Mario Strikers Deserves A Nintendo Switch Revival

The Mario Strikers series is Nintendo’s greatest Mario sports spin-off, despite only lasting for two games, and deserves to be revived. Super Mario Strikers was an accessible soccer game on its own, but the sequel, Mario Strikers Charged, improved everything from gameplay to presentation by a massive degree. With such a strong base, the Mario Strikers series would be perfect for a reboot on the Switch.

The Mario Golf and Mario Tennis series have received new entries in recent years, and there are several reasons to revive Mario Strikers alongside them. As a series, it gave more life and character to the core Mario cast that most other games in the franchise. It is one of the best examples of a series that improved exponentially with its sequel, and there is still plenty of room for a sequel to make all of the things that made Charged so beloved even better. Mario Golf: Super Rush‘s excellent Golf Adventure shows that Nintendo can still innovate with their sports games, and Mario Strikers would be perfect for that sort of upgrade.

The base gameplay itself is a very serviceable soccer game, but Mario Strikers Charged added enough flair to turn the game into a completely new experience, with familiar items such as Koopa shells and Bob-Ombs being thrown around, turning the game into a chaotic affair. To make things better, the sequel introduced special abilities for every character in the game. For example, Waluigi could create a wall of thorns as he ran, and Mario could grow to a massive size. It is essentially Mario Kart on a soccer pitch, and just like how Mario Kart‘s stressful gameplay gets players’ hearts pumping, Strikers Charged is a high-intensity affair. Of course, there was also an option for players to turn off these quirks and play a more straightforward game of soccer.

Mario Strikers Brought Wild Personality To The Mario Universe

Even more so than the gameplay, the presentation made Mario Strikers Charged a cult classic. Every character had their own theme song, and each of them fit perfectly. For example, Daisy has a pop-punk theme to fit her spunky personality, and Luigi’s guitar-driven flamenco theme is perfect for his friendly, laid-back nature. In addition, every character had celebrations after scoring a goal, and these showed personality the way few other Mario games did. Waluigi is a titan of Nintendo now, and some even cite the character’s hilarious antics in Charged as the start of his rise in popularity.

A new Mario Strikers title on the Switch would be able to take all of the franchise’s advancements since the last installment and make them work to its benefit. The expanding roster present in other games could make its way into a new Strikers. Characters such as Rosalina, Kamek, and King Bob-Omb all have excellent potential to be new captains. Likewise, the sidekick roster could also grow to include Goombas, Ninjis, and more. With all of the successful developments that Nintendo has made with their other major franchises, there is no doubt that they could do something excellent with a new Mario Strikers title. With Mario Kart 9 already in development, it seems that Mario spin-offs are still a priority, so Strikers fans may have hope that a new game could happen.

With how beloved the last game in the series was, there is little doubt that a Mario Strikers game on Switch would be celebrated. The series was already excellent in its two previous games, so Nintendo would only need to bring it into the current generation to have a solid addition to their collection. Hopefully, one day Mario fans will get another opportunity to hit the pitch in the Mushroom Kingdom.

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