Pretty Damn Good Tennis
The graphics are nothing amazing but they are colorful and the 3D effect is weak. Compared to MT64 I would say this is close to the same but with added features such as there is a dive button now and more characters including customizable Miis all in all. Mario Power Tennis did not actually appeal to me because i did not like the special shots in the game. Is this game they have what they call chance shots. These chance shots are pretty cool and do not break the game or give an automatic point but instead give the game some randomness while putting in some skill as these chance shots while they are random of which one pops out (drop, slice, top, etc) they dont just occur out of nowhere which I have seen other reviews have said. I wouldn't quote myself on this but from my time with the game they seem to occur about 100% of the time you dive for the ball or have to jump to it, then there seems to be like a less than 50% if you get to the ball and hit a soft none power shot back over and the harder you hit it the less likely to where if you power up to where a blue circle appears around you there is pretty much no chance there will be a chance shot to be back over (also havent seen a chance shot to chance shot happen).
The gameplay is split between mutiplayer and single player. The single player is straight up tennis tounaments while you can play doubles as well you just go from tournament to tournament unlocking more things for your Miis outfits. There is exhibition mode which once you beat the game provides more of a challenge as you can put up harder opponents as from the tournament mode. Lastly there is 4 different mini games which most if you have played a MT game before you will recognize with some additions and they are good distractions all in all but nothing way out there or so excitiing you want to come back for over and over again. This is one of the flaws of the game as if you are into collectables and there are a ton in this game which you mostly get from griding in the tournament mode you still need to keep playing these mini special games inorder to get coins to use in your "club house" to purchase new equipment for your Mii. Personally the single player is very similar to the MT64 game which is a good thing while i wish they would have added some more better mini games which is my biggest dissapointment as I feel it was a missed opportunity.
Moving on to the multiplayer, and why I know many people probably purchased this game. First off I cannot fully review this as i have not played local multiplayer but from what I understand it is excellent as you can even play the mini games together and do 4v4 and most everything you wanted to do. Online however is another missed ooportunity while actually very additicting and I can see myself playing this game for weeks maybe 3-4 games at a time there are very very limited options. You get to choose from exhibition (against friends) or open (random people). I was more interested in the open as that is the name of the game! There you online have 2 choices quick and extended. Both are actually super short as quick is a tie breaker and extended is a one match set of best out of 3 games. I found online at times to be a little lagging but that seemed to be more so to the other persons connection I am guessing as i have had many flawless no lag matches. The exhibition also is lacking as even if you wanna play doubles with just one other friend vs 2 comps you cant just play with the other computer opponent as your partner. Also the choices are just as slim. The other thing to add about online which can be a love/hate thing is their scoring system, I for one think its nice not great but its something but its basically the same as Mario Strickers if you have played that before as they have monthly leaderboards, eehhh.
My final comments would be if you liked MT64 or even MPT I would reccommend this game as it has added a lot of things and taken out those cheep MPT shots with the chance shots which are not nearly as cheap. Its to bad you cannot take them out as that would be a nice option and if they balanced the Mii characters as it seems that they do overpower the regular ones at some point. Of course I purchased this game but I do reccommend this one as it is even to me who is a huge MT64 fan a very solid game which I was expecting more and did get a little more was wishing for just a taste more.