Part 8

Struggling with Part 8 in Mario Strikers: Battle League? Get expert tips on scoring 7 goals against Yoshi's tough team and mastering advanced tactics like jumping the goalie and teleporting.

Alright, Part 8 is where things start to get seriously tough, and to make matters worse, you're stuck with a pretty weak team for scoring. Your mission here is to nail at least 7 goals and take down Yoshi's squad, which is stacked with Birdo, Monty, and Koopa. It's a real grind because your team just isn't built for scoring. I've been through this challenge a bunch, and I've found a strategy that usually gets me the win.

First off, let Yoshi unleash a Megastrike – ideally with 5 balls – and don't even try to block any of them. Now, here's the kicker: every time you take a charged shot after that, you should get either a Red Card or a star. Personally, I lean towards the 'standing in the spotlight' tactic (check out 'Other Notes' for the full rundown), but honestly, it's up to you. If you go that route, you absolutely have to lock down your defense. If you're not feeling that, I'd recommend using Dry Bones to teleport and have Shy Guy take the shots. You could also try jumping the goalie with Diddy, but that takes some serious practice.

Other Notes

Here are some random bits of info that you may find useful. I made this section to try and help you start the game as well as prepare you against the many, many, MANY cheaters (in some way) out there on WiFi.

Choosing Your Characters/Making a Balanced Team

Basically, you want to create a team that has a little bit of everything. It's no good having Jr. as your captain with a whole team of Hammer Bros, just like it's no good having Waluigi as your captain with a whole team of Dry Bones accompanying him. The only (possible) exception to this rule is having a Balanced captain and a whole team of Koopa/Shy Guy, because that can sometimes pay off. Firstly, when it comes to choosing your captain, go with your instinct! If you wanna pick Peach, go with Peach! Just be aware of their strengths and weaknesses before you start making the rest of your team. Here's a quick 'chart' showing the opposite players.

• Offensive — Defensive
• Playmaker — Power
• Balanced — Nothing

So, if your captain is Petey, you might want to have a Playmaker in your team just to even things out. Of course, some power characters move fast when they sort of walk by tackling, and yeah, a couple of playmakers do have decent big hits when combined with their movement, but overall you want to even things out by using lots of different types in your team.

Tips, Tricks, Skills and Hints

Basically, this section is all about giving you some tips on how to win the match and how to have fun playing. First, I'll cover general hints, and then I'll move on to more individual tips.

Jumping the Goalie

This can only be done with 3 playmaker characters: Peach, Diddy Kong, and Toad. Boo has a different jump the goalie technique (see below). This move is about using these characters' dekes just when Kritter is about to dive for you. I normally use Toad for this because he's the smallest, but I see no problems with using the other 2. To start off, you have to have the ball before using the deke. I know that's just common knowledge, but sometimes after tackling someone into the electric fence, I've assumed that I've picked up the ball and assumed that my character has it. Next, you have to be able to dodge the opposition. Items work wonders here. Finally, get close to Kritter. DO NOT JUMP IMMEDIATELY, he will simply shove you away when you are above him. You want to jump around when you see him about to dive for you. What should happen is you jump just as Kritter falls on the floor. You can then just run into the goal with the ball, or shoot to be on the safe side. It takes a bit of practice, but keep with it if you want to be able to jump the goalie; it can really save your butt in a match. Oh yeah, Kritter will sometimes dive for you and miss you when you jump, but he will actually grab the ball. Be careful of this. Also, if you stand in front of him waiting for him to dive for you, he may not dive for you. He will probably do the roundhouse kick and knock you halfway down the pitch.

Teleporting into the Net

This particular trick is the Defensive characters' speciality. We know that their normal shots are rubbish, right? And that they have to charge for a reasonably long time before doing their Megastrikes/Skillshot, right? Well, they have another option for getting the ball into the net; using their dekes to teleport there! Firstly, the teleport will only go the distance that corresponds to the current colour of the ball. The ball will automatically be reset to purple after using one of these dekes. When the ball is Purple, the teleport only goes a very short distance, similar to that of Boo's special teleport. When it is red, there is a big change in distance. It's double what it was before. It is still very hard to get into the net with the ball this colour, however. Orange is a good colour, going further still. Yellow goes about the same distance, a little bit longer. These are the colours I normally end up teleporting with because White goes away. White is the best colour for teleporting. You can go across nearly half the pitch. It's best to teleport into the goal on a line. The best 'line' is probably the one from the very middle of the goal running down the pitch. Try teleporting when you are on this 'line'. For practice, do Petey's Striker Challenge to unlock the cheat for domination mode 'Always White Ball'. Now when you teleport the ball will stay white, meaning you can keep practising without having to charge it.

Spamming

This does not just apply to the Hammer Bro's deke (though that is the most commonly used). This can apply to all the characters' dekes. I've been on WiFi a fair few times and I had one match where the guy playing was spamming EVERYTHING. He was spamming Toad and Peach's jumps, Dry Bones' teleport and I think the Hammer Smash but that I'm not 100% sure. Anyway, it's pretty easy to just find yourself spamming a random move without even realising it.