Devil’s bargain: Gamers get new Mario Strikers without Daisy

In 2005, Nintendo released one of the best sports video games ever. Super Mario Strikers is a fast-paced, arcade-style soccer game that pits the likes of Mario against Luigi, Donkey Kong, and Bowser. At the time, though, one character stood out — or, at least, her butt did. Daisy, the auburn-haired alternative to Princess Peach, was a fan favorite thanks to her sassy attitude and a celebration that involved standing with her back to the camera. Nintendo followed up with Mario Strikers Charged for Wii in 2007, but since then fans have waited for a return to the franchise. And today, Nintendo confirmed that it is finally making a sequel called Mario Strikers: Battle League. Just one problem — it doesn’t seem to include Daisy.

Mario Strikers: Battle League is launching June 10 for the Nintendo Switch. And it looks like it captures much of the frenetic energy of the original game. Nintendo is also adding some new features like an online club mode where up to 20 players can compete for placement in a league. It also has the option to equip gear to your characters to change their stats.

But one player who won’t have that option is Daisy. Of course, it’s possible that Daisy is an unlockable character, but we cannot rely on Nintendo to get this right. They need to know that they cannot present us with this devil’s bargain where we get a new Mario Strikers but without Daisy.

As you can see, we are getting characters like Rosalina instead, according to the select screen.

I’ll get to work on the Change.org petition.