There are 10 characters currently confirmed for Mario Strikers: Battle League. The list includes the usual suspects of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Bowser, Rosalina, Wario, Waluigi, and Donkey Kong. That’s a good, if predictable batch of characters, but they won’t be the only ones. Battle League will receive DLC characters and other post-launch content.
Nintendo confirmed the news to GameInformer. We don’t know who these additional characters could be, but the original Super Mario Strikers can give us some good guesses. That game functioned differently from Battle League: the new game pits named characters against each other in 4v4 matches, while the original saw a team captain joined by a group of sidekicks like Hammer Bros, Kritters, and even a team of robots led by Bowser. That pool could be used for Battle League DLC, and of course, there are plenty of other Mario mainstays like Daisy, Baby Mario and Luigi, and Bowser Jr. that are currently missing in action. As for additional post-launch content, more stadiums are likely candidates.
As GameInformer points out, Mario Tennis Aces (one of the best sports games on Nintendo Switch) started with 16 playable characters when it launched in 2018 and has received 14 more since. The roster now includes some deeper picks like Pauline, who made a comeback in Super Mario Odyssey. We don’t know if Nintendo will be as prolific with new Battle Strikers characters, but it has set a precedent.
Mario Strikers: Battle League comes to Nintendo Switch soon: its release date is Friday, June 10. Recently, the soccer game received four short trailers that showcased its story, customization, and Hyper Strikes mechanic. Additionally, we learned that the game will be getting a limited-time demo ahead of launch. Multiplayer sessions will only be available during specific times between June 3 and 5, but you can try the tutorial now to get a hang of the mechanics ahead of time.
