The Super Mario brand has long been expanded into different sub-genres of gaming since the early 90s where Mario first ventured out into the medical field with the puzzle game Dr. Mario for the NES. Since then, Mario and friends have received countless spin-offs where they’ve thrown parties, raced karts, and played lots of lots of different competitive sports. All together, the Super Mario brand has gottena ton of spin-off games that capture the hearts of fans.
With these, Mario has become somewhat known for giving a classic take on sports games, first starting with golf and tennis on the Nintendo 64. Mario Tennis, which released in 2000, received six sequels and became a staple Nintendo sub-franchise, staying relevant in recent years with the Mario Tennis Aces. Mario Golf—on the other hand—released one year prior to it in 1999 and has been a bit less fortunate. It has only gotten four sequels since its original release and has overall become less popular of a sub-franchise. But arguably, this would largely be fixed if Mario Golf were to receive a sequel for Nintendo’s current home console, the Switch.
When looking at both series as a whole, Mario Golf and Mario Tennis were quite equal with one another for their first several entries: both series began on the Nintendo 64 and received sequels for the Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, GameCube, and finally the 3DS. The similarities somewhat stopped there, however, as Mario Golf‘s last entry was Mario Golf: World Tour for the 3DS in 2014, which released shortly after Mario Tennis Open for the handheld.
This came as a bit of a surprise, as World Tour was one of the best received entries in the series, getting a ton of praise from both fans and critics alike. The Mario Tennis series went on to get a sequel for the Wii U in 2015 entitled Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, and then yet another sequel for the Switch, Mario Tennis Aces. For the first time ever, Mario Tennis got sequels without Golf counterparts to go alongside them.
Because of this, it feels like a new Mario Golf is overdue, with no new sequels in over six years. Apart from taking a while for any new sequels, the series hasn’t gotten a new installment on a home console since 2003’s Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the GameCube. That’s right: Mario Golf has been absent from home consoles for three console generations in a row. Whereas Mario Tennis has been released on every Nintendo console and handheld since the Nintendo 64 and GameBoy, the Golf sub-series has released exclusively on handhelds for the past 17 years. It should be without saying that these sports games are best experienced with friends on a big-screen television, and Mario Golf would truly benefit from a new entry on Switch (which of course, is both a handheld and a home console).
When looking for a reason to why Mario Golf should make its return, fans should look no further than Mario Tennis Aces. It was released in 2018 for the Nintendo Switch and is now the best-selling entry in the Tennis line of Mario games. This is no big surprise, as the Nintendo Switch has become somewhat known for its incredibly high software sales, with the most recent entries in franchises like Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Mario Party, and Luigi’s Mansion reaching record-breaking sales for their respective series. With all this said, it should be expected that any other Mario sub-series that gets a new game on the Switch would also reach record-breaking sales levels, so a new Mario Golf game therefore seems like a no-brainer.
But other than launching on an incredibly successful console, Mario Tennis Aces sold well because of its high level of ambition. Unlike its previous two entries Mario Tennis Open and Mario Tennis Ultra Smash, which were both severely lacking in terms of both content and presentation, Aces actually attempted to be a great game. It introduced a story mode which was new to the series, tons of brand-new Mario characters, fun and varied courts to play on, as well as new online challenge modes to add some extended life to the title. But above all else, the game flipped the main gameplay on its head, essentially evolving Mario Tennis into something almost brand-new entirely with the new zone shot and special shot mechanics. What the Mario Golf series needs is its own Mario Tennis Aces, something that will really spice up the series.
Other than the Mario Golf games, plenty of other Mario sports titles would do incredibly well on the Nintendo Switch: Super Mario Strikers is another prime example of a great sports game that should make a return, as it too hasn’t received a new entry in a very long time. It was incredibly popular back when it was originally released on GameCube, and only ever received one subsequent entry on the Wii a few years later. The Mario Baseball games were also some great fun back in their heyday, and would also surely do well with an additional entry for Switch. Other than that, a new Mario Sports Mix, or Mario Hoops game could be interesting to see for Nintendo’s hybrid console.
Ultimately, the Switch has proven time and time again that nearly anything can become successful for it, and new Mario sports games would make for perfect fits for the console, especially now that most of Nintendo’s major IPs have already gotten a chance to shine in the spotlight. With not many major franchises left, it seems like the perfect time for Mario Golf— and potentially other less popular sports titles– to finally make its long-awaited return for gamers.
Mario Tennis Aces is available now for the Nintendo Switch.
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