Mario Sports Mix straddles a sometimes uneasy path of being both a party title and a sports title in its own right. A sports title aimed at children admittedly, but still one that offers some attraction. It might be no Mario Power Tennis, but it’s also no Mario Party 8. Instead it makes a fine title to dig out when you’ve got friends over, especially if those friends have children, but perhaps not one to play regularly.

Nintendo titles always manage to have nothing less than stellar presentation and even here, with a title developed by Square Enix rather than in house, there’s still that Nintendo touch of class about Mario Sports Mix. Immediately simple to get into, even novices hardly have to pay attention to the tutorials for long. The controls are roughly the same in each sport – the A button passes when in possession and tackles when not, while a flick of the remote shoots, dunks and throws depending on the sport. More complicated moves do exist but they’re not essential to your success. This is because all the sports are ridiculously easy to win at, even on the hardest difficulty level which really isn’t very hard at all. Stick it down to easy and even if you fall asleep for half the match, you’ll still win by an absolutely huge margin.

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