Mario Tennis

Causing a racket with the Mario Brothers and their friends!

Yes, we know this was only reviewed in the last issue but that was for the Japanese version of the game, this one is for the good old PAL UK version. "Surely, there can't be too many changes between the two formats?" you cry. Ah! That's where you are wrong because there are about 15 million different changes on this version. Like what? Well, finally in this Mario Tennis you don't use rackets, you use small badgers and instead of hitting tennis balls you have to hit cream cakes! For every game you win a giant UFO beams you up and probes you and in the bonus game, the first player to hit 18 balls sinks the other opponent's battleship! All right, I give up, it's a fib, cop! There is absolutely nothing different between the two versions. They are as identical as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, but if you have read this far you may as well stay for the rest of the review! Besides, there is nothing on TV at the moment anyway! (Stop Press: There is one big change actually – all the game text is now obviously in English, which means you can work out what's what's going on! Sorry Paul doesn't get out much – Ed).

Empire

Just like Mario Golf and Mario Kart before it, Mario Tennis takes a well-known sport, slaps a bunch of characters from the world of Nintendo into it and gives all the usual conventions a slight twist! What is probably more amazing is that, despite how engrossing it is to play and considering the amount of options available to you, the game is extremely simple! When you usually approach a sports title, the controls need the kind of digital dexterity that would make most classical pianists nervous! In Mario Tennis you simply move the analogue stick around to control your character and bash the A and B buttons to whack that ball across the net. For the most part, that's all there is to it! This means that nearly anyone can grab a pad and dive right in. It also results in a title that is extremely uncomplicated and highly addictive.

Just by giving up after a defeat, it's damn near impossible because you just know you will win the next time with a little bit more practice!

Despite all this simplicity the game is also very, and we mean very, playable! There are very few, if any, major flaws and even they can be avoided through learning the basics! The most infuriating part is when you hold down on the A button to give yourself a power shot. When this is done your character cannot move and to use this effectively, positioning yourself in the right place at the right time is essential if a successful shot is to be the order of the day!

In the options department, Mario Tennis is so well endowed it makes most of the other carts blush and run straight for the nearest confession booth! The selection of characters to choose from is plentiful and there are many courses to play on. All the usual suspects from Mushroom Kingdom are back, plus there are also a few new faces to choose from. The most obvious of these is the tall and lanky figure of Mario's wicked brother: Waluigi! Even the greatest of games needs a villain, and this guy looks so evil he would do anything to win. Each character has a special ability that determines how he or she performs on the court. These abilities vary from speed to strength and much more! It doesn't stop at new characters either, because you can team up with a friend or the computer and play a doubles match. Choose from a whole host of different courts that affect how the game is played. There are bonus games galore that let you play on a rocking, tilting tennis court or score as many rings as possible in a variety of different challenges. If all that sounds too good to be true then you will also be delighted to learn that there is a Game Boy Color version of Mario Tennis coming that allows you to train new recruits and beam them, via the Transfer Pak, into its N64 counterpart!

Add into the mix the fact that you have to make your way through a fair few tournaments, both single and double, and also a code entry screen that allows you to input codes that open new games and different challenges! This title is so jam-packed with variety that you'll be picking away at it for ages like a bowl of peanuts at a buffet table!

Vampire

That's enough praising for the time being – what about the bad points? Like before, there aren't that many, but there can be points during a match when a rally drags on for a bit too long. When this happens, the game can suddenly become nothing more than a button-bashing session. Although the game is pleasantly simple, moments like these show that it can be almost too basic. Although the characters do have different talents which determine how they handle, some seem to be a tiny bit unresponsive and some don't seem to be all that different at all! As stated above, with some time and practice we are sure this just adds to the overall longevity of the game!

Mario Tennis is sprinkled with a ton of classy flourishes that show just how much care and attention goes into a Nintendo published game. After every point scored you can replay that moment instantly from a barrage of dizzying angles and it is especially interesting to re-view the times when you hit a ball right between the eyes of your opponent. It was funny enough the first time, but watching Princess Daisy get an extremely fast tennis ball right in the mug and then see her fall down, over and over again and in close up is guaranteed to brighten up even the gloomiest of faces. The graphics are, as you'd expect by now, glorious and every volley and serve is captured as realistically as possible. For a game which, by and large, turns its back on the concept of realism, the actual physics of the sport are captured perfectly!

Tennis Elbow!

For the nth time, Nintendo (as with the Pokémon franchise) has shown that you can place a familiar face on any half decent idea and, thanks to Nintendo's attention to detail, it can't help but be successful. Mario Tennis is no exception and it shows! If Nintendo's tradition of turning the most dull of sports into exciting games continues, then we wait with anticipation for Mario's take on American Football, Darts and Cribbage!

Way back when the first home video games were being developed, the socially-inept, cardigan-sporting programmers involved needed a game that was both jaw-droppingly simple to pick up, and frighteningly addictive to play. Having rejected cross-stitch, stamp-collecting, flower-arranging and cultivating watercress in a dark attic as game ideas, they eventually settled – mercifully – on tennis. The basics of the game that became known as Pong were so addictive that the game sold in thousands, despite the 'players' being nothing more than white sticks, endlessly batting a small white square back and forth until one player missed, and a fight broke out. Well now those days can be revisited on the GBC – with better graphics, more gameplay and less fights – thanks to Mario Tennis!

Turn Down That Racquet!

Anyone with more than six grams of grey matter rattling around in their noggin will understand the basics of tennis, and should be able to work out why it makes such a great subject for videogames. Tennis, you see, is all about gameplay. Mario Tennis takes the fairly ancient GB title Tennis as its basis, and adds LOADS of ace new features, like doubles, tournaments, great mini-games and even an excellent 'RPG' element. In this, you enter the Royal Tennis Academy and have to go to training sessions and win matches to improve your ranking, all within a Zelda-style environment. This lends the game great longevity, and makes the whole experience of playing this already-great game all the more involving. Despite not being a huge fan of the whole RPG 'thing', I found this element the most compelling, simply because it's never been done before.

As you would expect from a top-drawer Nintendo title, the graphics in Mario Tennis are gorgeous, and all the character animation is spot-on. The matches crack along at a pretty good rate of knots too, with rallies often degenerating into tense, "You Cannot Be Serious!" epics. Great stuff!

Zelda With Balls!

The one-player games are great fun, but two-player link-up matches are where this cart really comes into its own. While the team here are all responsible adults, and couldn't possibly condone physical violence, there's nothing quite like (metaphorically) smashing a tennis ball right into someone's hapless face! Take that!

If you don't buy this game, everyone will laugh at you. People will cackle loudly in the street, shouting "Idiot! Idiot!" and throwing rotten vegetables at you until you get yourself a copy. Mario Tennis is fantastic. Buy it now.

Nintendo TBD -- String up your racquet and wash those whites-- Mario and his pals return to the court for this 'Cube sequel to Mario Tennis on N64. From these early screens, you can see what the smooth new character models will look like. Look at the shine on Mario--you could blind someone with that. And just check out the fuzz on that tennis ball. Makes you wish you were playing it now, eh?