is a 2010

sports video game A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with video games, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport (such ...

developed by

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

and published by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

. It features

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

dodgeball Dodgeball is a team sports, team sport in which players on two opposing teams try to throw balls and hit opponents while avoiding being hit themselves. The objective of each team is to eliminate all members of the opposing team by hitting them w ...

, and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

. The game features mostly characters and locations from the ''Mario'' series with a few guest appearances by characters from Square Enix's ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese fantasy Anthology series, anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fanta ...

'' and ''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a series of role-playing video games created by Japanese game designer Yuji Horii (Armor Project), character designer Akira Toriyama (Bird Studio), and composer Koi ...

'' series of games. Players can also opt to play as one of their Mii characters. The game received mixed reception; it was praised for its graphics and gameplay, but critiqued on its lack of depth and replayability. The game was a commercial success, selling 1.98 million copies, thus making it one of the Wii's best-selling games.

Gameplay

The game is played much in the vein of past ''Mario'' sports games, with features such as powerful special moves and over-the-top, arcade-like

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game. The term applies to both video games and Tabletop game, tabletop games. Gameplay is the connection between the player and the game, the player's overcoming of challenges, and t ...

, including the use of a "coin redemption system" that allows players to collect coins that are immediately spent on adding extra points to the next goal they score. Both

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

and competitive

local multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

modes are featured: depending on the sport, two players (two-on-two) or three players (three-on-three) can play cooperative multiplayer and four players (two-on-two) can play competitive multiplayer in two teams of two.

Online multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

is also featured, with two players per

console joining up to play two-on-two matches either against friends or against random players. The game features most of the

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to Theoph ...

and locations from the ''Mario'' franchise with a few guest appearances by characters from Square Enix's ''

'' and ''

'' series of games. The

Ninja A , or was a spy and infiltrator in pre-modern Japan. The functions of a ninja included siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Antecedents may have existed as ear ...

, White Mage, Black Mage,

Cactuar The Cactuar, known in Japan as is a fictional species of plant-like beings from the ''Final Fantasy'' video game franchise. They are usually depicted as anthropomorphic cacti with ''haniwa''-like faces in a running or dashing pose. One of the ...

and

Moogle are a fictional species of diminutive, sentient creatures and a recurring element of the ''Final Fantasy'' video game franchise, starting with their initial appearance in '' Final Fantasy III''. They also appear in the ''Mana'' and ''Kingdom H ...

characters all appear from the ''Final Fantasy'' series, while the

Slime Slime or slimy may refer to: Science and technology Biology * Slime coat, the coating of mucus covering the body of all fish * Slime mold, an informal name for several eukaryotic organisms * Biofilm, or slime, a syntrophic community of micr ...

monster from the ''Dragon Quest'' series also appears. Players can also opt to play as one of their Mii characters.

Plot

The story mode takes place in the

Mushroom Kingdom is a video game series and media franchise created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo. Starring the titular plumber character Mario, the franchise began with video games but has extended to other forms of media, including ...

where

Toad Toad (also known as a hoptoad) is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. In popular culture (folk taxonomy ...

is gardening flowers, when all of a sudden, an object crashes behind

Princess Peach is a character in Nintendo's Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise. She was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and introduced in the 1985 original ''Super Mario Bros.'' game as Princess Toadstool. She is the Queen regnant, princess regnant and hea ...

's castle. Toad then runs to the object (along with a few other Toads), and finds a red crystal containing a

, a green crystal containing a volleyball, a yellow crystal containing a dodgeball, and a blue crystal containing a coin (which serves as a

hockey puck A hockey puck is either an open or closed disk used in a variety of sports and games. There are designs made for use on an ice surface, such as in ice hockey, and others for the different variants of floor hockey which includes the wheeled skat ...

). While observing the mysterious crystals, the Toads come up with an idea of introducing new sports—

, and

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

—to the Mushroom Kingdom. Toad then organizes tournaments for the four sports. After the player beats the game in all four sports individually, the player is taken to a boss fight against

Behemoth Behemoth (; , ''bəhēmōṯ'') is a beast from the biblical Book of Job, and is a form of the primeval chaos-monster created by God at the beginning of creation. Metaphorically, the name has come to be used for any extremely large or powerful ...

from ''

''. After beating Behemoth, a ''Sports Mix'' mode is unlocked. It is largely identical to the previous tournaments, with the exception that all four sports are played in the tournament, and that the final

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...

is different, being Behemoth King instead of Behemoth.

