I am not a fan of sports games. In fact, I refuse to play 90% of them, due to their repetitiveness. However, I decided to give Mario Power Tennis a try, and i'm glad I did. It turned out to be one of the best sports games that I've ever played. Graphics: The graphics in this game are amazing! These are probibly some of the best graphics from any Mario game to date. The opening scene graphics are especially impressive. There are a few times where I noticed a drop in framerate, but overall, this is one of those games that shows the graphical capabilities of the Gamecube. Gameplay: If you don't already know from the title of the game, this is a tennis game (duh!). You can play singles matches and doubles matches. In singles matches, it's you vs the computer. 1 on 1. In doubles matches, it's you and an allied computer against 2 computer players. The thing that makes this game really different from other tennis games is the ability to use power shots. After hitting the ball a few times, your racket will start glowing. This means that you can activate a power shot. To use a power shot, you gold on to R, and press the A button. If the ball is far away from you, you will do a defensive power shot, which will hit the ball over the net regardless of the distance between you and the ball. When you use a power shot and the ball is close to you, it is called an offensive power shot. An offensive power shot will shoot the ball really fast, which gives you a good chance of scoring a point if your enemy isn't ready. It would have been better if you could walk around in the game like in the Gameboy Colour version of Mario Tennis. Instead, you pick what tournament you want from a menu. There's no real "story mode". Instead, you basically just try to beat all of the tournaments. Although this was somewhat dissapointing, it's still fun to play. Sound: The sound in this game is good. The sound effects are all very well done. When you hit the ball with your tennis racket, it sounds very realistic. Also, the music in this game was good, and kept the game going at a fast pace. It would have been nice to have some more sound tracks in the game though, because there were only about 3 or 4 different songs that played. Value: One of the bad things about Mario Power Tennis is that the experience is over way to quickly. After you complete the 8 different tournaments in the game on both singles and doubles, there really isn't much left to do. There are some tennis minigames which add some replay value to the game, but that's about it. There's also multiplayer mode, but it was poorly made. They should have had it where you can go through the doubles tournaments with a friend. Instead, you can only do normal matches with friends, which won't entertain you for as long as some other game's multiplayer modes. Overall: Even if you don't like sports games, you will still like this game. It is a superb game with great gameplay and value that'll keep you playing for a long time. The music is also very good, and the graphics are some of the best yet that we've seen for Gamecube. Overall, this is one of those games that you shouldn't miss out on! Go, get this game! Now! Hurry!
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
