With Super Mario Strikers arriving on Nintendo Switch Online’s GameCube service for Switch 2 tomorrow (3rd July), we thought now was a good time to re-share this list. Better than kicking a ball about, eh?
Nintendo’s mascot has never been shy of a spin-off, and while his karting exploits — not to mention his world-renowned penchant for a party — tend to grab all the attention and the biggest sales, Mario and co. have a long, rich history of starring in Nintendo sports games, too.
But what’s the best Mario sports game? We’ve compiled this ranked list of every Mario sports game covering everything from the premier league to the lowly feeder divisions, from the courtside seats to the nosebleeds!
Below you’ll find every Mario sport game, ranked from worst to best, featuring the Mushroom Kingdom crew, including his trips to the Olympic Games when he teams up with Sonic and his Sega posse. If it’s a sports game and it’s got Mario in the title, you’ll find it here.
It’s time for the first shot/throw/kick/serve, then – let’s see who takes home a medal and who’s up for relegation. We begin at the bottom of the table…
There are positives with Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, like the strong basic gameplay and neat visuals, but we cannot emphasise enough how phoned-in and thin the content offering was, nor how throwaway Mega Battle was as a tentpole feature.
Given the severe lack of content at release, it’s a difficult game to recommend to even the most passionate Mario Tennis fans. Still, if you’re after local multiplayer fun in which you simply mess around with the various court types, you can’t really go wrong. It’s just a shame the rest of it felt like a rush job.
The small character roster makes the tournaments laughably short but this is a solid, if simple, tennis game. Good music and graphics combined with the excellent 3D effect of the court ensure that Mario’s Tennis is an excellent introduction to the Virtual Boy, plus it’s cheap and easy to find these days. If only Nintendo had released that link cable, though…
Mario Sports Superstars straddles an unfortunate line of mediocrity. Combining five sports in one convenient package, it’s certainly not a bad game, as it has plenty of variety and content to offer with a robust multiplayer mode, but we’d struggle to call it a good game either. It merely exists; sitting uncomfortably in a space that the Mario & Sonic series ruled for years.
It fails to offer a definitive version of anything, and even a pretty decent take on horse racing isn’t worth the price of admission alone. As a multiplayer title, it has its moments, but it’s a painfully lifeless single-player experience that needed to take a few more risks.
As with nearly all of the games in the NES library, the formative systems and mechanics put down in games of the ’80s have advanced a lot in the interim.
However, while NES Open Tournament Golf (known as Mario Open Golf in Japan, so technically the first entry in the Mario Golf series) might lack the bells, whistles and frills we’ve come to expect from our golf games these days, the core gameplay here is as solid as ever. 18 holes might be pushing it, but a swift walk around the back nine will do nicely.
Mario and Sonic 2014 felt like a minor progression in the series — certainly not a huge leap. Taking a lot of its cues from 2010 edition, and ignoring the rapid-fire party experience of 2012, it hit some of the right buttons, but they’re the same unremarkable buttons that were hit four years earlier on Wii.
The inclusion of online was certainly welcome, but too limited, while the inventive TV idea used on the GamePad was never taken far enough. With a group of friends, there’s still fun to be had; it’s just hard to shake that feeling that you’ve done it all before.
The Mario & Sonic games were once a shining example of how minigame collections should be developed. However, while Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games was technically no worse than its forebears, its events were too up-and-down quality-wise.
It was by no means a train wreck, and a valiant first effort for the series in its jump to 3DS, but this all-star collab had too many wrinkles to be an easy recommendation.
For every step Mario & Sonic At The Rio 2016 Olympic Games takes forward, it seems to stumble several steps backwards in the attempt.
There are some solid minigames, but they came at the expense of more memorable Dream Events. Motion controls are a thing of the past, replaced with needlessly complicated button layouts. There’s no dedicated story mode, meaning that solo players must enjoy repeating Tournaments if they want a lengthy session.
Olympic veterans may have enjoyed the graphical upgrade this entry brought to the series, and it’s not a bad game; as ever, it’s just not a particularly good one.
Not a fan favourite, although we really connected with this one. Mario Strikers: Battle League is a masterclass in competitive game design. What it lacks in options is more than made up by just how much fun the game is, and it’s absolutely gorgeous to boot.
Post-launch updates brought along content which you could argue should have been there from the start, but the game it played from kick-off was a beautiful one. If arcade sport action isn’t your bag, it’ll likely do nothing to sway your opinion, but if you have even a passing interest in this kind of caper, Mario Strikers: Battle League is one of the best sports games on Switch.
