Mario Strikers: Battle League was a big deal when it was announced early in 2022. It had been many years since the soccer title featuring Mario and his friends had gotten a title, and diehard fans had been begging for that to change. Thankfully, they got their wish, and the game had an excellent quality to it—the game built upon everything the previous titles had done, creating new things for fans to enjoy. But one complaint about the game was the small roster size. That was something that got fixed through a couple of free updates. One of which has just been announced.
As revealed on Twitter, the free update will arrive tomorrow and feature two more characters to play as. The first is Bowser Jr. He’ll be an excellent support player due to his very accurate passes. He’s the kind of player you want on your team to help set up your scorers so that you can get goals quickly.
Then, there is Birdo. Birdo has a powerful shot and is very accurate with their shots too. As a result, they might be the powerhouse you want on your squad to help tip the balance of the game in your favor.
Speaking of balancing, some new armor pieces have been added to the title via the Shellfish Gear. The gear is meant to improve your speed and technique stats. So if you’ve wanted to do that for a squad member, here you go.
Finally, there is a new stage that you can select for Quick Matches or to set as your club stadium, the “Urban Rooftop!” You can check out all the additions via the trailer below.
While it doesn’t say it in that particular tweet, other tweets from Nintendo of Europe and beyond note that this is the final free update for Mario Strikers: Battle League, which will make some fans sad. However, it could mean that there may be some paid DLC coming out in the new year. Many gamers saw these free updates as a way to “pad out” the game and infuse it with some much-needed improvement due to the slim nature of the game at launch.
Fast forward to now, and there are six new characters, new gear, more levels, etc. So if they wanted to do a bigger update for next year, they could possibly justify it given where the game is right now. We’ll have to wait and see what Nintendo does.
Source: Twitter
