Don’t forget about Mario Sports Superstars! It’s coming March 24 with amiibo cards

Don’t let me be the only one who cares

Sports are cool. Mario is cool. Mario sports games are cool too. The latest entry of the Mario Sports series, Mario Sports Superstars will be releasing on March 24, 2017 in America. It’ll release in Europe…eventually in the spring.

For a limited time, you can get a free amiibo card with the game, which when scanned allow you to get “a variety of fun bonuses.” Fun, but not so detailed quite yet apparently. To get more you’ll have to cough up $4.99 for a pack of five cards. Like Pokémon cards (which is still a thing), you won’t know what cards are inside.

If you haven’t played any of the Mario sports titles you might be surprised by their quality. Mario Golf and Mario Tennis especially are great adaptations of those sports if you turn off power-ups and can deal with Mario and Luigi in place of real athletes. Even if not as high-quality, I personally enjoyed the Mario & Sonic Olympic games, Mario Strikers, Super Mario Sluggers, and Mario Sports Mix. 

Superstars will feature soccer, baseball, tennis, golf, and horse racing. In past titles the teams were often smaller than those fielded in real life, such as three-on-three basketball or five-on-five soccer. This time around all sports will use full teams, including soccer with 11 players per side.

I’m ecstatic to see baseball return, but would have preferred basketball to get in over horse racing, golf, or tennis, especially since the latter two have had semi-recent titles on their own. Also, perhaps it’s fantasy but here’s hoping they put in American football one day.