Mario Sports Superstars Review

I recently got the chance to play Mario Sports Superstars on the 3DS. Find out what we thought about the latest Mario sports game right here!

I remember my first foray into Mario’s vast number of sports titles. It was Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64, and it was a lot more fun than I ever expected. My friend and I played that game quite a bit when it came out in 2000. Oddly enough, I haven’t played a single sports title since then (unless you count Mario & Sonic games in there). It’s one of those things where I enjoy those games, but they’ve just never seemed to catch my eye. It was different with Mario Sports Superstars. This game encompasses all the notable sports Mario has participated in and puts them in one excellent little package on the 3DS. The question is, does that make Mario Sports Superstars worth the price?

Selection

There are five sports included in Mario Sports Superstars: Soccer, Baseball, Tennis, Golf, and Horse Racing. Yes, Horse Racing seems a bit out of place among all those other sports. We’ve seen all these sports before, and nothing new here besides horse racing. It’s convenient to have all these sports in one game, eliminating the need to buy multiple games if you enjoy a variety of sports. Everything is right here in one tidy package.

The game breaks everything into the five leading sports in a modern-style menu. There’s no story or career mode to play through, so you’re free to jump into whatever sport you’d like. A lot of effort has been made to make each sport as accessible as possible, with quick tutorials before starting each sport. There’s even a how-to guide for players who want to learn the more advanced techniques. There’s less emphasis on power-ups and special moves in this game than in past Mario sports titles. It leans more towards a simulation experience than an arcade experience, yet still falls somewhere in between.

Sports

Soccer

Soccer features a full lineup of 11 players on each side. You can choose what type of formation your team takes the field in and customize your squad. You can pick two main characters and fill your team with a set of secondary characters like Toads. This is more tame than Mario Strikers Charged and is more of a soccer experience. The only fundamental arcade feature is powering up the ball for a special shot over time. You can turn this feature off if you want to. I would have liked and expected much more stuff like that than just a special shot. I enjoyed playing soccer, but it did feel very bare-bones.

Golf and Tennis

Both Golf and Tennis fail to add anything significant and can be safely called a step back from their previous stand-alone titles. There are only four golf courses, each with nine holes, and the interface has been taken straight from Mario Golf: World Tour. The whole game mode is just a stripped-down version of that game. Tennis is much the same. You can play singles or doubles, and there is the ability to do lobs and star shots, but that’s about it. You’re getting the standard sports and not much more here.

Baseball

Baseball is easily the worst of the bunch here. You can choose your entire team, but you’ll watch the action more than play it. You’ll be alternating between pitcher and batter and pressing “A” a lot. You can choose whether to hit or pitch left, middle, or right. You can also decide to hit for contact or power and choose what pitches they throw. It isn’t exciting from start to finish. This sport could have been done much better with more control given to the player.

Horse Racing

The one sport I expected to be phoned in may be one of the most fleshed-out offerings on the game card. Horse Racing involves choosing from various horses and racing across 12 tracks. Horse racing has a strategic element to it. A herd mechanic rewards you with a faster stamina recharge if you remain close to the other horses. There are star dashes and alternate obstacle-filled routes if you’d like a challenge. The races can be long and tedious at times, but I thought they were much better than I expected.

As a bonus to Horse Racing, you can also visit your stable. This portion allows you to customize, feed, and groom your horse. You can even take your horse on walks to gain new accessories or check out the tracks without the pressure of the race. It’s a nice addition and makes this sport the most well-rounded.

AI

Any of the five sports in Mario Sports Superstars can be played in exhibition mode or as part of a championship, which unlocks new stadiums and courses. The AI starts off pretty easy but gets more challenging as you move up the ranks. I never had too much trouble, nor was it too frustrating, so I felt that the difficulty curve was pretty good.

Characters

Mario Sports Superstars includes 16 playable characters, with two unlockable characters. If you use one of the Mario Sports Series amiibo cards, the corresponding character will have their star character unlocked in the game for that particular sport. You can also grind them out the old-fashioned way in Tournament Mode. If that wasn’t enough, there are also superstar characters to unlock by using an amiibo card in the Road to Superstar Mode, a take on the classic brick breaker arcade game. I didn’t get to try this out, but it’s a pretty cool way of making your characters the best they can be. Regular cards can also be purchased with in-game currency, but these seem more of a novelty than anything.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer makes the game significantly more enjoyable than playing it solo. Each sport allows for a different number of players. Baseball is a two-player game, while soccer, golf, and tennis allow for four players, and horse racing allows up to six. Both local and online multiplayer are supported. An online ranking is determined by skill points, which start at 2000 and increase/decrease depending on how you perform. It’s the same thing you’ve seen in recent Mario Kart titles.

Conclusion

Mario Sports Superstars is a good package of games, but it’s not one you’ll stick with long-term. This felt more like tossing something new onto the 3DS to get some last gasp of life out of the system before the Switch completely takes over. It’s a good game, but it lacks depth and purpose.