Why Nintendo Needs New Additions to the Mario Sports Cannon

With the 35th Anniversary of Mario this year, Nintendo has provided fans with plenty of great ways to celebrate. They finally brought together two collections of both 2-D and 3-D Mario games (going all the way back to the 1985 original) and they also created a unique battle royale game — in the same style as Tetris 99 — with Super Mario Bros. 35. It’s certainly a lot to do for just one character, but Mario has been given the royal treatment and given so many different games that have expanded his brand to unimaginable lengths.

With karting adventures, sports games, educational games, mobile games, platformers, level design games, party games, and games that even focus on other characters in the Mario roster, like Luigi and Yoshi, there have been few places that gaming’s most iconic character hasn’t treaded. Hell, he’s even had plenty of crazy crossovers with Sonic, The Rabbids, and some of Nintendo and gaming’s most legendary characters through the Super Smash Bros. series.

While some of Mario’s lesser known hits, like Super Mario RPG, have truly become relics of the past, a good chunk of Mario’s off-beaten adventures have continued for years and even made their way to Switch. However, there’s one area of Switch’s Mario library that is completely lacking and could be a prime place for Nintendo to go next with their favorite characters – Mario sports games. 

While Mario was able to return to the tennis courts with the solidly received Mario Tennis Aces and competed against the Sonic squad in another Olympic games, the Switch doesn’t have many Mario sports games – and it’s a damn shame. On the surface, the Mario sports games might just seem like another easy cash-in for Nintendo under the Mario name, and in some ways they are, but they also have become fan-favorites that have their own nostalgic value – especially for GameCube players.

Whether it was scoring goals in Mario Super Strikers, vying for first place Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, or slamming homeruns into the stratosphere in Mario Superstar Baseball, these games are true Mario classics. Personally, Superstar Baseball holds a special place in my heart as it’s a game that’s followed me from before high school and after college and it’s just pure nostalgia that Nintendo needs to bring back. 

The GameCube era was the peak for Mario sports games, but it’s sort of faded into obscurity through the Wii and Wii U and is in desperate need to make a strong return on the Switch. Now with the 35th Anniversary of Mario upon us and the Switch needing new Mario games in the future, it seems like the perfect storm for Mario sports games to be one of the strongest celebrations of the Mario franchise yet. 

Aside from having characters from the Donkey franchise be sprinkled in every now and again, except for Mario Super Sluggers where there were tons of DK friends and enemies that tagged along, and Super Mario Galaxy and Yoshi’s Wooly World being represented in Mario Golf: World Tour, there’s a lot of ground still left to be covered that these sports games easily utilize. Games like Luigi’s Mansion, the Paper Mario series, which just had an excellent and undervalued sequel released with: The Origami King, Super Mario Odyssey, Yoshi’s Crafted World, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, and plenty others that I’m sure I’m forgetting could be fitting places for these games to add in new characters, stadiums/courses, and create some strong hype around. 

Just imagining playing golf with my favorite characters on a ghastly and ghoul-filled Luigi’s Mansion course, possibly playing some street baseball in New Donk City, and maybe even kicking a soccer ball around on crafty field inspired by Yoshi’s Crafted World just gets me hyped and the creative possibilities are truly endless. Honestly, having some Paper Mario representation would be a visual blessing as just having the 2-D paper environment merge with 3-D characters, or vice-versa, would just be visually stunning and with the Switch being the most powerful Nintendo console yet, it’s definitely possible. Just touching on more modern Mario games would be great just for the sake of expanding the roster as many characters like Pauline from Super Mario Odyssey, the other Koopling Kids have risen heavily in popularity and it’s hard to believe that anyone would be against having more characters or maps to play around with. 

What’s to say that a crossover isn’t the realm of possibilities since Mario has had plenty since these sports games were popular. It’s not exactly uncommon for Mario to not only crossover with characters like Sonic and the Rabbids, but let’s not forget that characters from The Legend Zelda, Splatoon, and Animal Crossing made appearances in Mario Kart 8. So, why would it be out of the question to have some other Nintendo franchises or popular gaming characters come play some sports with Mario and his friends? Frankly, I think it’s the perfect opportunity to have Captain Falcon come and delivers some home runs with a falcon punch and deliver on what the Mario Kart series couldn’t as they’ve been literally having everything else from the F-Zero series there except for its iconic main character. All in all, there’s a really great opportunity for Nintendo to create an immensely strong celebration of the Mario world through bringing back sports games and an even greater opportunity to improve on the experience and mechanics. 

Reminiscing about my time in Mario Super Sluggers, one of my favorite aspects about playing was actually playing through its story mode – where players go around maps completing challenges and collecting characters. More recently, we’ve seen this continued in Mario Tennis Aces, but it would be really special to see it continued in Mario Baseball and even be introduced for a soccer and golf game. There’s a lot of potential for a Mario Golf game to have a story mode that’s kind of a mix between what Super Sluggers had and what Golf Story offers and Strikers could have players making their own underdog squad to take on different soccer squads. 

Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Golf: World Tour also brought a long-requested mode that was especially missed in Super Sluggers that could change the game in what Mario sports games could offer fans – online multiplayer. We know that Switch users love online tournament components and yearn to play against players from around the world based on how they use Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros. Ultimate, so giving them the ability to create their own World Cups, World Series, or World Tours would be both a total blast and brings Mario sports games into the online era of gaming. Local multiplayer has always been the bread of butter of Mario sports games, but adding in a strong online multiplayer could bring the community closer together and give them a fun, competitive environment to play around in. 

Speaking of play, with the Switch utilizing motion controls in unique ways and it being a stronger system, there’s a lot more that can be added to give fans a unique sports experience. The HD rumble on the joy-cons could easily enhance the experience as it emulates hitting the sweet spot with your club or bat can make sinking a putt or hitting a homerun immensely more satisfying. Not to mention, game modes like a modernized toy field for Mario Baseball, a course design mode for a Mario Golf game, and perhaps something cool for a Mario Strikers game – I haven’t thought that far yet. 

Regardless, enough is enough Nintendo, while it’s cool to be getting a strong collection of games that celebrate the legacy that Mario has left on gaming history, this celebration could be extended and heightened if Mario Baseball, Soccer, and Golf made their long awaited returns. With their being so much potential within the Mario ecosystem to tap into and a strong fandom of these games, Mario sports games should be where Nintendo looks next. 

Select Mario Sports titles are available at your local video game stores and the Nintendo website.