Mario Strikers: Battle League (2022)

So this game is out now. I've played it for a bit: completed the tutorials, played some quick matches and played through the first cups (which lead me to see the credits roll already). Here's my first impressions.

1. The gameplay is really solid. Once you get through the myriad of tough tutorials and finally get to play the game, the controls and mechanics start to click and it becomes easier and easier to pull off cool stuff. It feels like every move and mechanic has some use even though some of the more advanced ones are pretty situational and hard to pull off in the heat of the match. The game is also really fast. A lot of stuff happens in just seconds.
2. There's very little here for people looking for single player stuff. The cups are most likely made as a single player mode but they are really barebones. They are basically just sets of matches against opponents with different stats and difficulties. Playing them rewards you with a lot of money that can be spent on new gear for the characters. Because the gameplay is solid and the cups serve as nice practice, I didn't mind going through the cups and I'm going to play through the harder cups as well. Maybe it'll prepare me better for the eventual dive into online play.
3. The roster and gear options are rather limited at the moment. They are going to expand them with free updates most likely but as it stands now, it could have used a couple of more characters for variety.
4. Visually, the game ranges from nice to adequate. The graphics do their job, nothing outstanding but good enough. The gameplay is smooth 60fps which is very welcome for a game as fast and fluid as this. Reaction animations and replays are in 30fps with unfortunate dips in fps pretty frequently. The animations are top notch, though, and there's such a care in the portrayal of the characters and their personalities that makes the previous Mario sports games on Switch look incredibly lazy and needlessly safe.
5. The music is pretty kick-ass. I guess it could be described as Super Mario tunes played by a hard rock band and that wouldn't be too far off. There's heavy riffs and guitar solos everywhere.

I've yet to experience online play but the main online mode, Strikers Club, seems to be pretty cool per Nintendo-online-play standards. I'll see if it lives up to the promise.

Played through the demo for this, it seems maybe a bit deeper than I was expecting? Hitting just the right timing gives you an advantage when tackling, dodging, shooting, and receiving passes, and there's an instant pass/shot system that potentially allows you to set up some tricky team plays. If the playerbase holds up, I definitely think it'll be fun with coordinated teams online.

Also the way the character stats work makes it seem like Peach won't be total garbage tier, which is a nice change of pace for a Mario sports game.