Mario Soccer Offered for Debate

Fresh sports outing on the cards?

Posted by Staff
Mario Soccer Offered for Debate
Nintendo and the franchise that would forever lactate golden money-flavoured spume into a big Mario-shaped bucket. Or at least this is how the latest Mario-centric release schedule of Nintendo could be interpreted at times.

And with this in mind, rumour surfacing of late talking of Mario Football - a soccer outing for the Italian plumber and his ever-expanding set of cronies - carries more weight than perhaps it otherwise would.

Remember that as well as traditional Mario games, we’ve had Mario Party, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis; Mario Baseball and more are on the way. Given that Nintendo doesn’t really have a killer soccer game on its roster, again, this rumour makes more sense.

Unfortunately, the rumour mill didn’t deem it appropriate to outline exactly on which console Mario Football will appear, though GameCube and Nintendo DS versions seem most likely. Nintendo declined to comment on the issue, so it’ll be a waiting game on the run up to E3 and of course, as soon as there’s confirmation either way, we’ll let you know.

And of course, let us know what you think of this in our wonderful forums!
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Comments

Joji 24 Feb 2005 15:12
1/10
I'm tired of Mario this and Mario that all the time. I do however know that Nintendo has neglected football since the footy game that more or less launched with the SNES. If they decided to do such a football game I'd welcome it as an weird alternative to FIFA and Pro Evo.

Would be nice to have another Nintendo footy game to play on a Nintendo console again.



Jayenkai 24 Feb 2005 15:28
2/10
<Newbie Style>
Hey, if they got Sega to do their football, especially for the Cube, they could have that Sonic Team (from 2K3, I think!) playing against the new Mario Team!!!..
</Newbie Style>
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kid_77 24 Feb 2005 15:31
3/10
A game where character had unqiue abilities would be cool:

Luigi/Mario - good at jumping
DK/Bowser - powerfull shot
Pincess Mushroom/Yoshi - quick & nimble

etc.

It'd have parallels with Fever Pitch Soccer (Head-On Soccer in the SPOnG Db, which I've updated ;)) on the MD, which I loved at the time.

Joji 24 Feb 2005 15:46
4/10
My guess is that Nintendo are also gonna try to capitalise on the fact that the World Cup is on next year. And you know how crazy the japanese go for football. Add together and you have a lot of potential sales. Think they should hold it off for a Revolution title though since that's out next year too. It would be nice to have something like a next gen Super Soccer at launch. Even a DS version is welcome.

I see no reason why a Sonic team couldn't be created to appear as a secret team in the game. Especially with the likes of Namco and Capcom working together this kind of twosome development seem to be happening a lot these days. It's in Sega's court really but i'm sure having Mario and Sonic clash in one game is the kind of thing we wanna see and play.
Funky 24 Feb 2005 15:46
5/10
Nintendo exec 1: "Quick guys our console has only 1 decent non-Mario game coming out this year what do we do?"

Nintendo exec 2: "We'll do what we always do! We'll put Mario into a different genre of game and the lemmings will buy it because it has Mario in it!"

Nintendo exec 1: "Aah great idea exec2-san! How about if we paint the DS a different colour and only release it in Japan too?"

Nintendo exec 2: "Now you are talking exec1-san!"
ohms 24 Feb 2005 16:11
6/10
Well, I actually thought Mario Golf + Tennis on the N64 were 2 of the best games on that platform. Don't think much of the GC versions, but I'd much prefer a Mario Footie to the Baseball one that's on the cards.

How about a Mario Olympics game ?
...or even better, Nintendo vs SEGA, with lot's of classic characters to choose from, to use in a variety of games or sports (maybe).


ElFreakoKid 24 Feb 2005 17:50
7/10
How about... a Mario game? Where he shoots fireballs, eats mushrooms and saves the princess? I haven't seen one of those in a long, long time.
Joji 24 Feb 2005 18:30
8/10
Like the idea of Mario Olympics a lot Ohms.

To the other chap, I feel I know what you are getting at. Back in the day SMB didnt need much of a storyline and that was sweet for back then. As tech has moved on so has time, space etc. I think Mario Sunshine struggled in the story department but the SMB games were never about deep storytelling. That's Zelda's job.

I hope Nintendo do this footy game but along with it I'd like to see some raiding of their back catalogue too. A Super Punchout revamp is long over due (Super Punchout comes as an extra with EA's Fight Night 2, as well as starring the main character). Nintendo are more than Mario and Zelda and they have to show it.
Pandaman 24 Feb 2005 22:06
9/10
Nintendo owns the most popular video game character of all time. It would be foolish not to give Cube owners, ones not to buy much sports titles, an alternative line of sports games to play. Especially since Mario Golf and Tennis are so amazingly good.

However, Nintendo sure as hell better not be using "Mario Soccer" as some sort of AAA surprise title at E3.
Jayenkai 24 Feb 2005 23:37
10/10
FFS, Two people wrote it, and neither one wrote it as "Mariolympics"! What's wrong with you people ;)


Other possible Mario games.
Mario Crown Green Bowling
Mario Swimming (A Super Bongo Possibility!)
Mario Hopscotch
Mario Kiss Chase (or "Kiss Chase with Mario", just for a change..)
Mario Kerby ;)

And, heck, why not..
Mario's Pizza Parlour (he's italian, don't'ya know!)
Mario Bros : Plumbing Frenzy (an actual Plumbing game!)
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