Nintendo’s announcement of Mario Strikers: Battle League built up a ton of hype among fans, as it is arguably one of the more popular Mario Sports games. That, combined with the fact that it’s been fifteen years since the last Mario soccer game (Mario Strikers Charged), put the game into a dominating position.
Most of the reveals so far have been promising, but there is one thing that caught fans' eyes in an unsavory way. Namely, Mario Strikers: Battle League’s launch roster size is a meager 10 characters. Mario Strikers Charged features 20 characters for comparison, and it seems Battle League will repeat this…in a different way.
Mario Strikers: Battle League Leak Shows 10 DLC Characters
Mario Strikers: Battle League launches with Mario, Luigi, Peach, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Wario, Waluigi, Rosaline, Toad, and Yoshi, with Daisy being only of the biggest and most obvious omissions. Luckily, as seen below, one datamine suggests that the game will feature a total of 10 DLC characters. Past Mario Sports games, over the past few years, have added new content post-release, and that's what seems to be happening here.
As seen with many Mario Sports games, it launches in a decent size, but it is then expanded with some free updates. There are many who are against this practice, which is an understandable stance. It essentially means the game is not content complete at launch, and in the case of a game like Mario Strikers: Battle League, it can really show. At worst, it can impact player interest and even gameplay elements.
At the same time, it can help lengthen player retention as well, with players coming back to check out the new characters in a Mario Sports game. It would be a different story if these characters were premium content and players had to pay for the ten characters; since these characters are likely to be free, it’s not as damaging.
Perhaps the best part is that past Mario Sports games have introduced new maps, game modes, and more, while releasing a handful of characters at a time. This could suggest that the free updates for Mario Strikers: Battle League could be packed with content, as this would suggest somewhere between 3-5 free updates filled with characters and more.
Ultimately it remains to be seen, but at the very least, this appears to be promising for Mario Strikers: Battle League.
Mario Strikers: Battle League will launch on June 10th, 2022, exclusively for Nintendo Switch.
