Mario Sports Mix Review (Wii)

As I was growing up, I spent countless hours playing great Mario sports titles such as Mario Golf, Tennis and Strikers. My infatuation with the past games in the series is one of the main reasons as to why I was incredibly excited when Nintendo announced Mario Sports Mix at last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. Sports Mix, a collaboration between Square Enix and Nintendo, sees Mario and his friends/foes participate in four different sports (dodgeball, hockey, volleyball and basketball,) with some popular Square-Enix characters. It's an interesting mix to say the least.

The game's basic storyline surrounds a mysterious meteor that has crashed on the grounds of the Mushroom Kingdom. During their investigation, Toadstool finds that this strange piece of space rock is made up of four different crystals, which contain a representation of each sport (a coin representing a hockey puck, a volleyball, a basketball and a dodgeball.) These four separate crystals become the desired reward for impending sports tournaments, becoming crafted pieces of the star cup trophies. As you can probably tell, there isn't much of a storyline, but at least there's something.

The game is structured a lot like Mario Kart, in the sense that it has three different cups, or tournaments, that you must win to complete a sport: the mushroom cup, the flower cup and the star cup. Each of these tournaments includes three games, which essentially make up the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. Your opponents within the first two rounds are always random teams of characters from the Mario universe. However, the final event takes place against Square-Enix characters on a flying ship's court. Afterwards, there is the traditional awards ceremony that follows almost ever Mario sports title cup victory. Volleyball and dodgeball are scored based on the first team to two (of three) set victories, whereas hockey and basketball are played within two three minute periods.

When you enter a tournament (or any game mode for that matter,) you get to pick the players on your team. It can be a two-person team or a three-person team. As with Mario Strikers, each of the game's 19 characters (including the unlockable Square-Enix characters such as the white mage, black mage and slime,) have their own individual stats. The characters are ranked in three different categories, including speed, technique and power. Some characters are listed as all-around, with mixed stats (fluctuating around the middle in each category.) For optimal success, it is important to select a well-rounded team, if you're playing against human opponents or very high-ranked A.I. Each of the characters also have their own special abilities (a different version for each sport,) as well as their own custom animations (for dunking and whatnot.)

The sports action takes place on fourteen unique courts, some of which return from Square-Enix's last Mario sports title (Mario Hoops 3 on 3 for the Nintendo DS.) Some courts are only playable in specific sports. The amount of variety is great, as each court has its own visual style, interesting (animated) backdrop and gameplay mechanics. Whereas some courts were just basic courts with traditional rules, some courts changed things up. For example, the Baby Bowser Court location places different score multipliers on the court, which can increase, multiply or even deduct your points scored when you get a goal or a basket. I enjoyed playing this location, but I was also quite impressed with Donkey Kong's floating raft court. It makes volleyball a lot more challenging because each side is a separate raft that floats left or right on its own. Additionally, coins appear on most courts. These coins add to your score when picked up, provided that you score while holding them (up to a total of ten can be held at one time.)

Upon the conclusion of each sport's three tournaments, hard mode becomes unlocked for that sport, allowing you to play the same tournaments against tougher artificial competition. Additionally, a prompt is shown that tells players they can re-play each individual tournament to try to unlock secret paths that lead to missions, such as a game of hockey where your opponent is ahead 30-0 at the beginning. These secret paths are shown as star roads, joining a few different missions together. If you fail at one, then you have to start over again.

Tournaments can be played in either single player or multiplayer (up to three players on one console, on one team.) This is because each sport allows you to choose whether you would like to participate in a three on three event or a two on two team event. This allows for friends to always be able to play together, which was a nice addition. This game stresses multiplayer, which is something that will appeal to families - the Wii's target audience.

Mario Sports Mix also features full-fledged online play (with minor stats tracking,) as well as one minigame belonging to each sport. So, there's quite a bit of content to be had for the initial fifty dollar purchase. Online play worked really well in my experience and was the most interesting (and enjoyable) aspect of the game, considering how inconsistent the opponent artificial intelligence happened to be within the tournament modes. Players can choose the sport they'd like to play online, pick the court they'd like to use, or let their opponent decide. One major issue is that people will quit if they're about to lose, because there is no consequence for doing so.

