Game: Mario Sports Mix

Platform: Wii

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Square Enix

ESRB: E

Genre: Arcade Sports

Players: 1-4

What's Hot: Hockey and Basketball are fun, frenzied experiences; plenty of creative arenas to play in; great overall multiplayer action

What's Not: Volleyball and dodgeball aren’t quite up to snuff; lacks the polish and focus of older, single-sport Mario sports games

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Review by: Danielle Riendeau

Mario Sports Mix isn’t the deepest game around, nor does it have anything on the plumber’s more beloved athletic exploits, like Mario Golf, Super Mario Strikers, or the excellent, Wii-ported Mario Tennis, but it certainly has its charms. The title combines wacky mushroom kingdom versions of basketball, volleyball, dodgeball and hockey, with a few mini-games thrown in for good measure.

Hockey is the pick of the litter. A kinetic, frenzied, often hilariously high-scoring affair, it blows the “ball” sports out of the water. You’ll start out in relatively simple rinks, playing a glorified version of NES classic Ice Hockey, but the arenas quickly become chaotic playgrounds. Score multipliers flash in and out, making obscene counts possible with a single goal. Giant balls crash around on the ice, stunning anyone unlucky enough to be in their path. On one wacky western-themed level, a train actually runs lengthwise down the rink. The physics are as hyped up as everything else, making for a fun, fast, completely over the top experience.

Basketball comes in at a close second, with equally nutty arenas and pared down b-ball mechanics. Like NBA Jam, passing is pretty much an afterthought in this game of frantic stealing and dunking, though a nice “ally-oop” combo exists to make you remember you have a teammate or two on the court beside you. Later stages up the ante with more aggressive AI and wackier court designs (like a ghost-ridden Luigi’s Mansion and more than one “creative” take on the baskets themselves), adding a little much-needed variety to the simple gameplay.

Volleyball and Dodgeball are fun diversions, but both are far too simple to really carry interest beyond a round or two. It’s a shame, because the creative stage designs (which show up in modified forms for each of the main sports) are so much fun in the better-conceived games, but there’s just not enough going on here – even crashing waves and scores of coins can’t fix that.

In each of the sports, you can play an exhibition match or go right ahead into the tournament mode, with the old Mario standby cups – Mushroom, Flower and Star to tackle. Once you’ve made the rounds (there are three matches in each cup), hard mode is unlocked, with a second set of Mushroom, Flower and Star trophies to collect. Rinse and repeat the process again for “Expert” mode, and the difficulty spikes a little too drastically for the gimmicky gameplay – it simply feels cheap when an opponent scoring a single basket gets 20 points, for example. Nonetheless, it’s worth playing through for all of the unlockable arenas and characters, at least until the AI gets frustrating.

There are also four mini-games; each designed around one of the core mechanics of the “real” games. These are fun, but utterly forgettable if you aren’t playing with others (in fact, they’re collectively referred to as “party mode”). If you’re “Feeding Petey” (throwing basketball style fruits into the gaping maw of a giant piranha plant) by yourself, you’re doing it wrong.

Sports Mix is tailor-made for parties and other casual multiplayer experiences. The controls are easy to learn, the mechanics of each game are immediately familiar to anyone who’s ever heard of the four sports on offer, and the interface is friendly as can be. It’s not revolutionary, and the shallowness of two of the sports does keep it from being a resounding success, but you can do far worse than have this disc around at the next family gathering. After all, who doesn’t want to see Bowser body check Toad into the boards?

Danielle Riendeau is a regular contributor to GameShark and is the cohost of Jumping the Shark , GameShark.com's official podcast and is co-founder of the gaming blog No High Scores. She's also a serious workout warrior.

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