Mario Power Tennis – Review

In the mid eighties Nintendo used the slogan “Now you’re playing with power” and they’re still using the power in their games. This time Nintendo presents Mario Power Tennis, the GameCube’s answer to the Nintendo 64 Mario Tennis. Be prepared for a fun tennis match and meet lots of typical smashing Nintendo characters.

Characters:
So you want to become a tennis star? Do you want to experience what it’s like to play as Princess Peach on the tennis court? Or doesn’t gender count in Nintendo games? It really doesn’t matter as you can choose from fourteen different characters to play with or to challenge of course. Mario, Donkey Kong, Luigi, Wario and many other familiar characters are available. But each character has its own style, experience and special power shot performances. Princess Peach for example is talented due to her technique skills. Her power shot performance is quite lovely as she puts a whole lot of love into the tennis ball and smashes it back to her opponent who can’t handle so much love. Other characters transform their racket into a hammer, a banana or they jump into a canon to smash the ball to the other side of the net.

Skill: Beginner
If you’re new to the tennis sport or you just bought Mario Power Tennis and need some practice and understanding of how it all works, here’s the answer; game type exhibition. Although rules and controller handling are described in the manual, it’s not necessary to read about it. Learning by doing is the best and in no time you have figured out how the game should be played. Really easy! No just go ahead and practice in exhibition mode against the different kind of characters or invite a maximum of 3 other friends to play against you. Customize the game by setting power shots on/off and the number of games / sets. Also pick out a court to play on. There’s a standard court, a gimmick court full with special elements to influence the game play and last but not least you can play the Item Battle. And that’s the one I preferred most as the items are the famous Nintendo question mark boxes, full with special items. By hitting these boxes, items will be released and can be used to attack your opponent or heal your character! Think of the Red / Green Hoopa shield, thunder, mushrooms and bananas. Excellent!

Skill: Pro
Tournament Time! Come on, you had enough practice, you know what your favorite character is, you understand the power shots moves, you have improved your technique, stop talking and start competing in the World Open or Gimmick Masters sub-levels, each with Flower, Mushroom and Star Cups, among others. Sadly but true the tournament won’t take long as it is too easy to win a match. Actually you even don’t have to play to long as a beginner to participate successfully in tournament mode. Maybe in the third Cup it gets a little bit harder, but nothing spectacular.

Skill: Fun
If you don’t want to play any “serious” matches, there’s always the possibility to play some special mini games up to 4 players. The character, skill level, time limit and of course the type of mini game can be selected. “Artist on Court” is a mini game based on coloring a drawing on the wall with some paintballs. Or what about some volley where you are not allowed to hit a ball on a certain place. In total you can play 5 different mini games, only recommendable if you’ve friends over to play against to because it gets boring. Been there, seen it, played it, had it. Not quite challenging or funny if you’re playing against the game characters.

Technique:
What is Nintendo’s definition of technique? I wonder as you really don’t have to be very skilled or experienced to win match after match. Again learning by doing which can be done in a very short period of time. The ring game can be very useful to speed up your technique as you need to hit the balls through certain rings in the air to gain point. Learn all about controlling your tennis behavior, the way you hit a ball, at what point you can smash, how to place the ball in the wanted direction, when you can use the power shot and winner is your new middle name.

Female point of view:
I already revealed that Princess Peach is a playable character in Mario Power Tennis. She’s dressed up for the occasion in a cute short pink skirt. She may look cute but she can be very difficult to defeat due to her power shots:
Defensive: Blown Kiss-Peach blows a lovely kiss that brings the ball back to her to hit back to you.
Offensive: Peach Dance-Peach spins around a few times to knock the ball hardinto your side of the court. Upon contact, you will be momentarily stunned.

Another female character is the princess of Sarasaland; Daisy. Never heard of her but she seems to have played in some mario spin-off games. Nevertheless she’s a pretty useful character, a little weak from time to time when she’s not able to hit the ball over the net. Not my favorite type to play with! Power Shots:
Defensive: Flower Dive-Daisy makes a line of flowers appear in front of her, and then dives into them to reach the ball.
Offensive: Power Flower-Daisy’s racket turns into a huge flower, which has
Daisy hit the ball hard having the player get knocked back far upon contact.

Conclusion:
Absolute 100% Multiplayer game and that brings me to the online possibilities of Gamecube. It’s such a shame that you cannot play Mario Power Tennis online, it could have been so much fun. On the other hand you can wonder why the single player mode isn’t challenging enough. The game play is way too easy and after you’ve played the mini games you’re wondering who you should call and invite over for some real challenge. Without friends around, it’s not going to be one of your favorite games. With friends it could become one of gamecube’s most appreciated multiplayer game.

Review by Wencke
Thumb Bandits European Correspondent & manager of GGU.

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