The second free update for Mario Strikers: Battle League has arrived. The new update adds Diddy Kong and Pauline to the game’s playable roster, alongside a brand new stadium and new gear.
New Donk City mayor and singing sensation Pauline is described as a “physical powerhouse with fast movements and strong tackles.” She also uses a microphone during her Hyper Strike and to style on the opposition after slotting one in their net.
The ever jubilant Diddy Kong, meanwhile, is heralded as “a midfield speedster with dazzling techniques and high pass accuracy.” You’ll be able to watch him launch out of a barrel cannon as he smashes Hyper Strikes across the line.
Pauline’s base stats are:
- Strength: 20/25
- Speed: 16/25
- Shooting: 9/25
- Passing: 9/25
- Technique: 9/25
Diddy Kong’s base stats are:
- Strength: 9/25
- Speed: 16/25
- Shooting: 9/25
- Passing: 16/25
- Technique: 13/25
New gear arrives in the form of the Barrel set. These new rotund outfit choices boost passing and shooting at the cost of other stats. There’s also the new Planetoid stadium choice which takes matches to a grassy turf on an orb surrounded by satellites and other planetary bodies. Much like the other stadiums, however, there are no practical differences when playing on it compared to another arena.
Finally the patch notes for the update also include several tweaks to systems including a change to the order in which you manually switch between characters and an increase to the number of Coins earned per match. Some subtle changes not listed in the patch notes include new animations when loading into a game.
Here are the full patch notes:
Mario Strikers: Battle League patch notes
Features
- Added “Striker Rankings” to the Main Menu.
- Compete by comparing your individual ability over a fixed period of time with “Skill Score”, which varies with your performance in online matches (excluding Battle Friends).
- Added the following content to “Strikers Club”.
- You can now customize supporters in the stadium. Access this by going to “Club Management” → “Stadium” → “Supporters”.
- You can now use Coins to view fireworks and confetti when you score a goal or when you win a match. Access this by going to “Club Management” → “Match Celebration”.
Gameplay
- Adjusted the behavior so that CPU teammates mark opponents more quickly.
- Adjusted the order of characters when you switch characters.
- Adjusted the charge time of Perfect Free Passes and Perfect Free Lob Passes.
- Increased the amount of Coins and tokens you earn depending on the results of a match.
- Changed the period of time for a rule in Strikers Club, which states that a Club will not be allowed to join a season if no member of a Club has been online within a certain amount of time, from 90 days to 30 days.
- Changed the number of ? Blocks that are thrown to the losing team at kickoff from 2 to 1 when the difference in score is 2 points.
- Adjusted the match-making system in online matches.
- Made several other adjustments to game balance and fixed several other issues to improve the gameplay experience.