Hey all, Scott here.
Scott The Woz is an comedic video game centric variety show that focuses on reviews, editorials, r | dHNfdExOdmwwdE1yR1E
Scott The Woz is an comedic video game centric variety show that focuses on reviews, editorials, r | dHNfdExOdmwwdE1yR1E
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00:00 Mario's Sports Games.
00:01 Yeah, I met him once and he was a dick.
00:04 Well, once were fun and well thought out
00:06 multiplayer spin-offs became the bane of my existence.
00:09 That's my kryptonite.
00:10 Listen, for a while there,
00:11 you could always count on Mario's Sports Games
00:14 to deliver the goods, all right?
00:16 Not all of them may have been for everybody,
00:18 but you could see the clear love, passion,
00:20 and quality within each and every one.
00:22 These weren't Mario's Sports Games.
00:24 These were Mario Sports Games.
00:27 I mean, if I saw this happen at a baseball game,
00:29 I'd never touch science again.
00:30 Look at how wacky and fun all this is.
00:33 Now look at FIFA.
00:35 I don't even see colored socks.
00:37 These are two sides of the same coin
00:39 and either one is necessarily better or worse than the other.
00:42 You may want your sports game to be as kooky as possible,
00:44 or you may be wrong.
00:45 But games like Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Mario Baseball,
00:48 and Mario Strikers all had their place.
00:51 They had a purpose, a reason to exist.
00:54 So did Lincoln.
00:55 And you know what they did to him?
00:56 I did not remember this in class.
00:58 After Mario Super Sluggers on the Wii,
01:00 Mario Sports Games weren't on a hiatus per se,
01:04 but you can't deny something was up.
01:06 Nothing for a few years
01:07 until Mario Sports Mix on the Wii in 2011.
01:10 Sure, we got a Wii re-release of Mario's Power Tennis
01:13 from the GameCube and the Mario and Sonic
01:15 of the Olympic Games titles,
01:16 but those make my statements invalid.
01:18 Mario Sports Mix seemed to be
01:19 the ultimate Mario Sports Game.
01:22 Four sports in one.
01:23 The only way you could beat that is if...
01:25 Well, that's just (beep) ridiculous.
01:26 As a kid, you couldn't fathom
01:28 why you would possibly buy a single Mario Golf game
01:31 instead of Mario Sports Mix.
01:33 That's just idiotic to think you could get more
01:35 out of one sport than four.
01:36 And that's when I checked into rehab.
01:38 Mario Sports Mix isn't bad, it's just largely skippable.
01:42 Like the only reason you'd play this
01:43 is if you don't give a (beep) what you play.
01:45 The four sports, basketball, volleyball, dodgeball,
01:48 and hockey are all structured and presented in the same way,
01:51 which leads to none of them sticking out all too much.
01:53 And because the developers had to divide their attention
01:55 amongst four different sports,
01:56 not one of them got the attention necessary
01:58 to be anything more than a fun distraction.
02:00 This game was developed by Square Enix.
02:02 Yeah, right, and I'm a mass murderer.
02:05 Damn it.
02:08 Mario Sports Mix was a fun enough multiplayer game,
02:10 just not one I ever went back to much.
02:13 Though it wasn't of a bad quality.
02:14 Like I said, it was a fun enough distraction
02:16 and fit right alongside the other games I've spoken about.
02:18 Look at these special Mario themed arenas and mini games.
02:22 Tell this craziness happening.
02:23 You can play as Square Enix icons
02:25 like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest characters
02:27 because Sleeping Dogs wasn't made yet.
02:29 Though we may not have gotten say,
02:30 the new Mario Golf since 2004,
02:32 but Sports Mix did enough to keep the dream
02:34 of quality Mario Sports games alive.
02:37 Wait, what's that?
02:38 No Mario Strikers, no Mario Baseball,
02:42 bad Mario Tennis, good Mario Golf.
02:44 I usually like to pinpoint the exact moment
02:46 when a Nintendo fan is lying.
02:47 I love this company.
02:49 There it is.
02:50 The quality and quantity of these games plummeted.
02:53 Even Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
02:55 met some of their lowest lows in this era.
02:58 For the most part, it no longer felt like the developers
03:00 of these titles wanted to make good games.
03:02 Rather, it felt like they were contracted
03:03 to fill a release slot on Nintendo's calendar.
03:05 You can almost tell how little they thought
03:07 of the consumers by how lacking these games were in content.
03:11 Mario and Sonic at Rio 2016
03:12 and Mario Tennis Ultra Smash being prime examples.
03:15 Bare bones sports games decorated with Mario characters,
03:18 barely any unique environments, power-ups,
03:20 wacky mechanics, like at this point,
03:22 you might as well play a regular tennis game,
03:24 which is to say die.
03:25 Mario Tennis Open was okay
03:28 and Mario Golf World Tour was quite good,
03:30 but that didn't take away from the feeling
03:31 that games like this were going downhill hard.
03:35 But even after so many misfires,
03:37 I'm always first in line to pick a new one up.
03:39 Masochism.
03:41 And you know what year a Mario sports game
03:43 sounded real good?
03:44 Yeah, we could have used one then.
03:45 And 2016, one of the cruelest years to be a Nintendo fan.
03:50 2015 may have had some of the worst releases
03:52 in the company's history,
03:53 but 2016 had some of the most nothing releases
03:57 in the company's history.
