Mario Sports Superstars Racing Onto 3DS in Japan on March 30

Mario Sports SuperstarsAmid all the hype about his upcoming Odyssey and the less than warm reception of his first mobile outing, Mario’s next sports outing has been somewhat overlooked as of late.

Titled Mario Sports Superstars, it is scheduled to be released on the 3DS in Japan on March 30. There is still no international release, though.

Developed by Bandai Namco, Nintendo and Nintendo subsidiary Camelot, Sports Superstars features Nintendo’s mascot and his usual assortment of friends, as they engage in football, baseball, tennis and golf, and, as a first for the Mario series, horse racing. After seeing how short Mario is compared to other humans in the Odyssey trailer, I at a loss to explain how he would even climb onto a horse.

Although the market for dedicated handheld systems is quickly drying up (explaining why Nintendo are lending their franchises to mobile publishers), it is still pretty much guaranteed that Sports Superstars will sell at least 500,000 copies worldwide, because the Mario brand is still a very hot commodity. And Mario games continue to perform strongly on handheld devices, with the 3DS version of Mario Maker already having sold 890,838 copies in Japan alone since its release last month.

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