A good two weeks before the release date on June 10, I had the opportunity to extensively try out the single game mode against human and computer-controlled opponents. Impressions of other modes, such as cup tournaments and Strikers Club, will have to wait until the test. Spoilers: I wasn’t disappointed and the wonderfully rule-free kicking is really fun again in the third installment of the series, even if the selection of team members is still a bit meager. But let’s take it one step at a time.

If you’ve played any of the predecessors, you’ll immediately notice a change in the team lineup: Each team has four players, which you can choose from the ten characters Mario, Wario, Luigi, Waluigi, Bowser, Rosalina, Yoshi, Toad, Donkey Kong and Peach to create your own All-Stars Strikers. Yoshi and Toad can be selected for the team multiple times, all other characters can only be represented once in a team. The role of the goalkeeper is always played by a computer-controlled Bumm Bumm, who keeps his net clean surprisingly well and whom I despaired of more than once in the trial games. But that also applies to the team’s own goalkeeper, who regularly thwarts chances that the opponent thought were safe.

It’s worth taking a closer look at the player of your choice, because the individual values for strength, speed, shooting, passing and technique differ considerably. This adds more than just a pinch of tactics to the wild game when you send a team of fast players and tough defenders like Bowser onto the field. With additional equipment for head, arms, torso and legs, which you buy with earned coins, you not only change the look of the characters, but also significantly increase their abilities. If you want to have the all-rounder Mario in the team, but he has rather below-average values for passing, then buy an appropriate piece of equipment or a complete outfit and increase the ability points in this area. However, this will always reduce another value, so look carefully before you put on a combo, turbo or muscle equipment. After a dozen test games, my favorites are Rosalina, who elegantly floats across the lawn, leaves all opponents behind her in the attack and places the most dangerous shots on goal, and the powerhouse Donkey Kong. He masters merciless tackling and surprises with real dream passes.

To make the hullabaloo on the pitch perfect, you should watch out for special events: From time to time, question mark blocks land on the virtual turf from the audience, containing valuable power-ups. Other blocks are available for dangerous tackles and special play actions. Grab the block in front of the opposing team and you’ll get a mushroom that briefly increases speed. Then a Bob-Omb that explodes on impact and leaves a crater, a banana, a red or green tank, and the star that makes you invincible for a while. As in Mario Kart, the items can be used to gain significant advantages and possibly win a match at the last moment. I can really imagine the schadenfreude in matches against friends and family when a player slips on a banana peel or a striker is knocked down by a red tank just before shooting at goal.

If a glowing ball, the Hyperball, lands on the field, you should immediately rush out and grab the special. Now you have only 20 seconds to fire a hypershot that will earn you two points. To do this, perform a charged shot at the goal by holding down the A button longer and hitting two marks on a semicircle as accurately as possible. If you succeed in this feat without being disturbed by an opponent, you’ll shoot the leather into the net with a visually opulent and wittily animated special attack.

Each character has an individual hypershot, for example Mario unleashes a fire cyclone, Luigi summons a whirlwind tornado, Peach performs a beguiling heart dance, or Donkey Kong unleashes a banana smash. This doesn’t guarantee a hit, though, because you can fill a bar by pressing the buttons quickly and still prevent a goal. If the shooter has timed the hypershot perfectly, the ball will be unstoppable in most cases.

It all plays just as fun and fluid as I was used to from the predecessors, and I gratefully dispensed with a tutorial run-through. It’s Mario Strikers, what could possibly go wrong? After a staggering 0:7 against a team on com level “Normal” – it can be much more challenging – I changed my mind. So I had the galactic mentor Footbot explain to me what the perfect techniques were that my AI opponents seemed to have mastered off the top of their heads.

For example, the perfect shot, where exact timing is important and the shot button must not only be pressed for a while for charging, but also released at a very specific moment. The time window is so small that I needed more than ten attempts in a practice game to apply the advanced techniques. You quickly miss the right moment or are prevented from executing it by an opposing player. The same goes for the perfect tackle, the perfect direct pass and direct shot, and the perfect feint, where a player in possession of the ball elegantly sidesteps a tackle by pressing the R button, leaving the attacker to run into space. In addition, there are other expert techniques, such as a charged steep pass or team tackling.

If you master all the ball skills, an inexperienced opponent won’t see any cuts. However, this requires a lot of practice. In my games, I simply lost track of the key combinations and necessary timings after a few minutes and preferred to stick to the standards. But that will change for me on June 10, when I’ll really dig into the gameplay depths and show my upcoming Mario Strikers victims how to play real action soccer.