**THIS REVIEW WILL HAVE SPOILERS FOR THE STORY MODE AND I WILL WARN YOU WHEN THAT CAN HAPPEN, JUST BE CAUTIOUS AND ENJOY VIEWING**

I don't believe I've ever had a thought in my mind that of all the games genres to be mixed together that a Sport and RPG mix actually makes for a pretty fun experience and to the credit of Camelot, their library is pretty jam packed full of RPG and Strategy games, so their knack for making something like this "good" kind of seems inevitable. But with that being said, they haven't made anything BUT Sports titles for the past decade or so, which is a rather huge shame because while I believe their work on the Mario Sports franchise has been rather good, it sure as hell isn't any Golden Sun or better yet Shining Force.

As it moves on in years it seems like they've forgotten their routes and instead opted to become the main developer of the Mario Sports games for mostly what it seems just Tennis now, but let's not forget what they have made before in the past and I feel this isn't any exception as I've said I really do think this is a fun game. As this was one of the last games before the close death of the Gameboy Advance neared, let's take a look at what I consider to be a excellent game that took what it played out from the previous Gameboy Color entry and both Renewed and Reinvented it.

But before we do, here's a bit of a history going behind what made this game. This was originally developed as a tie in game to the 2004 Mario Power Tennis and developed also by Camelot. While that game leaned more heavily towards having multiple modes and much more to do in the Multiplayer game, this game was entirely focused in on gathering an audience with a Story Mode and Minigames that were well more suited towards it.

The game came out about nearly a year after it's release on the Gamecube and receiving quite a lot of positive reviews and critics quite seemed to enjoy the game, but what exactly about the game made it so enjoyable and everything else about it in full.

For a quick disclaimer, if some of you aren't familiar with this title you may be from the European region where it stuck with the same name as the Gamecube original so a heads up to everyone if I do call it by it's American/Japanese name. It's a pretty small and trivial thing but figured I'd give that notion.

Graphics

A thing that's a bit different from the other GBA games they've released before that point is that the Overworld sprites all had a per-rendered look to them which is now not the case and instead they now use Sprites that look honestly a bit better to my eyes and they even use the sprites in the Minigames which I'll be getting more to in detail later. Other then that small thing, the backgrounds, stills, Tennis Sprites, among many other things still have the iconic "Camelot Pre-Rendered" look and if you don't know what I'm talking about exactly, you should probably look at their previous titles that used Sprite Based graphics.

From what I've seen in some parts of the internet is that some people don't like how the sprites look in the Tennis Matches which is understandable but I believe they look fine honestly. The Non Pre-Rendered Sprites also do mesh well with the backgrounds and it works better then you expect. There can be some Graphics that don't look the greatest but overall it's a very solid attempt though isn't saying much since they already had quite a few GBA titles under their belt.

Sound

The OST for this game to me is quite excellent. I'm a big fan of it and that's no surprise as the same composer for Golden Sun worked on it and I'm quite a huge fan of their work. There's always certain traits in Camelot games that will always have the same feel and the music is always one of them, even in other soundfonts.

The Soundtrack has a few songs taken from the Gamecube game but other then that it's completely original, some of my favorite Tracks coming from the Tennis Matches themselves. I gotta hand it to them, they really knew what they were doing when they worked with the soundchip for the GBA because it's honestly some of the best work on here.

Addictiveness

Probably one of the bigger advantages of having a Story Mode over a much more Expansive Multiplayer mode is that the game is much more easy to play on the go and you can easily be engrossed into this game. One of the aspects that's not lost through the transition is the Minigames, however they're much different compared to those of the Console Counterpart. That's not a bad thing, in fact I think some of them are more fun personally to play.

Of course, the main part of the game is still pretty fun too and I think while it's not as responsive as the Gamecube game it certainly has it's charm. The biggest factor is including that you can obtain Power Shots by doing pretty good in the Minigames and you also earn EXP though these and the main game. I will gripe and say though that other then the these aspects that after the Story is done the only thing you really can do is compete for Medals and Level up your Character but that's not really particularly a bad thing.

I did forget to however mention that you have a partner character that's chosen based on who you pick though it's only the same two characters. You can play Doubles with them in the Story Mode and other Modes outside of that, but they also can gather experience along you. There is a bit of a big "but" to that though as you need to individually give how much EXP you want to give to you or your partner. I honestly do like this system, it encourages you to think of who you need to Level Up it's a pretty smart move.

Gaining Levels allows you to increase skills in certain attributes and allows you to make your character much more powerful which is a lot better then it giving you a set skill point towards something. A lot of this game's Depth will be explained more in that section though figured I'd give a basic rundown of just how addictive it could be to the player.

