Mario Power Tennis Review

The Mario sports series returns with Mario Power Tennis for the GameCube, the follow up to last generation’s Mario Tennis 64. Fans of the original need not worry, everything you enjoyed from the first game is here but with a little more polish. If there’s one thing Camelot and Nintendo have always managed to do, its create sports games which are easy for new players to learn yet provide enough depth to keep veterans of the series interested. Mario Power Tennis has accomplished this and once again both sports and Nintendo fans are given a game, they may find hard to pass up.

Once again all the usual characters are back, including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Waluigi, Wario, Shy Guy, and Bowser. Besides their well-know personalities, each character has their own tennis strengths and weaknesses measured in speed, power and ball control, giving each a unique feel. You’ll be playing the game in familiar settings. The courts are all Mario themed and include the Peach Dome, Luigi’s Mansion, Wario’s Factory and the DK Jungle Court, each one offering a different type of surface, effecting the ball in some way. Every court also offers a gimmick variation; the Haunted Mansion court is filled with ghosts, the Wario Factory turns into a series of conveyor belts and so on.

Mario Power Tennis offers 3 modes of play. Exhibition, a versus mode, lets you play any type of single game, by yourself or with up to 3 players. You can challenge the computer to a plain old 1on1 match, team-up for a doubles match with a computer controlled player or take on your friends. The tournament mode lets you battle opponents and work your way up the tree to the championship match where you’ll compete for trophies and have a chance to open up some game content (courts, special games, characters etc.). The third mode is a little bit different than then the standard tennis games. This mode lets you special games which are fun tennis inspired mini-games (think Mario Party)which can be played alone or with a friend. The games are addictive and I can’t see anyone not having fun with them, especially when a friend or two is involved. My favorites; ‘Artist on the Court’, a mini-game where you hit different paint balls against an uncolored mural giving it some color and ‘Chain Chimp Challenge’ a game in which you’ll be hitting tennis balls ,shot from a cannon, at Chain Chomps, keeping them away from you.

Each player has the normal arsenal of tennis shots. The slice, lob, drop shot and top spin shot are all here. Where Mario Power Tennis mixes it up is with it’s special moves. Every character in the game has two types of special shots which are enabled by a successful volley. The defensive special shots lets you get to a ball out of your range by using a jet-pack, small tornado or various other methods, depending on your character (each has one). Even if the ball is behind you, simply perform your special move and your character will, in some creative way, get to it. The offensive special moves can be performed when the ball is in close range. They are powerful shots and often hide the ball momentarily from your opponent with thier flashy graphics (fireworks, kisses). One of the only problems I had with the game were the special shots. Every character has two special shots and it’s pretty easy to enable them, what does this mean, you’ll being seeing them a lot. After a while they simply get repetitious and slow down game play. Not a big problem but a bit annoying after a while.

What separates Mario Power Tennis from the competition and makes it so appealing, are its great controls. Their crisp, highly responsive and intuitive; the main reason the game is so fun. Anyone can pick up the game and compete instantly, it takes only a game or two to get the hang of it. Beginners can play an entire match using only the analog control stick and the A and B buttons. That doesn’t mean the game play is simple, lacks depth or is repetitive. Those looking for deeper game play and competition from the high level computer controlled opponents can learn all the different shots like the lob and drop shot, usually done by hitting the A & B buttons in various combinations. Diving shots and special shots are done using the shoulder buttons while holding down the A and B buttons controls the power of your shots. You’ll be hitting the ball all over the court, mixing up your shots and using your special moves in no time. Once you learn all the shots you’ll see just how deep the game is.

The game itself looks just like Mario Tennis 64, this time with the usual GameCube improvements. The models are great and the characters are their usual colorful selves. The game runs beautifully and not once did I experience any slow down, even during the graphic-heavy special shots. The animation is also top notch and gives each character has a unique style to their play. The arena and court side graphics are only average and the crowd in particular is disappointing containing only a couple of flat models repeated throughout, luckily the only time you see the court is in the opening and closing animations. Graphically speaking, there’s nothing jaw dropping here only the solid colorful graphics, we’ve seen in Camelots previous titles.

The audio is nothing great and the background music offers nothing memorable but they are minor parts of the game. Among the background music you’ll here your typical Tennis sounds, nothing new here, just the plain old wacks and smashes. As always the character voices and grunts are the most amusing sounds you’ll be hearing, especially the evil characters, Wario and Waluigi, who always have something funny to say.

Camelot has pulled through once again. Mario Power Tennis is pure fun and in my opinion is a big improvement over last years version. Any graphic and audio shortcomings are overshadowed by the great game play. This game ranks right up there with Sega’s Virtua Tennis and Nintendo’s Super Tennis and if your not a tennis fan, you’ll still have lots of fun. It’s intuitive game play and solid presentation offer both a fun single-player and multi-player game. Once again polish and charm have turned a game we’ve been playing for years, in some form or another, into a fresh experience. Bring on Mario Baseball!