{"id":16407,"date":"2017-05-12T00:01:06","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T00:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=16407"},"modified":"2017-04-22T21:40:05","modified_gmt":"2017-04-22T21:40:05","slug":"the-wide-world-of-mario-sports-superstars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/12\/the-wide-world-of-mario-sports-superstars\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wide World of Mario Sports Superstars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Recently Nintendo released a 3DS game featuring a collection of Mario themed sporting events.\u00a0 The sports you can play in these games are Baseball, Horse Racing, Golf, Tennis, and Soccer.\u00a0 But there are a couple of surprises tucked away in this game as well so I thought I\u2019d go over them here in this blog.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time there has been a collection of Mario sports events on a game.\u00a0 Another one was Mario Sports Mix on the Wii.\u00a0 I actually really liked that game.\u00a0 One really weird thing about that game is that Square-Enix made it, so some of the secret characters you can unlock are the white and black mages and the ninja from Final Fantasy games!\u00a0 But there\u2019s something even weirder about that game!\u00a0 In the single player story mode, there is one final boss to defeat at the end, and it\u2019s a giant purple Behemoth from the FF games!\u00a0 And you defeat it by using the sports skills from the other games on the collection!\u00a0 I\u2019m surprised that hasn\u2019t shown up in any \u201cWTF\u201d moments in gaming lists that I\u2019ve seen.\u00a0 Anyway, I know that has nothing to do with Mario Sports Superstars, but I thought it was an interesting tidbit anyway.<\/p>\n

So you may be thinking, \u201cCary, why did you even get this game, you don\u2019t like sports video games.\u201d\u00a0 Well, while that\u2019s mostly true, I did want to get this one for a few reasons.\u00a0 One, I like Mario sports games because they are colorful and cheerful and feature characters I know.\u00a0 Plus they are usually arcade-like and simple to pick up and play.\u00a0 But this game in particular was interesting to me because Namco and Camelot helped make this game, because those two companies specialize in making certain sports games.\u00a0 So we\u2019ll take a look at each sport that the companies helped make for this collection.<\/p>\n

amiibo Features<\/strong><\/p>\n

But first let\u2019s go over the amiibo features of this game.\u00a0 Similar to Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, you can buy separate packs of cards with Mario characters playing sports.\u00a0 I probably won\u2019t buy any of those.\u00a0 I tried to do it with Animal Crossing, but it was just too much.\u00a0 I like to know what I\u2019m getting, so I\u2019ll just stick to the amiibo figures.\u00a0 If you get a character card, you can scan it to unlock that character or a superstar version of that character in the game.\u00a0 But the weird thing is that in order to unlock it after you scan it, you must play a Mario-themed version of Breakout or Arkanoid.\u00a0 I\u2019m surprised there hasn\u2019t been a Mario style Breakout game before now (and no, Alleyway doesn\u2019t count).\u00a0 But the good thing is that you don\u2019t HAVE to have amiibo cards to unlock everything in the game.\u00a0 You can do that just by playing, but it\u2019s easier and quicker if you have the amiibo cards.\u00a0 The game comes with one, and I got Pink Gold Peach playing golf.\u00a0 So I unlocked her to use in golf.\u00a0 I suck at Breakout games, but I enjoy them anyway.\u00a0 But luckily in this game you can try as many times as you like, and they make it easier for you if you lose too many times.\u00a0 You can buy in-game cards with coins you earn by playing the sports, too, but they are different from the amiibo cards and I don\u2019t think they do anything.\u00a0 I guess they were going for the whole \u2018baseball card\u2019 collectability thing.<\/p>\n

