Mario Sports Superstars
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 Easily one of the most disappointing Mario spin-offs ever.
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Mario Sports Superstars is a 2017 sports game released for the Nintendo 3DS. It was developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Camelot Software Planning.
Bad Qualities
- The game was possibly rushed because there is a noticeable lack of content as all five sports have only a few modes available that lack substance and feel rather shallow for the most part, as the only unique mode that is new to the Mario Sports games is the Horse Stable mode and that's it. There isn't anything from this game and most of the other modes in each sports have been in every other Mario Sports game before this one, and the game itself can get very glitchy at times to the point where crashes and freezes can happen frequently, but no major game glitches that are present in the game, aside from constant framerate drops and occasional sound glitches here or there at times.
- Mediocre character roster. Metal Mario and Pink Gold Peach return in this game yet again as reskins, and many of the other characters have already been in past instalments of the Mario Sports sub-series at this point, and some fan-favorites like Nabbit, Koopa Troopa, Wiggler, Donkey Kong Jr. and Dry Bones were left out of the roster for no reason, as they could've been great choices instead of two reskins that nobody asked for. Also worth noting is that this game came out the same year as Super Mario Odyssey just a couple of months before it, and there were many new characters introduced in that game which could've been good choices for this game's roster, which makes the lackluster character roster even worse since the game has never been touched upon with a lack of updates and support for it being non-existent from day one, making the game age poorly as a result of the weird character choices for the game's roster.
- Each sport lacks of the charm of the Mario series and suffers from numerous problems.
- Soccer is poorly programmed and very unbalanced. The other team is highly aggressive and will do anything to get the ball in the goal. It is nearly impossible to get the ball in the enemies' goal because their goalie rarely ever misses while yours misses all the time. If you kick a player from the other team, Lakitu calls foul, but if the other team kicks you, Lakitu DOESN'T CALL FOUL. It also lacks any of the cool mechanics from the Mario Strikers series.
- Baseball is downright broken. Whenever you try to swing, the ball almost always goes through bat as if the bat is a ghost. The computer has no issue hitting the ball however. Pitching requires you to do this very unnecessary timing minigame where you have to make the line stop in the colored area to get a good throw. You didn't have to do this in the Mario Baseball games.
- Tennis is just as dull and boring as it was in Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash.
- Golf isn't very interesting in this game since it lacks power-ups or any unique gimmicks, and overall can get very boring at times.
- Horse Racing is the only new sport in the game. It plays like Mario Kart, but without the items and chaotic fun that series is known for. The computer rubberbands frequently and no matter how much you boost on your horse, the computers will still catch up.
- The online multiplayer is extremely barren and very inactive. It's just like the online in Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash.
- The game has one of the worst Amiibo implementations in any Nintendo game in history with the Amiibo card system that are supposed to be used for the Road to Superstar minigame and having a gallery collection that tries to offer more replay value, which could've have been a nice way to have players coming back to this game after they've collected a new card from stores and used it to transfer into the game. However, this system isn't well-executed for numerous reasons.
- Most of the Amiibo character cards lazily reuse character artwork from various Mario games, and they are mostly badly photoshopped. The worst offender has to be Bowser's soccer Amiibo card.
- There are over 100 character cards. You could be wasting hundreds of dollars on these cards because duplicates are very common. Scott The Woz did a character card unboxing and he got over 30 duplicates.
- Road to Superstar is just a crappy Breakout clone with mediocre gameplay that quickly becomes repetitive and boring, which completely renders the aforementioned Amiibo system pointless and trivial as a result, making the game lack any replay value and having a poor use of Amiibo in general.
- The game costed $60 at launch when there is nothing worth the $60 in this game.
- The music is rather generic for Mario standards and feels more like typical sports music rather than the cartoony yet relaxing soundtracks from previous Mario Sports games that fitted the Mario franchise perfectly and were very catchy and fun to listen through, something that this game lacks overall.
- The graphics are rather sub-par for a late 3DS game, as it looks akin to an early PSP game rather than a title released on the 3DS itself, which is unacceptable since Mega Man Powered Up was released on the PSP itself and it actually looks way better than this game by a long mile and that game was released back in 2006, 11 years before this game, which just makes this game pale in comparison to other 3DS games, like Super Mario 3D Land in terms of presentation and artstyle overall.
- Poor gameplay control from each sport, mainly both Soccer and Horse Racing where moving can be an absolute chore to do due to the 3DS's circle pad tending to not respond with the game properly and causing some mishaps to happen.
