Sorry Mario but your princess is on another court

Author's Rating:

Pros: it's a fun tennis game

Cons: Mario needs more adventure games and less party games.

The Bottom Line: 
I win I win I wiiinnnn.

Author's Review
I played Mario Tennis 64 when it came out for the N64 several years ago and I thought it was a great game, which I never did pick up. Well when I saw Mario Power Tennis I figured I wouldn’t let this one get by me so I bought it. Now one of the things people could argue, and probably be right one of the reasons why Nintendo biggest mascot isn’t has big has he used to be because he’s busy partying and playing sports rather then going on adventures. Luckily for him though is that these games that he’s in are great sports game that are fun to play otherwise Mario would have long been dead.

Story.
There is no story in Mario Tennis just Mario and his pals out to have a goofy time playing Tennis. There’s an opening clip involving Wario and Waluigi teaming up with Bowser to cause chaos on the Tennis court but other then that there is no real story. But that’s ok it doesn’t need a story each characters trophy win has well has mannerism gives this game a lot of character.

Graphics.
It’s amazing how well the graphics have gone since Mario Tennis for the N64, that said though a lot of the character designs have been cut and pasted from Mario Golf Toadstool Tour but then that’s not bad either because those where some excellent designs. The animation is smooth and the frame rate is ok. While the game is limited to a tennis court and there is no real big eye candy Nintendo did a fine job on each court look. Each court has a digital score board and audience members that jump up and down. On certain theme courts you will have things like the Isle Defino plaza in the back, has well has a screen shot of the original Mario Bros game in the background.

Sound.
All the Nintendo VA’s are in hear and you get the usual voice acting for a Mario game, so if you love these voices then your ok, if you don’t there’s always the mute button. The music is ok and has a very competitive feel to most of the courts.

Gameplay.
Ok the game has several options of play in one player mode you get to pick whether you want to play in single or double tournaments. Then you get to choose weather you want regular courts or gimmick courts.

On regular courts you play like regular tennis you hit the ball back and forth between each other, the trick is to get the ball to bounce twice on the opposite side of the net without the other player hitting it, and making sure the first bounce is inside the field of play.

The controls hear are spot on perfect, there is no complaining that you missed the ball because the characters didn’t do what you put in the controller. The game also lets you insert combos so you can slice the ball, lob it, or power smash the ball if it’s slightly above you. There is some strategy that you can use in the game has well, slow the ball down with a certain combo so it barley passes the net and the player will have to move up to hit it, or if your opponent is to close to the net shoot one over there heads.

Now this is a Mario game so they did throw in a few curve balls even in regular courts. And that is with special abilities has you hit the ball around your rackets start to glow when there fully charge your able to hit with a special shot. Now there is a defensive shot that allows characters to hit the ball even if it’s gone by them, has long has it hasn’t bounce the 2nd time. These defensive shots are relatively weak and have no power to them, an example of a defensive shot has Luigi pulling out his ghost sucking vacuum from Luigi’s mansion to suck up and hit the ball. Then there is an offensive shot if you use a special ability near the ball, the user usually whacks these hard and with a curve (with the exception of Koppa who barley hits it over the net), this makes it incredibly hard to hit the ball. But its worse each offensive move also has a status problem to whoever hit’s the ball. Sometime it scoots the person back to the very back, sometime it causes them to freeze, and others it causes them to rush straight towards the net. Special ability’s throw a lot of spice into the game, when you think you have an upper hand the opponent does one of these moves and you’re thrown off the control of the ball.

But the next mode throws even more and that is the gimmick mode. If you remember the Bowser Castle court in Mario Tennis 64 you’ve got the correct idea but there are more to them. All these courts have gimmicks that can slip up both you and the other player. In Wario’s court there are conniver belts that will move and affect your characters speed, in Luigi Mansion there are ghosts that can paralyze you, and in Isle Delfino piranha plants spit out mud making it hard to move around inless you hit the flood buttons on the floor.

When you beat a tournament in either gimmick or regular mode you’ll see an ending movie of your character getting a trophy. If you’ve played Mario Tennis 64 then you’ll know what you’re in for. Some are funny, some are goofy, and there all pretty goofy but it actually makes you want to go and try out all of them just to see there ending.

Along with the main tournament there is a multiplayer mode that lets you play with a friend in a single court match, or with friends in a doubles match. There is also an exhibition mode if you just want to play one throw away game. There is also a bunch of mini game challenges. These involve painting things with tennis balls, beating up a giant robo Bowser with Tennis balls, and collecting coins in the Mario Bros theme court.

Final Recommendation.
If you liked the original Mario Tennis 64 then Mario Power Tennis is a game to pick up. If you haven’t played Mario Tennis 64 or the 2 other Mario Tennis game (the GBC and VB one) then Mario Power Tennis is a great place to start off.