This title probably sounds familiar if you're familiar with tennis itself, and this is a review about a tennis game!
Tennis is a sport that I used to play when I was younger and I sometimes watch it on tv, but I had never tried a tennis game (unless you count Wii Sports) so I was wondering how this simple GBC game would be, especially since Nintendo had worked on it with Camelot. And I was surprised that it was so impressive for a GBC game, so impressive in fact that I thought 'well, I know now which game my next review will be about!'
Story: 4
Although the game has many good parts, the story is simple and doesn't make much sense. Most Mario games have the 'rescue Peach from Bowser' story but this is a tennis game so that would be unrealistic. Instead, you're some kid, either a boy or a girl who's about 8-10 years old and you go to a tennis academy, to get stronger and become the champion of the school... that's all. Oh wait, and you get a partner to play doubles with you who is around 18-19 years old because the male partner has a buff body and a beard and the female partner is longer than the female starter and has a more feminine body shape already. You enter the Junior Class, and once you beat 4 opponents in a singles team or 6 opponents in a doubles team you move up to the Senior Class, do the same there and then you have to do the same as well in the Varsity Class. But wait, what if you manage to beat all the members in the Varsity Class? Well, you get to play against the best players in the world!
Q : So that means I get to play against Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal for example?
A: No, keep in mind this game was made in 2001.
Q : Alright, so I'm up against Pete Sampras or Lleyton Hewitt maybe?
A: No silly, you're up against Mario and princess Peach of course!
Q : What the heck?!
Well, that explains the 'Mario' in Mario Tennis, but how is Mario suddenly the best player in the world for Singles and Doubles and Peach for doubles? This big plot hole is never explained and that's a big downpoint for me, I hoped there would at least be an explanation.
Even though this game has a weird story it's better than no story, but it would've been better if some things made more sense, that's all.
Graphics: 10
Some of the later GBC games that were made really could rival some of the graphics and animations of early GBA games, and Mario Tennis is one of them. The academy, courts and people have bright vibrant colours and the are diverse, and persons with the same gender and build have unique animations for when they get a point or when you get a point, not to mention that they have a close-up sprite for when the match is over. The Mario characters look very good on the court as well, and they are recognizable outside the matches as well.
On the court you get to see the best animations. The courts look really crisp and look like they have depth, which is not easy to show on a gameboy game. When you hit the ball in a certain way a blue, orange or purple aura glows around the ball and it's not something bad to look at.
The intro of the game looks pretty good as well, showing characters from the game up close, a ball being thrown up and the sun on the background are both visible, Mario is there with a determined look in his eyes and once you reach the title screen, the word 'start' will look like some kind of fluorescent bug crawls under it from the left to the right, making the word pop out. Overall, the graphics are really impressive.
Sound: 9
Because the game is mainly developed by Camelot, a lot of music won't sound like Mario music, which is good in my opinion considering most Mario music sets the atmosphere for places and battles right but sport events would need other music. The overworld music is pretty catchy and makes the academy sound like a more relaxed place, like every day is sunny and the night never falls. There are some sounds that sound alright, when you talk with characters, hitting balls during the matches, choosing between options and so on. They are minimal but they are nice to hear, and depending on how and how hard you hit a ball the sound changes as well. A lob and a serve sound different, and a charged shot has a louder sound than a normal shot of course.
So does that mean you won't hear any Mario themes at all? Ho ho, don't worry, there are some Mario themes, otherwise this game couldn't be called Mario Tennis! Some courts and places in the game have Mario music. You will hear Peach's Castle as an overworld and court theme, there is a tropics court with a yoshi egg on the ground and a Yoshi's Story theme, a Jungle Court that can be unlocked after playing a certain minigame with Donkey Kong and at both courts you will hear a remix of the Donkey Kong intro theme from Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong the arcade game, Mario has a minigame with a remix of the well known Super Mario Bros theme, and there's even a Bowser theme for Bowser his own minigame!
