At a recent Nintendo Direct, The Big N revealed a new Mario sports game, taking everyone’s favorite mustachioed hero back to the tennis court. When it first hit, fans were understandably excited. After all, Mario Sports games are big business. They’ll never do the same numbers as a mainline Mario game, but they’re almost always fan favorites. Nintendo has mastered putting Mario into all kinds of sports, so the reveal that we’re getting a new Mario Sports game isn’t too surprising. The fact that Nintendo is going back to the tennis well, however, was a puzzling decision for many fans for a few reasons.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Mario Tennis Aces Disappointment
One of the primary reasons the announcement of Mario Tennis Fever somewhat put fans off is that the last game in the Mario Tennis series was somewhat disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, Mario Tennis Aces was an improvement from Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, especially on the gameplay front. However, the adventure mode was a letdown, and the online components were lacking.
Now, that latter point isn’t anything new for a Nintendo-developed game. Despite being one of the best in the business, Nintendo often struggles to make good online games. That said, with how popular Mario Tennis multiplayer is, it feels like a missed opportunity for the developer.
And here’s the thing: Mario Tennis Fever could fix those issues if Nintendo wants to put in the work to make online play fun. I wouldn’t hold my breath given the developer’s history, but it’s possible. What Nintendo appears to be doing is putting a larger focus on a wacky, single-player adventure mode.
Granted, if that mode impresses, that’ll address one of the biggest criticisms of Tennis Aces. My issue is that Nintendo’s last few sports games, Tennis Aces and Mario Golf: Super Rush, have all had lackluster single-player story modes that can’t hold a candle to older games in their respective franchise modes. With that in mind, it’s too bad Nintendo didn’t decide to go with another popular sports game to see if that trademark Nintendo magic could be applied elsewhere.
Fans Want a New Super Mario Sluggers
Nintendo doesn’t even have to look far. Over the last few years, fans have been going back to Mario Superstar Baseball and Mario Super Sluggers and have become very vocal about wanting a new game in the series. And while we haven’t had a new baseball game since 2008, we’ve seen Nintendo dig into its catalog to bring back Mario Strikers after more than a decade on the shelf.
That isn’t to say there aren’t potential issues with a new Mario Sluggers game. After all, baseball’s popularity in America has been waning since the late 00s (and even before). While it’s still a fan-favorite in Japan and MLB The Show sells well, Nintendo likely doesn’t see as big an audience for Sluggers as it did for Strikers, given that soccer is the most popular sport in the world.
Of course, tennis and golf don’t have the cultural pull of baseball, so that argument doesn’t hold as much water as you might think. It’s worth noting that baseball is a much more complex sport for a video game than either of those individual sports, which might be part of the holdup. That said, fans are very obviously itching for more arcade sports games.
Just look at something like Rematch. It quickly captured an audience with great, arcade gameplay, something Nintendo has always been good at. Doing something similar for baseball would undoubtedly do well for Nintendo, potentially letting it continue to branch out to other major sports like basketball and football to give fans that arcade experience they’re seeking.
I’m not saying it’s an easy proposition or that Nintendo would instantly have a best-seller on its hands, but if they’re going to continue dropping new tennis and golf games, they should consider diving deeper into team sports. Players are looking for something to replace the golden era of games like NFL Blitz, NBA Street, and NHL Hitz.
Nintendo probably isn’t going to let Mario and Bowser punch each other until one of them gets concussed, but they might be best positioned to fill that genre hole with a new Mario Sluggers that sets the stage for Nintendo to own the arcade sports world like EA Big used to.
Somebody needs to step up, and Nintendo is one of the few companies with a cast of characters that doesn’t need the MLB, NBA, or NFL licesnses to sign off on to be successful. I would argue getting to hit dingers that go into space with Funky Kong would be more fun than 2K letting me do the same with an arcade version of Cal Raleigh, but maybe that’s just me.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Courtesy of Crunchyroll