Story

**THIS IS THE PART OF THE REVIEW WHERE I TALK ABOUT AND POTENTIALLY SPOIL THE STORY OF THE GAME AND IF DON'T WANT THAT THEN PLEASE GO THROUGH THIS UNTIL YOU SEE ANOTHER PARAGRAPH LIKE THIS. THANK YOU**

You are one of the two protagonists, Ace or Clay, who joined the other night into a highly professional institute that teaches people about Tennis and learn that one of the prior students known as Alex has had an experience with a professional who had yet to be seen and it is apparent you're now faced with the task of becoming the best of the pack to enter a tournament where the Winner may eventually meat this mysterious fellow.

After Beating Two Classes and their Top members you're moved into the Varsity Class, however pushed out initially due to being lower ranked then the rest of them you finally go after them one by one and eventually going after the top Champion of the whole School in Theory. While winning this, you learn to find that you'll be leaving shortly for the Island Open.

Once you conquer the Tournament you finally figure out the mysterious figure was the Famous Mario who invites you to play among them in a tournament of their own set in the Mushroom Kingdom. Once you show your worth you're known to be among some of the greats and finally once all of that is done celebration is given as being one of the Greats in the Tennis World.

I wouldn't say the story really is that innovative but one of the things that really did stick out was the characters in honesty. Considering their work on many RPGs before hand it has a lot of charm and the story really is helped a lot by that. It can get pretty wacky at points too but it doesn't really pull you too much out of the experience and it's pretty funny at times just to see the banter of some of the characters. It's not perfect, but it's still pretty fun.

**THAT'S THE END OF ANY SPOILERS THAT MIGHT BE IN THE REVIEW, ENJOY THE REST OF IT AND THANK YOU AGAIN FOR READING!**

Depth

While not fully a RPG at heart it does get pretty deep in terms of character customization and what things you can equip to your character. Here's just a bit of the things you can do in this game.

As I mentioned before you can obtain Power Shots and of all different types too, but how do you Obtain them? Well the Minigames have a sort of "EXP" gain of their own and for each Minigame there is a separate one you gotta fill. The harder the difficulty the more points you will get once you're completed and some of them can be Really challenging at the most difficult settings. Some Minigames however are just there to help you EXP grind which is always great just for stats.

Speaking of, you can obtain one stat point per level up and they're known as Main and Secondary sklls. Obviously the Main Skills are much more important, being 4 categories (Power, Speed, Control, and Side Spin). While not a huge boost at first, it does add up and really does give you an advantage over other characters that wouldn't.

Secondary Skills (Serve, Stroke, Slice, Volley, and Top Spin) are somewhat for more situational plays and are really dependent on what can best fit your play style. These aren't as important obviously but can again really change your character to be much more powerful and a gather a huge advantage to what the other characters would not have.

You can also be awarded Medals along completing a class and both Single and Doubles have Medals each respective of their playthrough. While they aren't exactly important or anything it does add more to do with your characters once you already beat the story mode, however it does bring me to the most disappointing part of this version of the game.

While in the GBC game you could originally bring your Jacked up character with all it's stats into the N64 version, you can't do the same with this game and it's a huge shame though the reason to why might be due to time constraints. If this game had released somewhat more close to Mario Power Tour then it'd of been a feature that'd of likely been added, but Considering at the time they were already making plans for the Wii and the Gamecube wasn't a runaway success then it would be par for the course.

During the time this was made in late 2005 the might of planned for the feature early on like with Mario Golf Advanced Tour, but it ultimately never got put into motion which is a shame as I always really wanted to see a 3D Model of the Main Characters or even some of the other Tennis Characters come into full 3D but that's probably never going to become a reality.

Difficulty

While it's not exactly tough, hell, you can cheese some of the Tennis matches just by being close up to the net, sometimes this game came be pretty brutal and most especially if you want all the Power Shots. The Minigames can and will make you work for them, but once you get them all it will feel like a weight is lifted off your shoulders.

You do get another difficulty option upon completing the main game but that's more in toe with the Exhibition mode which is exactly the same as it always has been pitting one character against the other. Overall there are some aspects that can be honestly a challenge but it's not like it's terribly hard to overcome, you can get through it with enough practice.

Overall Thoughts

I got this game originally as a Christmas gift back in 2005 as I loved the original N64 Game and didn't know what to expect with this one, though I had never played the original GBC game I can say without a doubt this is easily one of the most fun experiences that the Mario Tennis series ever has had and it's a real shame that in recent years while Camelot is trying their hardest to make the Mario Tennis games fun again it's ultimately fruitless.

If they went back to their roots again, maybe people would stop saying that the company is just now a shell of it's former self and seeing how they've been doing recently I really can't argue with that. I hope in the future they opt out for another RPG driven experience and even one like this one. While it's not my favorite GBA game I will always hold it as a case study to how far this Company has fallen in recent Years.

I do believe I am not really giving enough credit though to how Aces is because While I do think the game is mechanically fun to play, the story is absolutely shallow and does the series a great disservice to how it has been. Make original characters again, a fun and enjoyable plot to play through, something that's not so heavily reliant on it being "Mario" again. Hopefully in the future they'll come back to the RPG format of days old and start with a fresh new experience but until that day comes i'll be here waiting patiently.