Dorayaki
King Bowser
In earlier time, story mode seemed to be handheld's feature due to its raising system. But now since Switch era we've seen a couple of games that dedicates to story mode for both tutorials and unlockables. But I wonder, do fans find Mario sport stories enjoyable?
I think Mario sport stories' biggest problem is, they don't have own identity in order to stand out just like mainline or RPGs. Mario RPGs have richest story, while Mario platformer set the foundation of the franchise, which leave Mario sport stories to be the weakest link of all. Mario sport games just don't tend to have ambitious story subthemes like "Mario Golf : The Millennium Window". Tennis Aces seemed to have the ambition to write an epic story, but it didn't succeed simply due to the obviously low investment.
It's understandable that Mario sport games want to focus on the main gameplay and story is mere extra, but it could be more interesting if sport stories also get more development in order to be more unique and memorable so fans would not try to skip them.
I know the professional athletes and sport schools from earlier games are not general fans' cup of tea as they don't seem as interesting as the fantasy world characters, but their biggest merit is how they bring original contents to expand the games and give them some memorable features. Meanwhile recent Mario sport stories don't have the same investment to introduce new original contents in the same way Mario RPGs tend to do.
In fact, we've got a couple of original boss OCs like Snow King and Scuttlebug King, and it could had been better if the whole stories and themes totally dedicate to the OCs, and actually make OCs unlockable players as our prize for completing story mode. Or, it doesn't have to be an OC from this game, could work the same if it's a new playable character that just debuted in other earlier games (e.g. King KRool), and develop a story about this new entry.