Whilst M&S (not that one) made a successful hop, skip, and jump over to Nintendo’s autostereoscopic 3D handheld, it doesn’t quite reach the heights of its older, wiser Wii incarnation. Wii owners had no real reason to get this version of the game, but the two people who owned a DS and not a Wii in their household likely found something enjoyable in this portable version.
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games healthily extended the range of sports games for Wii with an impressive amount of events spanning a number of different sports. There was something for everyone, whatever your sporting or character preference.
With impressive controls and the novelty of seeing two gaming titans sharing the screen, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was a party hit which did just about enough to take the Gold in the Wii multiplayer discipline.
Mario Tennis Open was a strong and accessible entry in the beloved series, and a group of friends gathered around could lose themselves in it for a long time. Solo players could still have a good time perfecting their skills, and playing online was a nice way to keep things interesting, but the missing RPG mode left a pretty big hole that this 3DS entry struggled to fill.
Unless you’re part of a cabal of 3DS-owning pals, you’ll miss out on the real heart of the game: punching your wily opponent in the arm after a hard-fought match.
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020‘s 34 events provide welcome variety and there are far more hits than misses in its lineup, but once you’re finished with its four-hour Story mode it becomes notably less enticing for solo players.
With no real incentives or unlockables to aim for, this should be considered a strictly multiplayer affair — and a pretty good one, too. For fans jonesing for Olympics action back in 2020, this wasn’t a bad way to pass the time until the rescheduled real-life event finally took place in 2021.
Mario Golf: Super Rush is a game that in many respects hits its marks. Golf Adventure has plenty of charm and offers a fun way to learn various mechanics and unlock courses. Away from that solo endeavour there are decent options and customisation for multiplayer games, local or online, button controls or motion-based swinging.
It’s not a premium effort, however, with a nagging feeling of corners cut and, at times, an absence of creativity. However, many players should get a good amount of fun out of this one, both solo and with friends. This ain’t the Masters, but for Mario Golf fans it is a solid par.
We’re used to seeing Wii U games transfer to Switch, but for Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash to have moved across without a substantial makeover would have been disastrous. Mario Tennis Aces, wonderfully, is anything but that – it’s a superb arcade sports game that’s generous with its suite of player options and only occasionally guilty of being a little cheap in its Adventure Mode.
The presentation is spot on, and the core tennis action is absorbing whether you’re trading simple strokes or firing off special shots. Some animations and voiceovers are identical to Ultra Smash’s, but everything around them has been overhauled and rebuilt to reach quite splendid heights.
This is something of a Switch Port Plus, then – not quite a whole new experience, but so improved as to be near unrecognisable.
If you loved Wii Sports Tennis and couldn’t get enough of it, New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis was a great investment. There are a lot of modes to get through, the controls work fairly well, and it’s a bash with your mates around.
The only trouble is that it doesn’t feel like the mechanics have been properly refined; precision is somewhat lacking and we can’t help but wonder why Nintendo didn’t wait until the Motion Plus attachment was out. (The answer is likely so that anyone with a Wiimote — not just the upgraded version — could buy the game and get out on the court.)
Worthwhile for a fun whackaround, but not a top seed.
Plenty of people seemed to like this one, although our flame didn’t burn as brightly for this Olympic entry – maybe having the real-life games on our doorstep dampened our enthusiasm for Mario & Sonic’s take. What felt fresh and enjoyable four years prior didn’t cut the mustard in 2011, particularly when some elements were stripped out or reworked to poor effect.
London Party mode was a poor alternative to the dozens of superior Wii party games, and while its cast of gaming greats was enough to forgive some of its mistakes, the flagship home console version of Mario and Sonic’s 2012 tournament was pretty far off the mark by our reckoning.
Mario Hoops 3 on 3, known as Mario Slam Basketball in Europe, was a great handheld title in its day, especially when played with a friend. If you’re after a fun, colourful, and (at times) manic sporting experience with inventive controls and wonderful presentation, this is definitely worth a shot.
Our lovely video producer Felix is a particular fan of this underrated Mario gem — check him out waxing lyrical about Mario’s courtside skills alongside footage of the game.
While Mario Sports Mix may lack the depth of Mario’s flagship sporting lines, it’s a great example of a more casual Mario title that multiple players can enjoy.
Dodgeball, basketball, hockey, and volleyball are included in the mix here, so you’re not getting watered-down versions of Tennis and Golf. Not all the disciplines on offer will be to everyone’s taste, but there’s enough good stuff here to last you a fair while and the developer — the venerable Square Enix in this case! — gave it oodles of imagination.
Mario Golf: World Tour sees developer Camelot return to the fairway and turn in an impressively lengthy and involving round of golf. There’s depth not just in the level of content and diversity of options, but in the mechanics themselves; options for beginners and scratch players are impeccably implemented.
