Mario Tennis Open is a welcome game to the franchise, but the laggy online mode makes this tedious and frustrating.
Presentation - Mario Tennis Open has a few modes such as single player, local multiplayer, online multiplayer, StreetPass, and a clubhouse mode for your Mii avatar. In single player mode, you can go through tournament, exhibition, and play special games. Tournament play has a singles and doubles mode where you try to defeat the AI opponents. The exhibition mode is similar to tournament mode except you just play against the AI for fun, and you can still do singles and doubles match.
The special (mini-games) in this mode has are Ring Shot, Super Mario Tennis, Galaxy Rally, and Ink Showdown. In Ring Shot, you try to hit through the rings in order to keep your score up. Super Mario Tennis is where you volley a ball on the side scrolling Super Mario Bros. game, and you earn points if you volley at goombas and coins. In Galaxy Rally, you avoid hitting the black holes while you volley the ball. In Ink showdown, you try to swing for the balls that come towards you.
In local multiplayer, you can create a group and play with friends who own and don't own Mario Tennis Open. For the friends who don't own the game, you can do a single cartridge download play.
The online multiplayer has exhibition and open matches. The exhibition match is where play against your friends who own a copy of the game. The open matches are where you compete against players from around the world.
In StreetPass modes, you can do a match against other players that play as their Miis, play as a team in Ring Shot, view the Miis in the StreetPass list, and activate or deactivate in the settings.
Finally, in Clubhouse mode, you can purchase tennis equipments at the item shop, change your clothes, greetings, Miis, and records. In the options menu, you can alter the gyro sensor camera controls, change your racket hand, and go through the tutorial again.
Finally, there three file saves where you can use your Mii to show your profile. The playable characters are Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Daisy, Boo, Bowser Jr, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong, Waluigi, Wario, Bowser, and your Mii. The local, download, and internet play has from two to four players. Street Pass has a versus/co-op play with Mii characters.
Graphics - The frame rate runs smoothly in the offline matches, but the game slows down when you play online matches. The 3D effect is used, but it's still not compatible during online matches. The overall designs are still crisp and clear with decent animation.
Sound - The character sample voices are reused from Mario Power Tennis which is not necessarily a bad thing, but they could of had more variety with the voice acting. The sound effects are still spot on, and the music is slightly generic and forgettable. There is still some traditional Mario theme music in the Special Games Mode.
Gameplay - The traditional controls with the circle pad work well. The gyro controls take a while to get used to because you have to adjust the camera view and move the 3DS around. In the gyro controls, your character moves towards the ball for you to make it easier for less experienced players. There are buttons on the touch screen where you can use different combos to volley the ball such as top spin. The chance shots replace the character specific moves. However, when you play online matches, your character moves ridiculously slowly and it makes it even more frustrating to try to win a match.
Lasting appeal - The single player modes might keep you busy for a good while, but the real competition is playing against friends locally and online. It's a shame that the online modes suffer though some slowdowns. The single player modes get kind of boring to play after a while and the special mini-games are only for solo play. I remembered when Mario Power Tennis had mini-game modes for multiplayer.
The good - variety of single and miltiplayer modes, graphics are crisp and clear
The bad - online matches lag and cause your character to slow down, uninspired music, gyro controls take a while to get used to, single player modes get boring after a while
Presentation- 10
Graphics- 7
Sound- 6
Gameplay - 6
Lasting appeal - 6
Gamespot Score 7.0 out of 10