Mariohas been the star of sports video games for decades now, with Nintendo regularly releasing sports-based titles starring theSuper Mariocast of characters. To no one’s surprise, it seems that Nintendo may very well have another Mario sports game in active development for the Nintendo Switch, though rumors indicate that a different company is actually handling the development of the new title.
This is according to Nintendo leaker Zippo, who believes that Bandai Namco is making a new Mario Sports game. Zippo pointed out that Bandai Namco previously worked onMario Sports Superstarsfor the Nintendo 3DS, which released in 2017. Zippo is unsure which sport the new Mario sports game will feature, but they have a guess.
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Zippo predicts that the Mario sports game supposedly in development at Bandai Namco is baseball-themed. This is easy to believe as the Nintendo Switch has already seen the release of exclusive Mario sports games based on tennis and golf in the form ofMario Tennis AcesandMario Golf: Super Rush, respectively. Baseball, meanwhile, hasn’t been nearly as well-represented when it comes to Mario sports titles, with the last release beingMario Super Sluggerson the Nintendo Wii.
With it having been so long since a proper Mario baseball game released, it would stand to reason that if Nintendo were making a new Mario sports game that a baseball-themed one would make a lot of sense. It’s also been quite some time since Nintendo released a Mario soccer game either, though, withMario Strikers Chargedreleasing on the Wii all the way back in 2007. Though if a newMario Strikersgame was going to be made, one would think that it would be handled by Next Level Games instead of Bandai Namco. After all, the studio developed the first twoMario Strikersgames andNintendo acquired Next Level Games last year.
If the rumored new Mario sports game exists (fans should always remember to take “leaks” like this with a grain of salt), another possibility is that it could be a compilation game. Nintendo has released a couple ofMario sports compilation gamesin the past, including the aforementionedMario Sports Superstars, which Bandai Namco helped develop. Since Bandai Namco already has experience working on a Mario sports compilation game, it wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility that would be the kind of Mario sports game it would work on for the Nintendo Switch.
If a new Mario sports game is truly in the works at Bandai Namco, fans should wait for an official announcement before getting too excited. There are also rumors that anewMario Kartgameis in development, but nothing substantial has come out of these rumors so far, so it’s best fans keep their expectations in check.
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