Development

''Mario Sports Mix'' is the third ''Mario'' game developed by

after ''

Super Mario RPG ''Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars'' is a 1996 role-playing video game developed by Square (video game company), Square and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was the final ''Mario (franchise) ...

'' and '' Mario Hoops 3-on-3'' and was first shown at

E3 2010 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 (E3 2010) was the 16th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 14, 2010, and ended on June 17, 2010, with 45,600 total attendees. The ...

. During the Nintendo E3 presentation,

Reggie Fils-Aimé Reginald Fils-Aimé ( ; born March 25, 1961) is an American businessman best known for being the President (corporate title), president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, the North American branch of the Japanese video game co ...

stated that none of the included sports had featured in any previous ''Mario'' sports title. However, three of them have been featured in some fashion: basketball was the main focus of ''Mario Hoops 3-on-3'' (and there are basketball-based minigames in ''

Mario Party is a series of party video games created by Hudson Soft and owned by Nintendo. It features List of Mario franchise characters, characters from the Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise in which up to four local players or Artificial inte ...

'', ''

Mario Party 4 ''Mario Party 4'' is a 2002 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the fourth installment in the ''Mario Party'' series and the first one to be released for GameCube. Like the previous games in ...

'', ''

Mario Party 6 is a 2004 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the sixth installment in the ''Mario Party'' series, the third title in the series for the GameCube, and the first GameCube game to make use o ...

'' and ''

Mario Party 8 ''Mario Party 8'' is a 2007 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the eighth main installment in the ''Mario Party'' series, as well as the first title in the series to be released for the Wii. Lik ...

''); volleyball minigames were featured in ''

'' and '' Mario Party 5''; and hockey was a featured sport in '' Mario Party 5'' and ''

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is a 2009 crossover sports video game developed and published by Sega for the Wii and Nintendo DS. Like its predecessor, it was published by Nintendo for Japan and Korea and by Sega elsewhere. Officially licensed by the International Olympic ...

''. ''Mario Sports Mix'' marks the first time dodgeball has been featured in a ''Mario'' sports title and the first time the other three have been featured in prominent roles in a home console title.

Reception

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' released the first review for ''Mario Sports Mix'' approximately a week before its launch in Japan. The game received an overall score of 30/40, with two reviewers giving it 7/10 and two giving it 8/10. One reviewer praised the title for its "simple and easy" controls, while also commenting that the characters' special moves were "pretty neat" and that the courts included in the game were "fun in their own way". However, concern was raised with the number of playable sports, with one reviewer commenting that "with only four sports included, some people might get bored pretty fast." ''Mario Sports Mix'' has received average reviews, having an aggregate score of 64/100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

and a

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

of 66%. ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

''s Jack DeVries rated the game 6.5, stating "it could make a fun party game, but this is a pretty weak offering". They praised the graphics, calling the animations "well done", and said "everything is bright and smooth". They also praised the music, calling it "fun and energetic, though kind of repetitive." ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...

''s Keza MacDonald rated the game 7/10 and ''

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an American nonprofit organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

'' gave the game 5 stars and an on rating for ages 8 and up, Saying "Top-notch sports compilation is good fun for all ages."Mario Sports Mix - Review on

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews/mario-sports-mix ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'', however, gave the game a low rating of 4/10 stating that "Every sport is tedious and shallow", "Computer opponents are too easy or too cheap", "Requires very little skill", "Too much chaos in the competitions" and "None of the sports offer anything new or unique". ''

Official Nintendo Magazine ''Official Nintendo Magazine'', or ''ONM'', was a British Video game journalism, video game magazine that ran from 2006 to 2014 that covered the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, and Wii U video game consoles released by Nintendo. Originally p ...

'' also mentioned in its review that "volleyball is the weakest game of the four" because it only involves flicking the Wii remote and pressing A. It also noted issues with the unlockable characters because they are only Square Enix characters, which it stated that they "are a bit underwhelming" and that "Replacing them with other Mario characters would be much better". As of April 2011, ''Mario Sports Mix'' has sold 1.54 million copies worldwide.

Gameplay

Plot

Development

Reception

References

External links