Games in Review #3 – Mario Power Tennis

Welcome once again to Games in Review, featuring reviews, evaluations, and general commentaries for games that I, Weskimo, have completed.

This week’s topic is a game that has brought me many hours of sport-oriented enjoyment, Mario Power Tennis for the Nintendo GameCube.

Story

Mario and his friends and enemies are back, and this time they’re competing in a Tennis tournament. That’s about it.

Gameplay

Much like you would expect, the game takes place on the tennis courts. The courts themselves present a load of variety as players have the option to play on regular courts, clay courts, or sometimes Mario universe-themed gimmick courts. Various game modes are available such as the main tournament campaign (in singles or doubles), exhibition games, and a couple of other game modes like Ring Shooting and Item Battle.

As far as controls go, they are pretty basic. Mario Power Tennis is a game you can literally pick up and have fun playing immediately. That being said, there is opportunity for mastery on the courts with regards to types of shots, angles, and super-duper Power Shots. Learning how to deliver a devastating drop shot at the right time can leave your opponents demoralized. And the game is always mixed up by Power Shots. These shots can be used to either blast though an opponent’s defense or to fly across the court for a diving save if you’re about to miss a hit. Easy to play, but practice does make perfect.

My only real problem with the controls is actually their simplicity. This game fell victim to a mild case of over-assigning keys to actions. To explain, this typically tends to rear its ugly head when the game gets confused with the type of shot you want. For example, while moving to take a shot, you might find yourself watching in dismay as the ball trickles past you because your character has stopping moving and is winding up for a smash shot (which takes a few seconds) instead of just taking a normal shot for the win. Most frustrating. The Power Shots also present a problem as there are no control differentials between the two types, so you might find yourself doing a lame save shot when you really wanted to ram the ball into their face with an attack shot.

Mario Power Tennis features 18 playable characters including the usual suspects: Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Peach, Yoshi, etc. One character I was excited to see as a playable character is the mighty Wiggler, who is playable for the first time in any game. One big angry bastard.

As for how the characters are different, Nintendo went with its usual classes of characters, some of them being faster but weaker (Yoshi and crew), some being slower but stronger (DK, Bowser and company), and some being average all-around players (Mario and Luigi). Very Mario Kart-esque, but not at all unpleasant. Players can choose the character that best fits their play style.

The best part of this game is, hands-down, the multiplayer. GameCube’s usual 4-player chaos reigns supreme on the courts of Mario Power Tennis, and it is glorious. I’ll testify right now that you can spend hours locked in a desperate struggle for victory with a few friends hammering furiously on the A button and smacking controllers out of each other’s hands.

Graphics

Gamecube’s textures at their finest, everything looks clear, lots of bright colors and rounded edges that you’ve come to expect from Mario games. Characters are animated to Nintendo’s usual standards and a handy colour effect gets added to the ball on a lot of shots to tell you what kind of shot is coming your way.

Sound

Nothing to write home about, but nothing negative either. Your basic Mario sound effects, monkey grunts, Italian plumber whoops, ditsy princess squeals, etc. They do have a rather enjoyable effect for hitting the ball that is pretty satisfying, though. Pretty standard BGM too.

Overall

Despite a few control flaws and some fairly meaningless gimmicks and bonus modes, this game’s multiplayer appeal shines through. This is a fairly fantastic game, good for some light gaming on your own or if you’re looking for another outlet to let your friends know how much you hate them. Definitely some good times to be had with this title.

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