The aforementioned minigames were also quite fun, adding some great variety by introducing fun and short burst multiplayer game types to the equasion. I wasn't a big fan of the hockey one where you had to try to check or slapshot other players off of a platform, but I did enjoy the other three, including a volleyball game where you had to hit the coloured ball that represented your player, in order to keep a tune going, as well as a basketball game where you had to throw different-sized fruits into a piranha plant's mouth to score points. Each minigame became a battle against my opponents and were quite challenging on harder difficulties. I wish there were a couple more.

The game's core mechanics are quite simple, with basic and advanced moves for each sport (such as faking throws in dodgeball.) Motion controls factor into the gameplay heavily, and are utilized for each sport's main moves, such as shooting, dunking, volleying and checking. The nunchuk is used for movement, player switching and to charge up shots. Players can also press B on the Wiimote to use the different types of items they can earn (green and red shells, blue mushrooms, and other things,) and combine A and B to perform a character's special ability (provided they've filled the gauge by scoring goals, checking opponents and playing well in general.)

Personally, I found the controls to be hit or miss. The motion aspects lacked precision and didn't register perfectly at all times in volleyball and there were some issues with them in basketball. I also found that the controls for shooting in hockey lacked precision. Flicking the Wiimote didn't translate well to shooting a puck although it did work for checking and the fights that would pop up where you'd have to waggle the Wiimote faster than your opponent. Dodgeball featured the best motion controls as it felt natural to lift it up to jump (to grab the ball) and to fling the Wiimote forward to throw the ball. Shooting in basketball also felt pretty natural as you'd lift the Wiimote up to jump then push it forward to shoot. It took practice to get used to though. Overall, they're easy to pick up and use, but lack precision and accuracy at times.

Out of the four sports available, I was surprised by the fact that I enjoyed dodgeball the most. It's the simplest one, but it works the best. I liked aspects of the hockey mode, especially since it plays a lot like Strikers did, but it was just too simple and had too many issues. The other two sports were fun and pretty well-designed overall, despite some issues. It seemed like making a game that features four sports prevented the developers at Square-Enix from perfecting each sport.

The main issue I had with this release was its inconsistent artificial intelligence, which I made mention of earlier in this review. Unfortunately, its inconsistencies make playing through the tournament mode in sports such as hockey and basketball quite boring, because the computer opponents aren't a challenge whatsoever. It is much better in volleyball however, but dodgeball is hit and miss. When I tried playing hockey against the artificial intelligence on hard difficulty, I didn't notice too much of a difference. They were a bit more competent, but they'd still stand around and would rarely shoot. I was still able to walk all over them and score at will. The goalie artificial intelligence was abysmal on either difficulty. I'm not sure if it was intentional to make it so easy to score, but I was able to beat the opponent 90-3 in the first tournament I played. It was also very easy to score in multiplayer too.

In terms of presentation, Square-Enix knocked this one out of the park (pun intended.) This is one of the best looking Wii games I've played, and its sound design is also worth making mention of. Even the menus look great. The game is incredibly colourful and features a lot of graphic detail, as well as some good animation variety. Its sound effects are varied and sound quite good. I was impressed by the fact that it looked that good and didn't have any frame rate issues.

Mario Sports Mix is a very creative game, which features a ton of content that can be played alone or with friends. There are some really well-done and intelligent aspects within the game, but its inconsistent artificial intelligence is a frustrating detractor from the experience. It is evident that the game is targeted more towards kids and families than hardcore gamers. Pick this one up if you enjoy sports titles like this, but only if you are planning to primarily play multiplayer, because its single player experience is repetitive and frustrating. Its creativity is charming, though.

Rating: 6.5/10

Mario Sports Mix was released Monday, February 7th, 2011 for the Nintendo Wii