Nintendo announced today that Mario Sports Mix will be released on the Wii in North America on February 7th, 2011, shortly after the European release date of January 28. In the past, Mario has been a golfer, tennis player, baseball player, and go-kart driver, but now he’s tackling four different sports at the same time in Mario Sports Mix, namely hockey, basketball, volleyball and dodgeball.
As you might expect, these everyday sports have been given a Mario makeover in the game, with players getting the chance to choose from a variety of playable Mushroom Kingdom characters, as well as challenging Mario and friends directly by playing as their own Mii characters. In typically OTT Mario sports fashion, each character can unleash his or her unique special move that range from Mario’s fire dunk in basketball to Yoshi’s rainbow attack in dodgeball.
Players can also choose to hold their matches in a number of intriguing venues, such as the Wario Factory, which has conveyor belts that affect how the players move on the court, or Peach’s Castle, where fountains go up and down to block certain areas of the net when playing volleyball.
Up to four players in the same room can play the game, and up to four players over a broadband Internet connection via Nintendo Wi-Fi. Players can play online against friends with who they have traded friend codes, or anonymously against other opponents.
February 7 – put it in your diary, US Mario fans!
