Mario Tennis (N64) Review | Nintendo Life

This review was originally published in 2010, and we are updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online.

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When Mario Golf was released in 1999, it was already known that Camelot was working on another Mario sports title for the N64, and following a decent title released for the sadly ill-fated Virtual Boy, Camelot gave Mario another chance to play tennis. .

Mario Tennis (N64) is set up a little differently than Mario Golf (N64) in that you don’t have to go through a cumbersome (and honestly quite difficult) single-player mode to unlock almost all the characters, one by one, to play. in other modes. In fact, only two characters are locked at the beginning of the game and can be obtained quite easily.

You will most likely jump to feel the game is a standard combination. These come in two flavors: single and double. It’s not too hard to guess what they mean: singles is a one-on-one match, while doubles, unbelievably, are two-on-two. Yes, since this is a Nintendo 64 game, there may be four-player matches.

Much like golf, tennis uses a button combination system that allows you to choose exactly what type of shot you want to make. Charge with ‘A’ and then press ‘B’ when the ball is close, for example to make a high shot; this tends to make the ball rise high, coming down very slowly towards the back of the opponent’s side of the court. Do it backwards by hitting ‘B’ and then ‘A’ and you’ll do a drop shot, which gives the ball a very small arc and makes it hit the ground almost immediately once it passes the net. There are many different combinations (yes, with just two buttons!) And knowing when to use which type of shot can help you turn the tide in your favor.

The courts you play on are pretty grounded in reality. All but two (both only available in special game modes) don’t feature weird Mario-style special tricks. Some of them present a large image of the owners (like Mario and Luigi) spread out on the floor, but these have no other purpose than to differentiate all the fields of the game. Each also has its own unique characteristics that determine the speed of the ball and the strength of the bounce, which serves as a kind of “difficulty setting” as you can choose how you want the game to be just by choosing a court.

Curiously, the “human” characters introduced in Golf are absent, as the cast here is made up entirely of familiar faces from the Mushroom Kingdom, with the exception of two of them: Daisy, who had only appeared in Super Mario Land, and one o two. dark titles; and Waluigi, who actually made his debut here. Granted, both have appeared in almost every multiplayer Mario game released since then, but it’s interesting to see how the two originally looked and acted in 3D.

As in golf, the characters are divided into certain types of skills. Mario and Luigi are versatile guys, as usual, but the rest of the cast is divided into Speed, Power, Technique, and Tricky players. Each of these are tailored to a different style of play: Powerful players must try to beat their opponent with super-strong and fast blows, while Technique players must try to use their incredible precision to send the ball flying into place. almost unattainable or unexpected for the opponent (s).

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Mario game without some wacky game modes. Ring Shot is another familiar concept: rings will appear on the court, and whoever hits the ball through them will score points. With each hit, the rings increase in size and are worth less, so you’ll want to try to get the ball through them as soon as they appear.

The Piranha Challenge is a simple test of skill. Three piranha plants will shoot balls at you (one at a time) and you will simply have to return them all. However, the other side of the court also has an opposing player, and he or she will actively try to return all the balls that you manage to hit, after which you will not be able to hit them a second time. If you manage to hit all 50 balls past your opponent, you can be proud to beat one of the most difficult challenges in the history of Mario sports games!

The Bowser Stage features a special court located in Bowser’s Castle that continually leans back over a lava pit. To make matters worse, there are item boxes on the net – smash the ball through them and you will get items to annoy your opponents with.

The lack of Game Boy Color link support if you are not playing on the original hardware means that you cannot import four more custom characters from the GBC game or six more courts, some of which also have unique features (such as one with the speed faster and stronger bounce).

For a 2000 N64 release, Mario Tennis looks great. Each character has a wide variety of facial expressions and animations, and the game always runs smoothly. Like Mario Golf, the music is upbeat and enjoyable, though not overly catchy, though character-specific courses feature remixes of music from their appropriate games. Nice touch.

conclusion

With Mario Tennis, the burly plumber proved once again that he can make any sport more entertaining. This game has received many sequels over the years, some of which introduced some questionable and not always pleasant gameplay elements. The 64-bit input, on the other hand, is a pure and unspoiled Mario Tennis experience and one of Mario’s best outputs with a racket. All in all, a fun, frenetic game and an absolute blast to play with friends.