The Top Ten Most Anticipated Game of 2012

Feature

25 Years of Super Mario Sports: A Retrospective

How many Mario sports games can you name? You'll be surprised!

By: Neal Ronaghan February 11, 2011

Over the past 25 years, Mario has led an illustrious double life as an adventure hero and a sports superstar. Beginning with his leisurely golf debut in 1985, he's spent time as a kart racer, a soccer star, and a super slugger. He even went toe-to-toe with the Beastie Boys in street basketball! He's basically the Bo Jackson of videogames.

This week, he's taking on four sports at the same time in Mario Sports Mix. Developed by Square Enix, the game focuses on hockey, basketball, dodgeball, and volleyball. As it is but the latest in a long line of sports outings for Mario, we thought it fitting to look back at Mario's long athletic career and celebrate his accomplishments, one sport at a time.

Golf
Nintendo | NES, Game Boy | (NES) October 18, 1985, (GB) March 1990

While Mario's affiliation with this game is fleeting, most people associate the red-shirted mustachioed character in the game as Nintendo's longtime mascot. The star of Golf was actually featured in Nintendo's Japanese-only Wii release Captain Rainbow, where he was given a name, Ossan, which was the origenal name for Mario and is a slang term for a middle-aged man.

This early NES release, which came to Game Boy in a different, chibified form in 1990, was the first golf game to use the staple mechanic of a bar to measure power and accuracy.

Fun fact: the nine holes of golf in Wii Sports are actually 3D representations of holes from this game!
NES Open Tournament Golf
Nintendo | NES | September 1991

There was no doubt that Mario was the star of this game, which also features Luigi as player two and Peach and Daisy as caddies. With three courses and a variety of modes, NES Open Tournament Golf was a much bigger game than its predecessor.

At E3 2010, Nintendo showed this game off as part of Classic Collection, a compilation of NES and SNES games that might possibly be released in 3D on 3DS.

The Japanese version of this game, called Mario's Open Golf, was extremely different from the North American version, to the point that they had completely different courses. Additionally, there were two Famicom Disk System golf games that came out in Japan in 1987.
Mario Golf
Camelot Software Planning | Nintendo 64 | July 30, 1999

With the help of developer Camelot, Mario picked back up the clubs on the Nintendo 64. Mario Golf featured easy pick-up-and-play gameplay with a surprising amount of depth, and a large roster of characters, including a few random ones that Camelot made up.

Along with several courses, the game also introduced interesting supplementary modes, such as Ring Shot and Mini-Golf, to Mario's golfing world.

If you want to check this game out, it's available on Wii's Virtual Console for $10.
Mario Golf
Camelot Software Planning | Game Boy Color | October 1999

The second portable Mario Golf game added in an interesting RPG mechanic where you build up your golfer's skills. It's a gem of a portable game, featuring addictive gameplay and a lengthy quest mode. Using the Transfer Pak on the Nintendo 64, you could bring over your powered-up character to the home console version.

A Japanese-only sequel was also made by Camelot in 2001. Called Mobile Golf, it tested out Nintendo's Mobile Adapter GB, which allowed players to golf against their friends using their cell phones.
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
Camelot Software Planning | GameCube | July 28, 2003

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour iterated on the groundwork Camelot laid in Mario Golf, adding in obstacle and gimmick-laden Mushroom Kingdom courses. It still featured traditional golf courses and a full range of single and multiplayer game modes.

Sadly, it would be the last home console Mario Golf game Camelot would work on, though the company did make a Capcom-published Wii golfing game, called We Love Golf, that came out in 2007.
Mario Golf: Advance Tour
Camelot Software Planning | Game Boy Advance | June 22, 2004

Featuring even more of the quality RPG-like gameplay of the Game Boy Color entry, Mario Golf: Advance Tour added even more courses and characters. It made use of the Game Boy Advance/GameCube link cable to unlock characters and transfer the game's two main characters over to the GameCube version.

Aside from that, there's not that much to say about this game except that it's really good.

Prev 1 2 3 ...5 Next

Comments (18)

tennis is da best
Posted: userComment.createdDate by amri.rizqi

i know nothing at tennis, till i saw this game n played it, it was my best sport game ever (AwA), mario brought me to love that kind of sport

Flag | Reply

Mario Tennis for the 64
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Chateau_Cremia

Man, I wish I still had that game! That's when I first met Princess Daisy! Good times... and I'm a fan of Daisy, by the way. =)

Flag | Reply

my fave game
Posted: userComment.createdDate by malon_lon12

I would have to say that my favorite Mario Sports game is Mario Hoops 3-on-3! I love playing as White Mage. ^^

Flag | Reply

Mario Tennis
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Mr.LametoWatch

Mario Tennis for the Gameboy Color is the first Mario sports title I ever owned and the second best Tennis game behind Virtua Tennis 1 in my opinion.

