I'd argue that Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64 was the best tennis game EVER! Of course, I'm said to be a Mario franchise worshipper, but I played tennis in high school and I appreciate the movements capable in this game. Using the famous analog stick, you can just feel yourself being on the court. It's amazing how you can make your player do a 360 in just a moment with the controls. Also adding to the realism is the nasty computer looking at your movements. If you hesitate a move one way, the computer will fire a shot the other way.

The game is based on Mario characters. The opening sequence features a video on the Mario brothers arguing with Wario, only to have a BRAND NEW character debut in this game named Waluigi, and evil version of Luigi. Of course, he's not to evil, as he's too tall to hit sinking topspin shots when you do play against him.

I do, however, dislike the game's choice of how you beat this game. You have a singles tournament and a doubles tournament, in which you go through the usual Mario Kart like Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, and Star Cup to win. It's easy to beat, given that the computer isn't on its top level of play, the famous Intense mode. Winning the Doubles and Singles tournaments will unlock 2 characters, Shyguy and Donkey Kong Jr.

That's it. For someone playing this game on their own, that's all there is to accomplish. If they want to find some great replay value, they'll have to have the drive within themselves to find something to do. I beat all of the ring sections and then challenged myself to beat all of the players when set on Intense mode. Intense mode is the highest difficulty setting for a computer player, and let me tell you, Intense is the best word for it. The computer can sense any slight movement you make before they hit the ball, and you'll experience long volleys in this mode. Beating every character in Intense mode is quite a challenge.

Well, I guess there are plenty of courts to unlock when using certain players, but that will only take maybe an hour with every character to do.

This game is best played with multiple players. The Ring battle royale is a fantastic thing, especially with 4 controllers attached to the console. I'm not too crazy about the Bowser Castle tennis court, which has a ridiculous use of Mario Kart weapons and a moving court that can get annoying.

To argue that it's the best tennis game is rather easy. For every court, there's a different surface on each that can greatly affect gameplay. Some courts cater to the players with weak power, some courts favor power players. T he shots you can choose from are slice, topspin, smash, dropshot, or lob. There's an art to each shot, as positioning is of great importance and timing on hitting the shot is as well. You have other features like if you're close to the net and someone fires a hard shot at you, you WILL get hit with the ball. Also stuff like jumping for a high shot, diving for a out of reach shot, and some very real like serving really make this game have a great tennis feel.

CONCLUSION: I love this game. Of course, I enjoy the sport of tennis. The simple fact that the game consists of Mario characters is meaningless, as the game's developers were going to make this style of game with Mario characters or not. The movement of the players and their abilities to hit the ball makes this game the most real feeling tennis game around, at least through the controller. Now if the graphics had realism, that would be another story.

TITO STATS(0 to 5 scale)
Graphics: 3.5
Sound: 4.0
Control: 5.0
Challenge: 3.0, but 4.0 for Intense mode
Fun Factor: 4.5

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Dec 18, 2002 - 12:00 am | 2 comments
Tito Jackson