That Mario sure gets around. At first it was just the platform adventures, but then he started in with the RPGs, party games, racing games and sports titles. Some might argue that Mario is too overexposed and that the quality of the various Mario games has declined over the years, yet that doesn’t stop the folks down at the Nintendo factory from releasing a ton of Mario titles.
I can fondly recall playing Virtua Tennis on the Dreamcast in college, and I know we have a copy of Top Spin for the Xbox lying around somewhere, but it’s been a long time since I’ve really gotten into a tennis game. There was a spot open on our Gamefly queue, so Mario Power Tennis was added. It arrived quickly and, as they say, the rest is history.
While there are a variety of modes in Mario Power Tennis, the most important step is selecting a character. Each character is categorized by his or her best attribute. Some players are extremely speedy, some are very strong and can hit the ball very hard, and some are very good at making the ball curve (and thus harder to hit). It doesn’t take very long to find a favorite character that will match your playing style.
The most basic mode of play is Exhibition. This allows the player to play a one-shot match as opposed to entering a tournament. Exhibition mode is available in both singles and doubles tennis and in addition to regular tennis, there are specialized versions as well. For a unique twist on the game, players can choose an item battle, which sends banana peels and Koopa shells into opponents, distracting them and making them miss the ball. Another wacky version of tennis is the ring shot, which awards players points when they hit the ball through a series of rings over the tennis net. Exhibition mode is great when players want to play a match or two of tennis, but don’t have the time or inclination to devote to playing in a tournament. Also, it is very easy to customize options, and most importantly, disable the problematic Power Shot.
Ah, the Power shot. This is what really sets Mario Power Tennis apart from the other tennis games. The Power shot is a move that is unique to each character that allows them to do things that they wouldn’t normally be able to do in a more traditional tennis match. Each character has an offensive and a defensive Power shot. I found the Power shot to be extremely problematic. To begin with, it’s a distraction. Each time a player decides to do a Power shot, the game has to go through an animated sequence that shows the character going through the motions of setting up the Power shot: Donkey Long loads himself into a cannon, Luigi takes out a big cartoon hammer, Princess Peach does something to the ball that involves hearts and kisses, etc. These sequences are fun to watch the first couple times, but they quickly become a distraction because they interrupt the fast paced back-and-forth action one would expect from a tennis game. Also, it’s somewhat frustrating to spend time setting up a perfect shot only to have the point stolen away by the other player with a mere button press. Fortunately, the Power shot can be disabled in the Exhibition mode, but it is rather disappointing that it cannot be disabled in the Tournament Mode.
However, there was something even more disturbing than the Power shot in Tournament Mode. While Mario Power Tennis is ostensibly a multiplayer game, there is not an option to enter a doubles Tournament with another human player. The only way to play doubles is by appointing an AI player as your teammate. This is pretty inexcusable and there is no reason for this omission. Instead of being a really great multiplayer experience, doubles mode turns into a battle royale between the computer players while the human player tries to get a shot in here or there if/when s/he has the opportunity. As an aside, if two players want to play doubles in Exhibition mode, they have to play on opposite teams. Once again, this makes absolutely no sense and I have no idea what Nintendo and Camelot were thinking when they let this slide by.
Tournament Mode offers two different types of tournaments. First, there is a series of standard tournaments. When you complete the finals in the first tournament, a second tournament is unlocked, and so on and so forth. These tournaments do a nice job of gradually ramping up in difficulty. It should be noted that if a player reaches the third tournament, he can automatically access that tournament again, but only if s/he is using the same character s/he used to get to that tournament in the first place. I reached one of the later tournaments with little or no difficulty and then hit a wall in the first round. I hoped that switching from Luigi to Boo would help things, since Boo is one of those aforementioned tricky players with the curve shot, but unfortunately, I was not able to do so. I suppose I see the logic behind this, but if a player has taken the time to unlock something, it should simply be unlocked.
In addition to traditional tournaments, the player can also enter Gimmick Tournaments. This series of tournaments feature courts with certain gimmicks that need to be exploited and/or avoided in order to win. For example, in the Bowser’s Castle court, the court tilts back and forth and in the Luigi’s Mansion court, ghosts fly around and interfere with the game. The Gimmick Tournaments are a great for players who are looking for a different experience than the regular games provide.
Finally, there are the mini-games. These are ostensibly intended to improve one’s game, but I didn’t have nearly as much fun with these as I would have liked. In one game, players must hit paint balls at a picture of a Nintendo character in order to color it in. During the first round, a message at the bottom of the screen scrolls by, advising players to use “A” and then “B” to hit a lob shot that will hit the higher portions of the painting. While this is certainly useful information, this message continued to flash in every single round of the game. The later rounds cannot be accessed without completing the earlier rounds, and it is absolutely necessary to use the lob shot to finish even the easiest of the portraits. That said, I’m not quite sure who was going to benefit from the information scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Another frustrating aspect of the minigames is that if a player fails to complete the minigame, s/he has the option to try again or to go back to the main menu (and it should be noted that there is a considerable load time to get to that point). There is no option to go back to the game selection menu; if the player wants to choose a new minigame, s/he must go back to the main menu, select the minigame option, select a character and then select a game. The player has to do this each and every time s/he wants to switch minigames.
While Mario Power Tennis isn’t pushing the GameCube to its graphical limits, I really have to hand it to the designers; the game is full of Nintendo references, which manifest themselves graphically in the form of theme courts. But sometimes, the theme becomes distracting. In the Bowser Castle court, a fire pit with chain-link accents, embers float up from the fire pit onto the court and it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between the embers and the ball, especially when the player is already trying to account for the fact that the court is tilting back and forth. For the most part, everything is bright and colorful and appealing to the eyes. There is, however, one glaring exception. I found myself playing a match against Waluigi. His offensive move consists of a flashing strobe light as he contorts his body and fires the ball at his opponent. Is this really necessary at all? I found it very difficult to concentrate on the screen after Waluigi did his move.
The sound is somewhat uninspired. There is no voice acting, which is to be expected, and music is kept to a minimum. The sound effects are standard for a tennis game; additionally, each character has a trademark grunt. This gets annoying quickly.
This is a great rental title; you will certainly get your money’s worth from renting it. Mario Power Tennis is also a solid purchase, if the price was $20 or so. Mario Power Tennis certainly has a lot going for it, but there are several factors that keep it from being truly enjoyable, most notably the lack of a decent doubles mode, the problematic Power shot, and the poor menu navigation. Yup, you’re better off saving your money on this one.