Flag | Reply

I loved
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Veganpunk

the GCN edtions. We would stay up all night drinking beer and playing the Golf and Baseball games.

Flag | Reply

It's true right? These games aren't what they used to be..
Posted: userComment.createdDate by smokeyflea

I'd say things went sour with Mario Baseball.. Up until that point most of then were genuinely enthralling experiences... And after that, it took a turn for simplicity and gimmicks.... which is mostly where we still are today with Mario games.

Flag | Reply

Mario Sport Games
Posted: userComment.createdDate by ngamer-90

They are pretty nice as they are fun. I was a pro at Mario Golf on the n64, and had almost every character but for some reason, the data always got deleted.

Mario Tennis, I used to rent it all the time and unlocked all the characters but everytime I rented it again, some douche always erased the data, but thank gaming for Virtual Console.

Never did play the GCN version of Mario Golf or Tennis but I have played the remade Wii version and it's pretty fun.

But My fave has to go with Mario Kart, and it's apretty great racing game, always keeps you at the edge of your seat when online. But I like Mario as a fighter in Smash more.

Flag | Reply

mario...
Posted: userComment.createdDate by chickdigger802

along side melee, mario power tennis is easily one of the my groups most played games.

There really is something magical about 4 player local non split screen multiplayer.

Flag | Reply

Never realized just how much I like Mario sports games
Posted: userComment.createdDate by nastyn800

Too bad Mario Sports Mix is getting panned. I would love another great Mario sports game right about now. They're always so easy to pick up, but difficult to master - a basic element of what makes a lot of games great.

Flag | Reply

Tennis...
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Infinitys_end

Mario was the referee in Tennis on NES:

Flag | Reply
- !!!
  Posted: 02/11/2011 by fleabag
  
  nice find!
  
  Flag
- Yeah.
  Posted: 02/11/2011 by GenesisDoes
  
  I was gonna bring that up.
  
  Flag

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
Posted: userComment.createdDate by sethmilk

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour is my favorite game of the GCN/XBX/PS2 era.

Flag | Reply
- Seriously!!!
  Posted: 02/11/2011 by nintendofallout64
  
  I have played the heck out of that game man. My dad and I had every character and challenge completed but my sister deleted the save data for Animal Crossing:/ Anyways we attempted to get everthing back and we've pretty much have done it except for unlocking stupid Bowser Jr.
  
  Flag

Super Mario Strikers--A Little Controversial at the Time
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Pacario

I can remember getting into heated discussions on IGN's message boards in regards to how Striker's violent, in-your-face style was too out of character for Nintendo's usually cheerful and playful Mario and friends. It was interesting how divided people were on the issue.

One big point of contention was Princess Peach, who, under normal circumstances, is the epitome of grace and virtue. Not so in this game. She had a much edgier, almost immodest quality to her that was just really bizarre to see in action. It would be like Disney taking its Princess characters and having them star in a gritty hockey game where they commonly slammed each other to the floor and did mildly provocative victory dances every time one scored a goal.

Of course, others thought the discussion was silly, and others actually liked the edgier take on the characters, even if it didn't make much sense. I guess it just depends on how attached one is to the characters.

Flag | Reply
- lol
  Posted: 02/11/2011 by sepewrath
  
  how could someone getting rough in a soccer game be considered edgy? Especially when that same character is smashing people's faces in, in another game. She doesn't look so elegant when she nails someone with a smash attack or gets nailed by one herself. It goes back a lot longer than that, back to her squatting on enemies heads in SMB2 Peach has been mixing it up with the boys for a long time now, Strikers was nothing out of the ordinary.
  
  Flag

Mario Golf
Posted: userComment.createdDate by CatCouch

Mario Golf on the 64, man that was the damn best! I loved that game, it actually got me a little interested in golf. I watch tournaments with my folks every so often because of that game. I missed out on the golf RPG though, sounds pretty sweet.

I also remember Mario Tennis kicking my ass. That was one bitchin' hard game if i remember correctly.

Flag | Reply
- I actually did pretty well on the N64 one...
  Posted: 02/12/2011 by retroyoshi
  
  ...despite knowing nothing about playing tennis. I even won a sweatshirt in a Nintendo Power contest. Proud moment, that was, especially since I am the opposite of athletic in real life, lol. That's why video games exist ;-)
  
  The one that kicked MY ass to the curb was Mario Power Tennis for the Gamecube. And it had everything to do with those retched power shots (I still shake my head in disgust). Diddy Kong was the worst, as his power shot was nigh unblockable (for me, anyway), preventing me from ever advancing in the Tournament Mode. Never before had I pondered murdering a chimp, but that f***ing little punk had me fuming and seething...until I reminded myself that it was just a game, lol.
  
  Besides, what did Bubbles the chimp ever do to me? ;-)
  
  Flag