Baseball<\/strong><\/p>\n

I find baseball boring to watch, and I certainly can\u2019t play it in real life with my vision problems, but I\u2019ve actually had fun playing whatever baseball video games I\u2019ve tried.\u00a0 This is one of the sports games Namco helped make on this collection.\u00a0 Why Namco?\u00a0 Well, Namco made the popular Family Stadium series of baseball games in Japan.\u00a0 They call it Famista for short.\u00a0 The first NES Famista game was brought to the US under the name R.B.I. Baseball.\u00a0 Some Famista games even have Namco characters you can play as, like Pac-Man, Mappy, and even the Ridge Racer lady!\u00a0 The Famista games are known for being very arcade-like and easy to pick up and play, and Nintendo even had Namco make their Mario baseball titles for GameCube and Wii.\u00a0 This 3DS version of Mario baseball is very simplified.\u00a0 There are only batting and pitching controls, and fielding is done automatically.\u00a0 Which is surprising because Famista games have pretty fun fielding controls, and let you do things like steal bases rather easily.\u00a0 In a way, I do like the simplified controls, but I do miss having fielding controls as well.\u00a0 Also, in the other sporting tournaments in this game, I can get past the first cup pretty easily.\u00a0 But not in baseball!\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t even get past the first tier!\u00a0 But matches in the tournaments only last 3 innings long, so it really doesn\u2019t give you a whole lot of chances for a comeback.\u00a0 I guess they did that since it\u2019s a handheld game and best played in short bursts.<\/p>\n

Horse Racing<\/strong><\/p>\n

The other game that Namco helped with was Horse Racing.\u00a0 Unless Mario and friends competed in equestrian events in the Mario & Sonic Olympic games (which I skipped out on because the first one kind of sucked), I think this would be the first time for a Mario themed horse racing game.\u00a0 But why horse racing?\u00a0 Well it\u2019s actually a pretty popular sport in Japan.\u00a0 And why have Namco make it?\u00a0 Because they made two popular horse racing series.\u00a0 The first was Family Jockey on the Famicom.\u00a0 It never came out over here, but one of their arcade horse racing games did.\u00a0 It was called Final Furlong and it was brought to US arcades in the late 90\u2019s.\u00a0 And I\u2019d have to say it\u2019s one of the most embarrassing arcade games to play because you bounce on a springy horse to make it go faster.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty awkward especially if you\u2019re an adult.\u00a0 Maybe even more awkward than the banana-shaped joystick on the arcade Monkey Ball game.\u00a0 Aside from Namco, Tecmo also has a popular series of horse racing games called Gallop Racer, but my favorite horse racing game is Pocket Card Jockey, a solitaire game on the 3DS.\u00a0 I reviewed it last year<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyway, so the horse racing section here is kind of like Mario Kart with horses.\u00a0 Well it\u2019s not as good as Mario Kart, but I still found it fairly enjoyable.\u00a0 You can make your horse dash and jump, and you can do a double jump off your horse to reach higher up goodies.\u00a0 You can pick up two kinds of power-ups.\u00a0 Carrots increase your horses\u2019 stamina, which goes down when you dash.\u00a0 When you collect enough stars, a meter will fill up and let you Super Dash.\u00a0 If you are nearby other horses, your stamina will also go up faster, so it\u2019s important to stay ahead of the pack, but not TOO far ahead.\u00a0 You can compete in cups of 3 races each, with a point system similar to Mario Kart\u2019s.\u00a0 There are 12 different tracks in all, so it\u2019s not too bad.\u00a0 I do have to say that some Mario characters look weird riding a horse.\u00a0 Like Yoshi, who is already a rideable animal.\u00a0 I also feel sorry for the horses that Bowser rides, especially if you have him ride one of the ponies meant for the baby characters.\u00a0 Speaking of which, Baby Luigi is so cute riding the horses, especially when he exclaims \u201cYaaaa-hoooo!\u201d and \u201cYeeee-haw!\u201d as you race.<\/p>\n

