At this point, Mario should be 250 pounds of pure muscle. Considering the absurd amount of sports that he participates in, he should just kind of be... jacked at this point. So should the rest of the cast, too.
While there have been plenty of sport-centric Mario spin-offs in the past, there are still many that could be made, along with some sports that should really be stayed away from. Let's get into five of each.
10 SHOULD: More Dancing
The fact that we got Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix and then... nothing? Absurd. Mario and Luigi should both be dancing a lot more often. Look at those hips. They're doing us a disservice by not dancing. Whether we would get this duo dancing in another DDR title, or something entirely different, really does not matter in the slightest. What matters is that we get the chance to be dancers in the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi's hidden hobby really needs to reappear sooner rather than later.
9 SHOULDN'T: Wrestling
Nintendo actually got a pitch for a wrestling Mario game once upon a time. There's a reason that we don't have a Mario wrestling game to this day.
Seeing Mario and co. wrestling would really just feel off. It doesn't fit in with the world. The most violent that this group really gets is when they're setting Goombas ablaze with fire that they shoot out of their hands, and when they play soccer. They take that very seriously.
Seeing the Mushroom Kingdom residents beat each other up just wouldn't be something that fans would want to see. Most fans, that is. This is a game that we really do not need anytime soon.
8 SHOULD: Cycling
Hmm... cycling might actually be a fun time. Cycling was one of the highlights of Wii Sports Resort, so getting to go on biking adventures through familiar Mushroom Kingdom landscapes with your favorite characters could be pretty interesting. While there are plenty of game modes that could be included in this game, the main issue would be coming up with some sort of control scheme that is fun and non-repetitive, which isn't as easy since we're no longer in the days of the Wii. However, this is something that Nintendo is usually excellent with, so we shouldn't have to worry.
7 SHOULDN'T: E-Sports
This would obviously never happen... but it would be funny. Imagine that the Mushroom Kingdom's Overwatch League is in full swing. League of Legends Worlds is right around the corner, and you've got to take the victory home as Birdo for some reason.
Once again, this would never happen, but it would be pretty funny. The "e-sports" that the gang would play would likely be some sort of minigame collection that would probably be pretty fun, honestly. Alas, we can only dream of something as absurd as this.
6 SHOULD: Fencing
Fencing is something that the Mario cast has already dabbled in, as it is one of the summer games in the somehow still ongoing Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games series. That was always a fun game mode, so it could probably translate pretty well to a full game. They could even take the concept of fencing and enhance it into some sort of sword fighting game. This is yet another game mode that Wii Sports Resort did very well, so there's already tons of inspiration that a game in this vein could take inspiration from.
5 SHOULDN'T: Archery
Archery is an interesting one. While the actual mechanics of performing archery in the Mushroom Kingdom could be fun, it seems like a hard one to build an entire game out of. This is one sport that would fit pretty well into some sort of multipack of sports, but as a standalone game? Probably not. There's not many ways that you can modify archery enough to make a $60 package full of game modes. Maybe we set this one in Hyrule and make it a spin-off Zelda title? Wait...
4 SHOULD: Track And Field
Some sort of track and field Mario sports package could turn out very well. By not necessarily focusing on one specific sport, and instead looking at track and field as a whole, the developers are allowed a little room to breathe, with quite a few different options for playable sports for fans to get into.
The one problem that a track and field game might have is stepping on the toes of Mario & Sonic a bit too much. There's plenty of games in that series that could overlap, so when picking sports for the track and field title, the developers would have to be selective, and make sure that they choose games that are unique and haven't been done before.
3 SHOULDN'T: Curling
So... does anyone... like... know what curling is? Or what occurs in a... match of curling? A game of curling? An activity of curling? Well, there shouldn't be a Mario curling game either way. This is another activity that has been touched on by the Mario & Sonic series, and that is absolutely fine. Just leave it there, don't bring it anywhere else. We're perfectly okay with that finite amount of curling.
2 SHOULD: More Mixes
Nintendo has dabbled a bit with the idea of packaging a few sports together into one title, and this is a great idea. It allows for a wide array of sports that might not be able to carry an entire game on their own to be spotlighted. Mario Sports Superstars for the 3DS added horse riding to the lineup, which is absolutely genius. As an entire game, horse riding might not be great, but as one part of a greater package? Perfect. More of this, please.
1 SHOULDN'T: Frisbee
As with many other sports on this list, we can't make an entire game out of frisbee, it just doesn't work. That wonderful little dog in Wii Sports Resort was great, so maybe just remake that, but with Mario and the dog from Odyssey?
Even then, it still isn't enough to justify a whole game. Frisbee could be fun, but maybe in some sort of sports mix as we mentioned above?