Attempts at zaniness with items feel rather superfluous, although some well-designed courses would have benefited from less conventional designs. Aside from that, this was a truly excellent addition to the 3DS library, working beautifully whether you want a 15-minute blast or a longer round.
If you’re after a fun and accessible single-player adventure on your DS, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games fits the bill. The sports can be hit and miss, but the Sonic Rush-like Supersonic Downhill and Fever Hockey are addictive events you’ll go back to time and time again.
It may not have the subtle controls of the Wii version, or the same amount of unlockable content, but it’s an enjoyable pick-up-and-play title that was well worth a look if you were looking to inject some of the Nintendo X Sega spirit into Vancouver 2010.
Sega truly listened to the feedback about the first game and slimmed down the waggle controls, beefed up the lastability with a ton of extra content, and managed to turn even Curling and Figure Skating into engaging and varied games.
With over 20 characters, 25 events and hundreds of unlockable items, this one had enough to last you until the next Olympics, and the added subtlety of the controls made playing it a far less tiring experience. It may have lacked the Motion Plus-aided control genius of Wii Sports Resort but it’s every bit as good in terms of content, presentation, and pure, distilled fun.
Veteran developer Camelot proved it still belonged on Centre Court with this one.
With a comprehensive story mode, tight and entertaining tennis gameplay mechanics and a surprising amount of depth, Mario Tennis: Power Tour (or Mario Power Tennis as it’s known in Europe) is a winning return for the plumber and his pals.
It’s pretty dialogue-heavy, but there’s a deep, rewarding experience to be found underneath all the waffle, with the story mode serving up a satisfying sense of progression from the very beginning to this Game-Set-Match.
Developed by Namco and tapping into the Japanese and US obsessions with whacking a little ball with a big stick (we prefer a big plank in this green and pleasant land), 2005’s Mario Superstar Baseball gave the titular sport the colourful Nintendo-character treatment.
Being the first game in the line, it lacked some of Camelot’s depth from the RPG-inspired Golf and Tennis lines. However, a neat Chemistry mechanic that affected your team’s performance and a hefty roster that included a cluster of Kongs gave Mario and co. a sporting chance off the bat – enough to garner a sequel on Wii, at least.
Much like Mario Tennis on GBC, Mario Golf is another game revolving entirely around human characters (Kid, Sherry, Joe, and Grace). In fact, there’s a total of eight playable humans and only three Mario characters.
This is a story-heavy adventure where you can freely move your character around an overworld and rounds of golf take the place of traditional RPG battles. You can level up your golfer to enhance their stats and even transfer them to the also-excellent N64 version using the Transfer Pak.
It may not mirror the scope or ambition of Dragon Quest or Pokémon, but this is a compelling little clubhouse treat which stands proud among the Mario Golf series.
Mario Golf: Advance Tour is a fantastic portable golf game and then some.
Camelot nailed the mixture of RPG and straight-up golf action in the Game Boy Color entry, and it works this time around, too — so well, in fact, that there’s not much need to rely on the stable of Mario characters to flesh out the experience, although we’re always happy to join the plumber on the fairway, or for the various minigame modes available.
Throw in multiplayer options and Advance Tour is still worth firing up when tee time comes around.
Mario Super Sluggers never saw the light of day in PAL regions – probably a wise decision based on the lacklustre performance of its predecessor on these shores, though curiously we’re still waiting for our region-appropriate ‘Mario Wicket Whackers’.
This Now Production and Namco Bandai-developed slugger was a sequel to Namco’s GameCube entry three years earlier and put the plumber and his pals on the ball field in a thoroughly serviceable take on the sport that let you indulge your proclivities for either waggle or Nunchuk input.
Mario Power Tennis was packed with cool courts, items, and effects that had forms or simpler equivalents on N64 but this entry nevertheless stepped it up a notch. It really was the core experience from the 64-bit entry once again, but powered up.
In addition to Mario Kart-esque items and quirky court types there were also plenty of modes, with various tournaments that were straight-up tennis or ‘gimmick’ focused. There were also eight minigames, some of which were fun diversions, but like with its home console predecessor, many fond memories revolve around local multiplayer.
Proving that there’s little that the portly plumber can’t turn his hand (or foot) to, Next Level Games’ Mario Smash Football (or Super Mario Strikers in the US) offered solid soccer action in a colourful package with Mushroom Kingdom residents brightening up the beautiful game and adding a little flair and excitement to proceedings – no nil-nil draws here!
The polar opposite of the simulation style that ‘proper’ football games were going for, this is a fast-paced five-a-side frenzy that did well enough to get a similarly satisfying sequel on Wii. And a fun fact: it started out life as a soccer-platformer hybrid in the prototype stage!
Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom pals put down their jumpers for goalposts and had another crack at the beautiful game in this follow-up to their first time on the pitch on GameCube in 2005.
Mario Strikers Charged delivers exactly the brand of arcade pyrotechnical take on football you’d expect, with Next Level Games once again on dev duties as the studio went up another rung on the ladder in Nintendo’s estimations on their way to such gems as Punch-Out!!, Luigi’s Mansion 2, and the sublime Luigi’s Mansion 3 – and ultimately being acquired and brought under Nintendo’s first-party umbrella in 2021.
What’s a Mario sports game without iconic characters such as *checks notes*… Alex, Kate, and Harry, eh?
Camelot’s handheld Mario sports entries were bizarre; not only is Mario absent from this game until you unlock him in the story mode… but there’s a story mode.
Mario Tennis may not have swords, magic, or random encounters, but each Tennis match is tied together in a charming overworld that feels like it’s ripped straight out of a traditional RPG. Just imagine rounds of Tennis replacing battles and it becomes much clearer why many consider these more than simple sports games – and some of the best games in Mario’s sporty lineup.
Camelot brought Mario and his golfing pals onto the 3D fairways in this excellent entry in his catalogue of sports games. This game also linked up with the superlative Mario Golf for Game Boy Color. They’re very different games, and the handheld version is probably even better thanks to its brilliant RPG elements, but together they make an unbeatable pair.
When we’re disappointed that later games like Mario Golf: Super Rush don’t match the quality of older entries, it’s Mario Golf that we’re remembering with a faraway wistful look in our eyes.
The first in the Mario Tennis series (second, if you count Mario’s Tennis for the Virtual Boy) was one half of a winning doubles team in the Mushroom Kingdom sports department from Camelot — the studio also released the brilliant Mario Golf for N64, as well as Game Boy Color versions of each game that linked up with their home console cousins via the Transfer Pak.
Mario’s played a lot of tennis over the years, but this remains one of his finest on-court displays.
We’re quite partial to the Nintendo 64 entry in the series, but as we’ve seen from the many excellent entries on this list, developer Camelot knows what it’s doing and didn’t do much wrong when it came to the excellent GameCube iteration.
Featuring 16 characters and courses containing Mushroom Kingdom staples such as warp pipes and Chain Chomps, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour takes things up a gear without reinventing the game, making every bunker and green look suitably lovely and introducing some fun extra modes.
Given the dev’s history and impressive catalogue of games involving Mario smacking balls of various sizes as hard as possible, MGTT is hardly revolutionary. But there’s only so much you can do with golf before it turns into something that isn’t really golf anymore. Ultimately, there aren’t many better ways to spoil a walk than this.
And there’s the whistle! Or the winning point! Or, erm, the final golfer has entered the clubhouse. It’s time for the medal ceremony, to shake hands with royals, pick up a shiny plate and all that game.
Before we walk around the pitch kissing a trophy and shaking it at the crowd for 45 minutes, let’s hit the pundit box to answer a few common questions.
Technically, the first Mario sports game was NES Open Golf Tournament — known as Mario Open Golf in Japan — which released for the Famicom on 20th September 1991, with the NES version following in North America soon after and Europe teeing up in June 1992.
A 1991 Nintendo Players Guide called Mario Mania flagged the player character of 1985’s Golf as everyone’s favourite plumber, although there’s no such mention in the game or its manual and in Japan this Mario-like character was known as Ossan (who turned up years later in Captain Rainbow).
However, the Western box art for the 1989/1990 Game Boy port of Golf clearly shows Mario hitting a ball onto the green, so the first sports game starring Mario is open to debate!
The first Mario sports game released internationally with ‘Mario’ in the title in every territory was Camelot’s Mario Golf for N64, which launched in Japan on 11th June 1999.
However, further complicating things, Mario cameoed in various Nintendo sports games since the early Famicom days. More on that after the break…
Over the years, Mario has popped up in various sports games – and he’s even playable in some of them.
Many early Nintendo games featured him in some capacity, as a referee for example (Tennis, Punch-Out!!).
A few console generations later, Mario Luigi, and Peach would pop up as playable characters in EA’s NBA Street V3 and SSX On Tour for GameCube. But these aren’t Mario Sports games just because there are Mario characters in them!
Mario Tennis Aces is the best Switch Mario sports game, according to the list above where it sits at #19 at the time of writing.
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 gets the silver medal in 21st place, with Mario Golf: Super Rush getting the bronze just one place behind that.
Those are the Switch-specific competitors. However, some of the other games are also available to play on Switch…
Here’s a list of all the Mario sports games currently playable on Switch with an NSO subscription.
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