it was revealed that Battle League would be getting free post-launch updates, which specifically highlighted the inclusion of new characters. Luckily, Daisy would later be revealed as one of the characters in the first of such updates. Unfortunately, the game didn't receive any additional DLC beyond characters, leaving the game feeling pretty bare-bones in terms of modes.^note
Tear Jerker: While most of the losing animations are somewhat comedic, some animations for the characters are pretty heartbreaking.
- Luigi falls onto his knees, sobbing, "No, no, no! Mamma mia!" in Charged. Like Mario, he often cries when losing in spin-offs, but it's usually in a comedic fashion, while in this game, Luigi cries in a way that is very realistic, sobbing hysterically and with a broken voice from crying. Battle League, however, will have Luigi look devastated before facepalming himself and collapsing on the ground, crying.
- Peach will jump up and down in a fit of rage before also bursting into tears in Charged.
- In Charged, Donkey Kong walks off, whimpering sadly.
- In Charged, Diddy Kong appears to wipe tears from his eyes with an utterly anguished expression before scratching his head and kicking the ground sadly.
- Bowser Jr. attempts to kick the goal post in Charged, only to hurt his foot and break down in tears as a result.
- Bowser releases an upset roar in disbelief in Charged before hanging his head dejectedly.
- In Charged, Wario pulls out a Bob-omb and sadly says "I give up!", only for the Bob-omb to explode and knock him out.
- Yoshi will look depressed as one of his teammates comforts him in Charged, with the sad/losing version of his Leitmotif taking an appropriately somber tone. In Battle League, he'll outright burst out crying and throw a tantrum.
- In Battle League, Toad will react with shock before banging his head on the ground.
- In a very stark contrast to her furious reaction in Charged, Daisy looks genuinely miserable and cries in Battle League. The voice clip of her bursting into tears when getting 7th place or lower in Mario Kart 8 is reused in the animation, just to pour salt on the wound.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
- The Lighter and Softer tone of Battle League in comparison to the previous two games was also not well-received, given the Darker and Edgier execution of the first two games was a major reason for the series' popularity in the first place ^note.
- The victory and loss animations in Battle League mostly only having the one who scored or reacting to being scored against present with none of their teammates or opponents onscreen, making them feel less lively compared to Charged having Sidekicks reacting in the background, if not alongside or directly to the Captains.
- Boom Boom replacing the Kritters as the goalies wasn’t well-received by the fandom, not at all helped by the goalie A.I. taking a major dip in intelligence between games.
- While fans were happy that Shy Guy would be added to Battle League alongside Daisy in an update, many were quite disappointed that he no longer has his Expressive Mask.
- Likewise, while fans were pleased to see Daisy make it into Battle League via the first update, many of her fans were not happy to see that her sass and aggressiveness had been heavily toned down compared to the original Strikers and especially Charged.
- With Birdo's return made fans excited, there were two problems with her. The first was that, unlike Toad and Shy Guy, who were originally Sidekicks like she was, Birdo is considered a singular character, meaning that players cannot have more than one Birdo on their team. The second was that Birdo doesn't change color depending on the team uniform, unlike her role as a Sidekick in the previous games.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The first game has Bowser present, but only as a recurring hazard. While his appearances can be fun, his exclusion from the playable roster is strange. The sequels let you play as him, though.
Unexpected Character: Kritters serving as goalies in the first two games given they had only appeared in the Donkey Kong series beforehand.
Win Back the Crowd: Many Daisy fans were disappointed and angered that she had been left out of the base roster in Battle League despite being a mainstay in the previous games and a staple of Mario spin-offs ever since Mario Tennis 64, especially since Rosalina, who many Daisy fans see as being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad, was included in the base roster. These fans did mostly calm down after it was revealed that Daisy would be added to the roster via a free post-launch update, though.

YMMV / Mario Strikers

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