Sports in Video games can vary from soccer, football, tennis, basketball, and more. There are even games with motion sensors to simulate real movements used in sports for example in Wii Sports and Nintendo Switch Sports. The controller uses motion sensors to help the players feel like they are connected with the game. We can thank the first sports simulation game made back in 1958 for influencing others to make more. Tennis for Two in 1958 was invented by William Higinbotham. (Nachman, Business Insider) This was playable on an oscilloscope and it was made to keep William’s visitors occupied while visiting the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Big video game companies such as Nintendo have been notorious for making Mario sports video games and motion-censored sports games.
- Golf Video Games
In 1984 the Nintendo Entertainment System released a video game called Golf. This video game came with an instruction booklet. “Nintendo Golf lets you choose your clubs, change your stance, control your swings”
In 1991 NES Open Tournament Golf was released with Super Mario Characters. This game was also available later on Wii and for the Nintendo 3DS. The only two playable Mario Characters were Mario and Luigi. Princess Peach, Daisy, and Toad were featured in this game but players could not play as them. Princess Peach and Daisy acted as Mario and Luigi’s caddies, while Toad appeared when a player went out of bounds. (Mario wiki)
Mario Golf was released in 1999 on the Nintendo 64 and was the first Mario golf series. It was also released on Game Boy Color. Its world is within the Mario Universe and ends up releasing several different titles such as Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Mario Golf: Advance Tour, Mario Golf: World Tour, and Mario Golf: Super Rush. (Mario wiki)
- Basketball Video Games
NBA Jam was released in 1994 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was a basketball-themed game that became popular it launched its series on later consoles such as the Nintendo 64 with NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC. This game offered special moves such as fire dunks where the basketball will be “on fire” while a player performs a dunk. (Nintendo.fandom)
Mario Hoops 3-on-3 was the first Mario basketball game released in 2006 on the Nintendo DS. In Europe, this game was titled Mario Slam Basketball. Mario Hoops 3-on-3 had the Mario characters collaborate with final fantasy characters such as Ninja, White Mage, Cactuar, Moogle, and Black mage. This game featured special commands where a player had to follow a shape with the DS stylus pen to unlock a special move to perform special basketball moves. (Mario wiki)
- Soccer Video Games
Soccer NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) was released in 1985 and was the first soccer game that Nintendo made. This game offered seven different teams based on Brazil, Spain, France, Germany, the U.S.A, Japan, and England. (IGN)
Super Mario Strikers was released in 2005 on the GameCube and eventually became its series. In 2007 Mario Strikers Charged was released and in 2022 Mario Strikers Battle League was released. Mario Strikers is a soccer game with Mario playable characters it featured basic rules of soccer and offered a special move when performing a goal that was often worth more than one point. The field locations are relevant to the Mario universe.
- Tennis Video Games
The first tennis game on the Nintendo game system was NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) Tennis which was released in 1984. This game offered multiplayer and five difficult levels.
Mario Tennis was released in 2000 on the Nintendo 64 and has been a series. The Mario Tennis series has 6 different tennis games. Mario Tennis on Nintendo 64, Mario Power Tennis (2004) on Nintendo Gamecube, Mario Tennis: Power Tour (2005) on Nintendo Gameboy Advance, Mario Tennis Open (2012) on Nintendo 3DS, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash (2015) on Nintendo WiiU, and Mario Tennis Acres (2018) on Nintendo Switch. The Mario Tennis game series offered different themes tennis courts, special power moves, special challenges, and tournaments. Mario Tennis Acres also offered online play to be able to play with online players. All courts were based on the Mario Universe and offered a variety of Mario playable characters. (Mario Wiki)
Nintendo’s history of sports video games offered many different sports. Including tennis, soccer, basketball, golf and more. Mario acts as the Nintendo mascot and offers fun gameplay for sports. The last Mario sports series was made in 2022 which was the launch of Mario Strikers Battle League. Considering how popular these games are, more sports-related Mario games might continue on the series.
Journalism 2.0 