- Unlike every other past Mario Sports game (even the bad ones like Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games), there aren't any new mechanics or creative gimmicks to spice up each sport, as all of them play out like regular versions of their respective sport in real life, which is unacceptable for this game, since many Mario Sports games are known for using gimmicks, mechanics and features from many Super Mario games and other spin-offs related to the Mario franchise to make the gameplay more fun and enjoyable (the Mario Strikers series for example having a different version of Soccer that is portrayed more crazier and frantic with the typical rules of Soccer being ignored and they even use regular Mario items from the Mario Kart series as well to make things more fresh. Heck, the Mario & Sonic games have Dream Events, fantasy-like versions of regular Olympic events with Mario & Sonic elements implemented onto to them that became fan-favorites) which is the reason why they were beloved by many Mario fans alike, whereas this game on the other hand doesn't have that and instead plays things safe as the only gimmicks that are used are with Special Moves in Soccer, Baseball and Horse Racing, the Chance Shots in Tennis (which were already implemented in Mario Tennis Open, making them redundant by default) and the Carrot stamina system in Horse Racing. There isn't any unique gimmick in Golf to spice things up and is the only sport without a unique gimmick in this game, which make the sports in this game feel lifeless and boring when compared to the past and future Mario Sports game that reinvented their gameplay in new and creative ways, thus making this game feel outdated by default.
- It isn't a very good comeback for Namco (or Bandai Namco as it is known nowadays) to develop a Mario Sports game after nine years since 2008 with Mario Super Sluggers, since the game has poor quality and doesn't have the charm of previous Mario Sports games especially the ones that the studio developed which were the Baseball games. This could be seen as a missed opportunity since the company does a great job at handling many of Nintendo's IPs very well and have some of that Namco charm to them especially with both the arcade Mario Kart games and Pokkén Tournament, so seeing that they would develop this game is just disappointing especially after making the amazing Mario Baseball duology.
- Missed opportunity: There could've been more sports added to the game and more character choices that would've made way more sense than the ones that were done like Metal Mario and Pink Gold Peach, as there are a lot of obscure characters from the series that haven't gotten the spotlight in over years and deserve some love like Mallow (from Super Mario RPG), Battle Beetle (an obscure enemy from Super Mario Land 2), Doopliss (from the Paper Mario series), Donkey Kong Jr., Crazee Dayzee and many more. In fact, one sport that isn't represented that has had a game made out of it was Basketball since Mario Hoops 3-on-3 exists and is a Basketball game, as Basketball could've been a great sport to include in the collection and there are even more sports that could've been included like Rugby, Ice Hockey, Volleyball, Dodgeball, Water Polo, Boxing and many more. It should also be mentioned that there could've been more unique content added to the game to make it feel a little bit more fresh, and the game should've been on the Nintendo Switch instead of the 3DS as that way then, it would've been much more relevant and not be stuck on a console that was made irrelevant after the Switch was released, since the Switch would've allowed for Bandai Namco to improve all of the game's flaws and give it the Mario charm like every other Mario Sports game in the past, which would've made the game a lot more memorable and would give people who bought the Switch at launch a Mario game to play with while both Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Mario Odyssey are still being worked on and ready to be released later in the following months. All of this could've made this game a worthy spin-off to the Mario franchise and it likely would've received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics and become a beloved title by fans, instead coming out as underwhelming and pointless as an outdated 3DS tech demo with zero replay value and no relevance outside of the Horses returning in Super Mario Party, but that's it.
- The game also could've had more time in development given how rushed it is with the severe lack of content, since it was only released on the 3DS for no reason other than to extend the console's life just so that Nintendo can quickly discontinue the Wii U and move onto the Switch, which could be why this game is so lazy to begin with.
Good Qualities
- You can raise and breed your own horse in this game.
- Despite BQ#13, it is great to see Bandai Namco make a Mario Sports game after nine years since Mario Super Sluggers.
- The characters are still likable and retain all of their original personalities, especially with Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach.
- The cover art is awesome and beautiful to look at.
- If you do lose a tournament, or quit out early, you are able to replay them at the exact point where you lost without losing any progress (except Horse Racing, given how short it is), preventing hours of grind, and a lot more frustration.
- The Tennis/Golf modes introduced additional features that Mario Tennis Open (Rosalina as a playable character, the Jump Shots and Classic/Simple Tennis modes) and Mario Golf: World Tour (online Match Play instead of just tournaments) lacked, which is a nice improvement over what the original games had to offer in terms of content, but still.
Reception
Sports Superstars received mixed reviews, with the game scoring a 62 on video game review aggregator Metacritic, based on 44 reviews and a user score of 7.3 based on 46 reviews.
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