The Super Mario franchise is not only memorable because of its historic role in the video game industry, but also due to its accessibility. With a few exceptions, the Mushroom Kingdom inhabitants have partaken in almost every recognizable video game genre, and most of these experiments were well-received. The most popular of these spinoffs are Mario Kart and the several RPGs based on the series, but the other multiplayer-centric titles, especially the sports games, are a part of Nintendo’s history that's only getting more love as the earliest spinoffs get older, amplifying nostalgia for them.
The Nintendo Switch marked the day that appealing Mario sports games finally made a return. Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Golf: Super Rush, as well as Mario Strikers Battle League, seem to bring back the personality of the Nintendo 64, GameCube, and Wii games. However, these games all share a glaring issue. All three of them, including Mario Strikers, are part of Nintendo’s periodic free updates strategy, much to the dismay of several fans that were hoping for a more old school gaming experience. For the sake of keeping the Mario series and its spinoffs fresh, this practice needs to end.
The Mario Sports Games: Then and Now
Sports have been part of the Mario franchise since the NES era. Games with simple titles like Golf showed that Nintendo’s most famous characters could branch out of their traditional platformer fare. However, the idea of regular Mario spinoffs would not be fully established until the fifth generation of consoles. The release of Mario Kart 64 and Paper Mario proved that their Super Nintendo predecessors, Super Mario Kart and Super Mario RPG, were not lone wolves.
The Nintendo 64 saw the introduction of the long-running Mario Party subseries, and more importantly, the proper introduction to golf and tennis in the Mario universe with the appropriately titled Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. While there were other sports-themed games featuring Mario characters in the past, these Nintendo 64 games established a permanent athletic presence in the Mushroom Kingdom.
The GameCube continued the golf and tennis games and introduced Mario to other sports such as baseball with Mario Superstar Baseball and soccer with Super Mario Strikers. The aforementioned games would get Wii sequels, but aside from a Power Tennis port, Mario Golf and Mario Tennis were dormant until the 3DS and Wii U came out. For most of the 2010s, Mario was in an awkward spot, but spinoffs like the sports games suffered the most.
The memorable, stylish, and colorful games from the past three consoles seemed to have disappeared. The different subseries, if they even continued, were either stuck with mediocre games or relegated to the handheld crowd, depriving non-3DS owners of a potentially fun time. Instead of making new games that focus on one sport like a possible MarioHockey, or maybe a sequel to Mario Hoops 3-on-3, the sports games mostly became minigame compilations with extremely similar rosters of playable characters.
Mario Tennis Aces, while flawed, changed this. It brought new life to the Mario sports games, especially regarding the character roster, which introduced plenty of newcomers and brought back old favorites, like Petey Piranha. However, instead of focusing on unlockable characters and stages alongside special modes, these new sports introduce features through monthly free updates. This leaves the impression that the games are incomplete upon being released, and when they feel like polished works, people move on to greener pastures. Mario Strikers: Battle League will likely go through the same cycle.
The Mario sports games have a strong identity, and the genre's usual progression mechanics are familiar to all longtime fans. Unlockable content, a roster that represents the big Mario stars alongside the miscellaneous Mushroom Kingdom denizens, colorful Mario-themed stages, and stylish takes on real life games made the older games thrive by all being available at launch. If Nintendo does not want this revival of the Mario sports games to be brief, then it should stop building these games around regular updates and focus on launching fleshed-out games.
Mario Strikers: Battle League releases June 10 for Nintendo Switch.