03:58 It was obvious Nintendo was biding time
04:00 until the Nintendo Switch's release in March of 2017
04:02 and had very little left to supply Wii U owners until then.
04:05 Though the 3DS release schedule
04:07 was at least a bit more plentiful.
04:08 However, most titles that year were just ports,
04:11 localizations, Mario Party Star Rush.
04:14 Yes, there was content on the handheld,
04:16 but outside of Pokemon Sun and Moon,
04:18 it wasn't substantial content.
04:19 So believe me, when the Nintendo 3DS Direct presentation
04:23 was announced for September 1st, 2016,
04:25 everybody was positively negative.
04:27 Keep in mind with the Nintendo Switch launching that March,
04:30 it wasn't formally announced until October.
04:32 So nearly the entirety of 2016 was filled
04:35 with fans frothing at the mouth for a reveal.
04:37 Nintendo's home console was dead,
04:39 their handheld was in purgatory,
04:40 and their next console, nobody knew anything about.
04:43 So thank God I have hobbies.
04:45 So after waiting and waiting and waiting,
04:49 we finally got a showcase of nothing but Nintendo 3DS games.
04:53 This crusty-ass gadget from 2011,
04:55 not only was it starting to get hard to be excited
04:58 for games on the thing,
04:59 but this also wasn't the thing we wanted to see games on.
05:01 Any game that would come to this,
05:02 the first question out of my mouth would be, why?
05:04 Regardless, this 3DS Direct had numerous announcements
05:07 showing that the handheld was still alive and, well.
05:10 But all of a sudden,
05:11 tucked into a string of other games being talked about
05:14 was a brand new 3DS game, a brand new Mario sports game.
05:17 This was Mario Sports Superstars.
05:22 You sure about that?
05:23 Ah, it's an accessor to Mario Sports Mix.
05:26 Maybe.
05:27 Nothing about this feels or looks like the Wii game
05:30 outside of the first two words in the title.
05:32 No returning sports from that one,
05:34 none of the same style or flair, no similar mechanics,
05:36 not even done by the same developers.
05:38 These may sound like they're from the same sub-series,
05:41 but they really aren't.
05:41 So then what is Mario Sports Superstars?
05:44 Well, a collection of five different sports.
05:48 That's possible?
05:49 Well, I'll be.
05:51 What are they?
05:52 Maybe American football or boxing, maybe even bowling.
05:55 How about soccer?
05:56 Okay, well, we've done that before.
05:58 Baseball.
05:59 Yeah, I've heard of that one.
06:00 Tennis.
06:01 I don't know what you want me to say.
06:02 Golf.
06:03 Yep, those are all Mario sports series.
06:04 Horse racing.
06:06 Took you long enough.
06:07 During the announcement, they made sure to go,
06:09 "And when we say soccer,
06:10 we're talking the full-on 11 versus 11 rules."
06:14 And when we say soccer,
06:15 we're talking the full-on 11 versus 11 rules.
06:19 What do you think I was expecting?
06:21 These are the full-fledged sports, they say.
06:23 They not only have single-player tournaments for each one,
06:25 but local and online multiplayer modes as well.
06:28 It's launching in spring of 2017, and that's it.
06:32 This is one of those announcements that you initially say,
06:34 "It's a Mario sports game, yay!"
06:37 But then you start looking at what the footage
06:38 they showed you is actually showing you.
06:41 Nothing.
06:42 These characters have never looked more lifeless
06:44 and out of place.
06:45 It's like you're watching actual soccer
06:47 with the players in mascot costumes.
06:49 Tennis and golf look like they were ripped straight
06:51 from Mario Tennis Open and Mario Golf World Tour
06:53 on the 3DS, which, hey, maybe that meant those sports
06:55 would be pretty in-depth
06:56 since they were full-fledged games before,
06:58 but I don't know, man.
07:00 Then there's horse racing.
07:01 You're damn right there is.
07:03 But this was pretty much all they said
07:04 about Mario sports superstars.
07:06 A collection of five sports with Mario characters.
07:09 Sure, the concept had potential.
07:10 It sounded like a pretty sweet deal.
07:12 But then consider how Mario sports mix
07:14 sounded like a great deal
07:15 and turned out to be lacking a lot of depth
07:17 and coupled that with how bland superstars looked
07:19 and it was fair to be a bit worried on this one.
07:22 Seeing five in one on a product means you're getting
07:24 something where none of the five as well thought out.
07:26 But this one is different.
07:27 This one has Bowser Jr. and I like Bowser Jr.
07:30 An Amiibo card line is launching alongside this game.
07:32 Wow, if they're willing to go all in on merchandise
07:35 for this, it must be good.
07:36 I mean, I love Tide.
07:37 It launches March 24th, 2017,
07:40 only a few weeks after the Nintendo Switch
07:42 and the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild release.
07:44 So, you know everybody was in the mood by then.
07:47 Even though I had my doubts,
07:48 releasing after a new era of Nintendo emerged,
07:51 focusing on big bombastic games full of quality and heart,
07:54 launching alongside a trading card line.
07:56 And the fact that multiple developers were working
07:59 on this one game ensures me that this is going to be it.
08:02 The ultimate Mario sports game.
08:04 Holy (beep)
08:05 This game is horrible.
08:06 Really three or four a loop there, I bet.