Topic: Mario Sports Mix

[NWR_insanolord]

Looks great, interesting choice of sports as well. I just hope that basketball in this game is not the same as basketball in Wii Sports Resort.

It's not like it is in Wii Sports Resort, which is the exact reason I don't care about this game anymore. It's Mario Baseball all over again: they had a great control scheme in place, and instead of keeping it and expanding on the gameplay they take a step backwards.

[ThePerm]

how popular was tecmo bowl in japan?

i totally forgot about this game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpuDmX4s00Q&feature=related

[Adrock]

You'd think Nintendo would have learned from Disaster: Day of Crisis that you do not assign a 3rd person action game (in this case sports-based) to a studio that specializes in RPGs.

I don't know. I disagree. I think good developers can design any kind of game. Masahiro Sakurai and Hal Labs never did anything like Super Smash Bros. and look how that turned out. Nintendo never should have released Disaster: Day of Crisis until Monolith Soft fixed some of its issues.

Still, a true sequel to Super Mario RPG needs to happen and I'd rather have that than Mario Sports Mix.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Maybe Disaster will see it's NA release updated in 3D.

[DAaaMan64]

Maybe Disaster will see it's NA release updated in 3D.

EDIT: Nevermind, just don't buy it cause should should knowingly buy **** games anyway.

[Stratos]

So what does Japan call American Football considering 'soccer' uses the same name outside of North America?

[Mop it up]

Square attempted to create a unique control scheme in Mario Hoops on DS, and I imagine they are going to do the same thing here. Now, the DS game is barely functional, so hopefully they get it right this time. It would be better if it used Motion Plus, but I'm confident controls which work well can be created without it. If they are smart, they will incorporate the pointer in some way.

It's Mario Baseball all over again: they had a great control scheme in place, and instead of keeping it and expanding on the gameplay they take a step backwards.

Although I agree Mario Super Sluggers doesn't have an intricate control scheme like it could have, I still find it to be much more fluid and precise than the stiff and clunky control scheme of Mario Superstar Baseball.

[TJ Spyke]

So what does Japan call American Football considering 'soccer' uses the same name outside of North America?

They call it American football, and all levels of the sport (middle/high school, college, and professional) are governed by the Japan American Football Association.

[Mop it up]

Japan American Football Association

Ha ha, for some reason that looks very weird.

Though "JAFA" has a nice ring to it.

[Stratos]

I think we should rename 'American Football/Football' to Tackleball and then get rid of the name 'soccer' all together unless used to refer to mothers with mini-vans

[NWR_insanolord]

I disagree; i think we should keep calling it football, and make the rest of the world call their football soccer, by force if necessary.

[Mop it up]

"Soccer" has been around longer and is more popular worldwide, so it is more deserving of the name "football."

American football is also sometimes known as "gridiron football" outside of North America.

[TJ Spyke]

Soccer's popularity is baffling, a game where a 0-0 or 1-1 tie is common is boring. The refs are incompetent and have way too much power (like that referee who literally stole a goal from the US. He called a foul despite the fact that no foul had been committed, refused to tell the players who the foul was against or even what the foul was, then refused to speak to the media. In real football, the referees announce what the foul is and who committed it, then explain it after the game if it was a controversial call; that one MLB umpire even apologized after realizing his call was wrong and had screwed a pitcher out of a perfect game). Soccer is basically the only sport known by different names, even in countries like the UK it is not unheard of to call it soccer.

[Stratos]

I'm most interested in the Hockey mode.

I want a Mario Ultimate Frisbee game though. That is my favorite sport to play.

[Louieturkey]

Soccer's popularity is baffling, a game where a 0-0 or 1-1 tie is common is boring.

I don't see how it's baffling.  Soccer is the easiest pick-up-and-play game anywhere.  All you need is the ball and you can play a game of soccer.  Basketball needs a hoop plus the ball; hockey needs the sticks, the puck, the ice skates or rollerblades; baseball requires the bat and ball, the pitcher, the ump to call balls and strikes (not always), the bases (can be fashioned from anything);football requires the specialized ball, at least 4 people, and a whole lot of rules.
It's also the easiest to learn.  Here's the ball, try to score in that goal over there and keep the other side from scoring in your goal.  Those are the basics.  Football has an infinite number of rules to learn if you don't know it, as does baseball.

The refs are incompetent and have way too much power (like that referee who literally stole a goal from the US. He called a foul despite the fact that no foul had been committed, refused to tell the players who the foul was against or even what the foul was, then refused to speak to the media. In real football, the referees announce what the foul is and who committed it, then explain it after the game if it was a controversial call; that one MLB umpire even apologized after realizing his call was wrong and had screwed a pitcher out of a perfect game).