And finally, the horse racing section has one of the biggest surprises in the game.\u00a0 You can also customize your own horse and take care of it in a virtual pet style simulator.\u00a0 You can pet and brush your horse with the stylus, feed it goodies, and take it for walks around the farm and on the race tracks.\u00a0 Doing this will increase the bond with your horse and it\u2019ll perform better in the races.\u00a0 You can also find hidden items to decorate your horse with.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like Nintendogs, or Ninten-horse (doesn\u2019t have as good of a ring to it, huh).\u00a0 I\u2019ve reviewed quite a few virtual pet horse games and this one is actually more robust than many of those!\u00a0 I made a horse and named it Turbo Horse, because when my brother Jeff was little he played Circus Charlie on one of my arcade collections and loved it.\u00a0 One of the events has you riding a horse, and it\u2019s one of the worst drawn horses in a video game that I\u2019ve ever seen.\u00a0 Anyway, one time Jeff was playing it and made the horse go really fast and it looked ridiculous, so I said, \u201cMan, that must be a Turbo Horse.\u201d\u00a0 Jeff rolled on the floor cracking up so now anytime there is a horse in a game that we can name, it\u2019s always Turbo Horse.<\/p>\n

Golf<\/strong><\/p>\n

Camelot is known for making Mario sports games like golf and tennis, so they did the ones here, too.\u00a0 They\u2019re pretty much scaled back versions of the main 3DS Mario Golf and Tennis games.\u00a0 I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the GameCube, as it had such precise controls that I could put the ball wherever I wanted to on the green.\u00a0 Because I liked that game so much, I was excited when Mario Golf: World Tour was coming out on the 3DS.\u00a0 But I ended up not liking it as much because you had to use the touch screen to put spin on your ball, and it wasn\u2019t as accurate or fun.\u00a0 The version of golf on this game uses the same control setup, but luckily you can do simple controls.\u00a0 There are four courses, but they\u2019re only nine holes each.\u00a0 In the tournaments, you only play 3 holes per character.\u00a0 It\u2019s still fun, but not near as good as the GameCube game.\u00a0 I wonder if any of the holes are designed after the ones on the NES golf games like the ones in the Wii Sports games were?<\/p>\n

Tennis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Camelot also made the Mario Tennis games, so they helped with this one, too.\u00a0 I never really got into tennis games because most just feel like glorified Pong to me.\u00a0 The only Mario Tennis game I ever had a lot of fun with was the N64 one, and the only other tennis game I enjoyed was SEGA Superstars Tennis.\u00a0 But hey, any game with Ulala in it can\u2019t be all bad, right?\u00a0 This one just feels like a scaled down version of Ultra Smash.\u00a0 You can only do singles, no doubles, and the courts are pretty basic, nothing wild or creative.<\/p>\n

Soccer<\/strong><\/p>\n

And finally is Soccer, or Football if you live outside the US.\u00a0 The two Mario soccer games on GameCube and Wii were done by a team at SEGA, because they were well known for their arcade and console Strikers games.\u00a0 One thing about their Mario Strikers games is that all the characters were a little more gritty and angry, so it was kind of funny.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think they did the version of soccer on this game because I didn\u2019t see their name in the credits.\u00a0 But the soccer game here does play a bit like the Strikers titles, except without the added angriness.\u00a0 It\u2019s still a pretty fun soccer game, but just a little more \u2018vanilla\u2019 than the Strikers ones.\u00a0 I still enjoy it because it\u2019s very pick-up-and-playable.<\/p>\n

Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\n

And those are all the sports games!\u00a0 I should also mention that you can play all these online, but I haven\u2019t done that yet, and may not.\u00a0 I still enjoyed this collection as it had a lot of fun surprises.\u00a0 My favorite sports games on this collection are as follows from most to least favorite: Horse Racing, Golf, Soccer, Tennis, and Baseball.\u00a0 In the comments section, let me know what you think of the games in this collection, and tell me your favorite sports video games.\u00a0 That\u2019s all for now!\u00a0 Later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently Nintendo released a 3DS game featuring a collection of Mario themed sporting events.\u00a0 The sports you can play in these games are Baseball, Horse Racing, Golf, Tennis, and Soccer.\u00a0 But there are a couple of surprises tucked away in this game as well so I thought I\u2019d go over them here in this blog. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16407"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16409,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16407\/revisions\/16409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}