Mario And Friends Are Pitching For A Series Of Homeruns This Season

26 September 2005 - You can homerun like Babe Ruth or strike it like Joe DiMaggio, but whatever your skills are, be sure to challenge Mario and friends in Nintendo's first baseball game - Mario Baseball - which is hitting the Nintendo GameCube on 11th November 2005 across Europe.

Following in the footsteps of Mario Golf, Mario Power Tennis and Mario Smash Football, Nintendo once again brings sport to life in the latest of the Mario themed sport games series. Be prepared, this isn't your average baseball game - it's an arcade style outing featuring over 30 of your favourite characters and icons from Nintendo's Mario franchise including Wario Ware, Donkey Konga and Bowser Jr.

The game is packed full of fun features and surprises. There are more than 5 different themed stadiums to play in, each with their own unique characteristics inspired from previous Nintendo games like Peach Garden, Yoshi's Park and Wario Palace.

There are several game types in Mario Baseball including Exhibition mode, which features standard matches for up to two players and Challenge mode, where players wander through a world of wild trials, playing mini-games to earn coins and power ups, unlocking characters and clearing baseball-related challenges on their way to a showdown with Bowser. Toy Field Mode can be played with up to four players and the objective is to collect points through hits and coins in a selection of mini-games. Finally Mini-Game Mode involves a series of five mini-games, all of which can be played with up to four players.

Mario Baseball will score a homerun with both Nintendo and Baseball fans giving them a chance to play against their friends to decide who is the king of swing! This big hitting game certainly does not disappoint and provides addictive playing modes and fun all round entertainment.

Mario Baseball will strike on the Nintendo GameCube when it launches on November 11th 2005 at the estimated retail price of around £40.

Click onto www.nintendo-europe-media.com for all of the most up to date official information on Nintendo.

-ENDS-

For more information please contact Simon Watts or Stephanie Moses at the Nintendo Press Office on 020 7307 3103 or log onto the Nintendo Extranet at www.nintendo-europe-media.com.

About Nintendo

Nintendo Co., Ltd of Kyoto, Japan, is the acknowledged worldwide leader in the creation of interactive entertainment. To date, Nintendo has sold more than 2 billion video games worldwide and more than 350 million hardware units globally, creating such industry icons as Mario^® and Donkey Kong and launched franchises like The Legend of Zelda^® and Pokémon. Nintendo manufactures and markets hardware and software for its popular home video game systems, including the Nintendo 64, NINTENDO GAMECUBE, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy - the world's best-selling video game system which has sold over 180 million units. As a wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of Europe, based in Grossostheim, Germany, was established in 1990 and serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in Europe.