Mario is an athletic individual who plays every sport from golf to Olympic diving, but he seems to favor some sports over others. Nintendo’s star plumber gets a new tennis or golf game every few years, but it’s been a long time since he grabbed a bat and a pair of cleats for a Mario Baseball game.
The last standalone Mario sports game that featured a contact sport was released 13 years ago. Since the Wii’s Mario Super Sluggers in 2008, Mario has seen five At The Olympic Games titles and three Mario Tennis games, and he’s about to have a second Mario Golf release. However, these games pale in comparison to what Mario accomplished out on the field in 2008.
While baseball may not be the most popular sport worldwide, Mario Super Sluggers offered the largest and most diverse roster of characters in a Mario game to date, besides the Mario Kart Tour mobile game. It also had a fantastic story mode and great gameplay mechanics that made it an unforgettable Mario sports title. A new Mario Baseball game on Nintendo Switch could improve upon Mario Super Sluggers‘ greatness and give players an unbeatable baseball video game experience.
What A Nintendo Switch Mario Baseball Game Could Offer
Mario Super Sluggers had 41 playable characters (or 71, if color variants are counted). For reference, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has 42 characters, two of which are clones of Mario and Peach. The 2008 Wii game allowed fans to play as characters they hadn’t been able to before, including Baby DK, Piantas, Goombas, and King K. Rool. Since then, the Mario universe has expanded, adding many new characters that could easily make their way onto a modern Mario Baseball game’s roster. There were only 12 captains in Mario Super Sluggers, which acted as the “main characters,” but building a team of Mario side characters and enemies was one of the most exciting elements the game brought to the table.
Super Sluggers also had a story mode where players would traverse different, themed areas. Each area was associated with the game’s unlockable characters, and by completing challenges or winning games of baseball, players could fill out their overall player roster. These story elements could be enhanced on Nintendo Switch, and the recent reveal of Mario Golf: Super Rush shows a free-roam story is possible in a modern Mario sports title. Mario Super Sluggers already laid a foundation for how this story mode could look – and for how players could be incentivized to play through it.
It’s possible that a new Mario Strikers game will come to the Nintendo Switch before a Mario Baseball game, but even a soccer title can learn from Mario Super Sluggers. With larger team sports, characters don’t need to be as robust as in the Mario Tennis or Mario Golf games. If Nintendo lets players choose between Luigi and a Goomba and gives them a story mode that allows exploration of open areas, any Mario sports game would be enough.