Still, the last one I mentioned can only be obtained when you have the game on an original GBC system and can connect with the N64 version of the game, but the other themes can be heard from the beginning or can be unlocked!
I myself really like the Game/Break Point theme, it really gets you motivated and sounds like this could turn the whole game upside down. It's really catchy and can also be heard in the N64 version of this game and the 3DS Mario Tennis game.
Addictiveness: 7
I initially thought I would get totally hooked on the game but I actually didn't. Parts of the game that were really addictive for me are the minigames which aren't too hard but on the same side it's hard to get the highscore you need to get the next level. From the beginning of the game, Luigi, Baby Mario and Donkey Kong have their own minigames with just two levels, and if you beat both of these a third level opens up. If you get a score of more than 60 you open extra courts to play practice matches! And when you beat Mario and Peach in the storymode they get their own minigames as well.
Something else I really like is that you can play practice matches with the Mario characters all the time, which is also the only way to play on those unlockable courts. The Mario characters aren't the same in terms of skills as well, Baby Mario for example is really fast while Donkey Kong is very powerful, and Luigi is your typical allround human. This really makes you feel like you're playing with different people instead of the same person over and over again.
The storymode however isn't that addictive. All you can do is play matches to get better and to rise in rankings, playing minigames to get more experience points or just talking to people. At first it sounds like fun, but since most matches and training minigames take a lot of time, doesn't this make the storymode as addictive as the minigames or practice matches, which you can play in under ten minutes, while everything in the storymode takes longer than that.
Depth: 9
For a GBC game this game is surprisingly deep. Like I mentioned, you have Mario minigames, training minigames, there's a whole overworld with people to talk to, single and double matches, practice matches and if you ever get confused about terms you can always look at a tennis dictionary! It can be said that there is a lot to do.
On the other side, most of the depth comes from the time you spend playing matches. Most matches take between 15-20 minutes to compete and when you completely want to clear the storymode you will be playing more than 20 matches already, so you can guess where all the time you spent playing the game goes to. The game will take a long time to complete that way, so you need to have free time and patience to complete it.
Still, if you're looking for a game you can spend a lot of time playing, then this game is definitely worth mentioning, and your knowledge of tennis can increase (it did at least for me) and maybe you will like the sport more after playing this game!
Difficulty: 8
I find it hard to say if I find this game difficult. When it comes to practice matches and singles matches that can be played in the storymode, I can definitely notice they get a lot harder every time. Doubles matches and some minigames on the other side give me the feeling like they barely get any harder at all, or they even get easier! But that's probably because you get experience points during the game, which you can use to make you and your partner strong in terms of speed, control, power, technique et cetera. And the doubles matches are probably easier because your partner saves your butt the whole time by almost making himself break some bones to just hit a difficult ball.
That doesn't mean this game is hard at all, I really have trouble beating the singles opponents, and I spent a good two hours to complete level 3 of Donkey Kong his minigame because that ape is so darn slow, and I've spent countless hours on minigames just to get a few experience points needed to beat those singles opponents. Seriously though, the singles matches are really difficult, even when you've played tennis games before or tennis in real life. I have serious respect for everybody who has unlocked Mario in this game.
Well, that wraps up my main sections, so now for pros and cons!
+Pros -Cons
* Great music and graphics * Matches can get boring after a while
* Practice matches and most minigames are awesome * Singles and doubles greatly differ in difficulty
* Tennis dictionary and people who give you tips * Experience points system is hard to understand
* Easy to learn, hard to master * Lots of great content can only be unlocked by connecting with the N64 version of the game
And that's it for this review, I had a blast writing this and I'm still not done playing this game at the moment, there's lots I still want to do.
Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed it and if you have questions, feedback, opinions or anything else you want/need to share/mention/tell then go ahead and do so! This was juuldude with his latest Mario Tennis review, juuldude out!
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