Mario Power Tennis is easily the best tennis game on the market right now so lets just put that statement out there right now at the beginning of the review. Add in all the Mario characters you know and love and some courts that very closely tie into Nintendo licensed games and you’ve got Mario Power Tennis. My friend would give this game a 10/10 but sadly, I am not that generous. Mario Power Tennis’ graphics are very colorful and if you own one of the Mario Party GCN games then you will find the style of graphics and the character models very, very, familiar. All of the characters as well as the courts are very well detailed and look what they are supposed to look like. However, the things in the background such as the people in the stands at the Peach Dome are very flat and do not do much and I think they could have been a little more interactive. The game is very, very, bright and flashy so if you get seizures from bright flashing lights see a doctor or something before playing this game. (There is even a health warning before you start the game). So overall the game has good graphics and runs smooth without very much slowdown at all. The sound really if you want to know the truth is fine. When I say fine I mean you will not be pulling your ears off in angriness but nothing really stands out enough that you think, god I wish they would play that tune again. The game goes on with the sound and if you really hate it turn off the volume on the TV or something but it is not really not that horrible. Chances are you will probably just not notice it. Gameplay, when you think about it, really kind of overrides all the other aspects of the game. So really you could say, well, the graphics stink but who cares I am having fun. Not that the graphics stink in Mario Power Tennis it is just an example. So the game is pretty fun but when you get a friend or two over than the fun really begins. I actually have a friend who would not stop playing the game with me and I would say don’t you want to play Metroid Prime a little and he would say no I have to beat you at least once (which he never has). Anyway the computer is so easy that I can literally turn the game on whenever I felt like it, play a computer on the hardest difficulty and win relatively easily. So if you are looking for a challenging game then do not buy Mario Power Tennis. Believe me playing against a friend is 100 times as fun as a computer. There are also seven or eight mini games you can play (all but one or two are multiplayer) and they are kind of fun but you do not get anything for beating them so there is really no point in them but fun. Everything but tournament can be played in multiplayer but why they left out tournament I do not know. The gimmick courts are very fun and make the game harder but are a lot of fun. It is also nice that all of the courts resemble a place from a Nintendo licensed game like the classic 2-D Mario Court. In addition every character has two special moves. One is very hard for their opponent to hit and another is used if you can’t reach the ball so you can hit it without losing the point although it is not a hard hit like the other shot. When you use these shots a little animation will happen before the actual hit which is cool the first few times you see it but then gets old and you will wish you could turn them off. There are also ring and item matches where in ring you hit the ball through giant hoops to get points and in item you can throw Mario Kart style items at your opponent to screw them up. These options of play I found boring and quickly abandoned them for normal mode and the gimmick court play. So the game is very, very fun to play especially with friend. This is Mario Power Tennis’ downfall. This is because getting the 4 secret characters is very easy (if you want to know how read an FAQ). So once you do that the computers are easy so no reason to play tournament except if you want everybody’s star but it is not really worth the trouble. Well you can play mini games, but that only stays fun until about 2 days later when you are bored out of your mind and you can’t unlock anything by winning them so why bother. The only thing left to do is play with your friends and I can’t deny it, playing with a friend is really fun but obviously you will not have a friend around all the time and during those no friends times the game will sit there collecting dust. Rent or Buy: Well, basically, it all comes down to who you ask. If you liked the original Mario Tennis you should like this game very much so buy. If you have no friends to play with rent because you will most likely get all you could out of it in one week’s rental anyway. But to the average gamer that has friends but did not play the first one you should probably buy.
Pros: + challenging for skilled players and accessible for newcomers + all the charm of a Mario sport game is included + plenty of options for organizing matches + large roster of Mario characters with different play... Read Full Review
I was excited to get my hands on this game as i thought the N64 version of Mario Tennis was awesome. Firstly the exhibition mode, this is a great place to practice and hone your skills. The great thing is you are able t... Read Full Review
