Keep The Mario Sports Games Coming
Shortly after the release of Mario Golf: Super Rush, I took a look at all of the other sports titles Mario had neglected in recent years, and came to the conclusion that Mario Strikers was surely next in line for a revival. Flash forward a few months, and it was revealed, with Mario Strikers: Battle League set to launch in the very near future. That still leaves Hoops and Sluggers languishing in obscurity, and with Switch Sports neglecting both basketball and baseball - despite both being hits in the Wii Sports series - it still feels as though there's room for both of them to make a comeback. If the pattern continues, that means by 2024 the classic Mario sports will all be readily available on Switch (Tennis was the first to grace the console, and still currently the best), as will Mario Kart if you want to count that. The sports titles have always felt like ragtag spin-offs, but maybe it's time for them to become a bona fide part of the Mario machine.
The biggest criticism of Mario Golf at launch was how thin on the ground it was. The courses and golf mechanics were solid, but it lacked that signature Mario flair, and while it gave us a story mode, it did so little with it the prevailing feeling was that it might as well not have bothered. The roster was interesting (Chargin' Chuck and Pauline made the cut), but also sparse (Birdo and Toadette did not - though Toadette was added later). Mario Strikers' roster is even thinner, dropping from Golf's 16 characters to just ten, even cutting Daisy from the squad. We won't know how much depth the game itself has until launch, but it seems to be relying heavily on online competitive modes, which feels like a cop out.
Related: How Mario Is Misrepresenting Italians
Despite all
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