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Mario Sports Mix is not the game I expected. For one thing, despite the standard assortment of pick-up-and-play games, the game's tournament mode ties together in a simple but incredibly bizarre tale. Also, despite the fact that they're not to be found anywhere on the box or in the game's opening cinematic, you can play as characters from Square Enix's Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest universes. That second point shouldn't come as a huge surprise; Nintendo has released screens that show the playable Slime character, and you can recruit a Moogle by completing the basic Mushroom Cup in any tournament. But things go a bit deeper, and weirder, than that. The trophies you earn for each event are more than just trophies -- they're made of crystals that apparently fell to Mario's planet from some meteor. If you've never played a Final Fantasy game, the entire set up utterly nonsensical (or at least as nonsensical as anything can be in a world where an Italian plumber, anthropomorphic mushrooms, and giant turtles all play basketball together). And if you are familiar with Final Fantasy, you get to wonder at how they wedged a story about gathering the four Crystals of Light into a Mario sports-themed game. 
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