Umpires rarely apologize for these types of things.  Neither do refs in basketball or football.  They all have too much power.  It is no different than soccer in this regard.  The only difference is that the soccer refs don't have to tell them what foul was committed.  I don't like that but it was explained that it is to keep the players from arguing and complaining too much, which happens a ton in basketball and football and baseball.

Soccer is basically the only sport known by different names, even in countries like the UK it is not unheard of to call it soccer.

In fact, it's only called soccer in the US.  It is football literally in every other country in the entire world.  We are only different because our football was more popular and they were introduced to our country around the same time.

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm pretty sure it's called soccer in Canada, too. Maybe someone should write into RFN listener mail and ask Jon Lindemann, he's from Canada. Also, Australia's team was called the Socceroos, so it seems like it's not unheard of to call it soccer there either.

[Mop it up]

I'm most interested in the Hockey mode.

Yes, hockey with Mario could be very good indeed. I know there's hockey in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, but reviews say it was terribly done, with a lot of waggle controls.

Plus, it's probably as close I'll get to figure skating with Birdo.

[Kytim89]

I would not mind seeing a Mario wrestling game. Basically the Mario series married to something like WWE. Part fighting game, part sports game. I could also imagine Mario and Luigi in a tag-team match against Wario and Waluigi, or Bowser and Bowser, jr. The Mushroom Wrestling Championship, or MWC for short.

[Mop it up]

Wrestling would be too complicated to animate for Mario characters; they all vary greatly in size, shape, and ability. Each character would have to be individually animated for each of their moves, and possibly even for each individual opponent they would face. It's all too much work for a game that would have a limited appeal.

[TJ Spyke]

Wrestling games are very successful, so I think it would have more than just limited appeal. The other issues I think could be taken care of.

[Mop it up]

The Japanese release date has been set, November 25th. North America and Europe are still listed as "TBA 2011," which seems a bit odd. How difficult can it be to localize a game like this? I'd think they'd want it out for the holidays, but I guess they may be a bit crowded with Wii Party, Kirby Epic Yarn, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and PokéPark. But Japan has all those too...

There's a possibility that the game has online play, but it is unconfirmed at this point. The box art shows a Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection logo, but this appears on all games that use Wi-Fi for any reason, so it could be something like leaderboards or another such minor feature.

The video shown at the Nintendo conference features Toad as a playable character. He's my favourite character so I'm glad to finally see he's in the game. Now all I need is a sign of my second favourite, and I'll be set.

[TJ Spyke]

Nintendo tries not to announce dates too early, so I think they don't want to be more specific than "2011" until they know for sure what date they want.

About your list, Japan actually got PokePark Wii back in December 2009. Japan got Wii Party back in July. Donkey Kong Country Returns has no specific Japanese release date (just a generic Q4 2010). So Japan has a much thinner crowd this holiday.

Toad and Birdo have been sports games, so I have no doubt Birdo will be in Mario Sports Mix too.

[Mop it up]

Wow, really? Those dates are pretty far back. I thought Nintendo was trying to have their release dates be closer together but I guess that's only for certain titles.

With Birdo, it's mostly the Mario and Sonic Olympic games that worry me. In the original, Birdo was planned but got cut, and the sequel has her as nothing but a mere Mii costume. So she's never a sure thing. Toad was also not playable in those games so I don't consider him a guarantee either when it comes to new Mario games in general. If this game has unlockable characters then they probably won't be shown until closer to or after release, so she could be one of them. And I guess she appeared in the DS Mario Hoops game which was developed by the same company, which might be a good sign.

[TJ Spyke]

Since the Olympic Games were basically Sega games rather than Nintendo games (Sega developed the game and published it in every region except Japan, where Nintendo published it), I think that may have been a small factor. I am not saying Birdo is guaranteed to be in the game, but I wouldn't be surprised if he/she is.

[Luigi Dude]

The Japanese release date has been set, November 25th. North America and Europe are still listed as "TBA 2011," which seems a bit odd. How difficult can it be to localize a game like this? I'd think they'd want it out for the holidays, but I guess they may be a bit crowded with Wii Party, Kirby Epic Yarn, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and PokéPark. But Japan has all those too...

Japan doesn't have anything for 3rd party support this fall though.  In North America and Europe the Wii still has some big third party titles like Sonic Colors and Epic Mickey which will put up good numbers and help fill out the schedule.  Since the Wii in Japan will have nothing from third parties that will have any big impact on the Japanese market, it's no surprise they're going to release this game in Japan so early because it's going to be Nintendo alone that will have to keep the Wii a float in Japan this fall.