Nintendo has unleashed a new trailer for Mario Sports Superstars, which will be the first 3DS game to be released following the launch of the Switch earlier this month. The game bucks the trend of the plumber’s previous athletic escapades by bundling several different sports on one cartridge.
The trailer opens with Mario playing soccer, scoring a goal from long range, and prompting an appropriately exuberant response from the commentator. We then see Peach outwit Wario with a well-placed pitch out on the baseball diamond, taunting him with a well-timed hair flip after the fact.
From there, the action switches to a racecourse, where Luigi is seconds away from a hard-fought victory over his brother — only to have Mario and his horse edge into the lead inches ahead of the finish line. Following that, we see highlights from a tennis match where Rosalina completely outclasses Bowser, running him ragged across the court.
Finally, a scene of quiet concentration on the golf course is ruined when the commentator fails to subdue an unexpected sneeze. Yoshi’s drive is an abject failure, ending up among the branches of a tree and causing the dinosaur to throw a tantrum and turn into an egg in protest.
The golf footage will look very familiar to anyone who has played 2013’s Mario Golf: World Tour, which was also released for the 3DS. Similarly, the tennis gameplay bears a strong resemblance to 2012’s Mario Tennis Open.
However, Mario has never played soccer or baseball on the 3DS, and the horse racing mode is entirely new. This could be the definitive Mario sports package — but it remains to be seen whether each sport has as much depth as their prior stand-alone releases.
Mario Sports Superstars is scheduled to be released for the Nintendo 3DS on March 24.
