Nintendo and Sports Video Games

Nintendo’s sports games have played a key role in the company’s success with games like Wii Sports selling over 80 million copies alone, and introducing audiences to motion controls. Sports video games have long been a part of Nintendo’s history with titles released as early as 1983. The NES saw the first ever Nintendo developed sports game simply titled, Baseball, led by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, who personally wanted a baseball game for it. As a popular sport in the U.S., and Japan, Nintendo saw it as an important inclusion to the NES launch line up in order to appeal to a wider audience. The game was a hit in both countries but it wasn’t until 1987 that we saw the first sports game with Mario. NES Open Tournament Golf, or Mario Open Golf as it’s known in Japan, featured Mario, Luigi and even Donkey Kong in their first official sport outing. While Baseball aimed to simulate the sport as best as the NES could, Mario Open Golf swung for a more casual approach with some familiar faces. Although it wasn’t a Mario sports game like we know today, it did prove to be successful for Nintendo to continue including Mario and friends in sporting events for over three decades.