Pros: Presence of storyline, solid graphics, decent min-games.
Cons: Sickeningly monotonous, boring tennis action, storyline allows little freedom, too easy, Mario license poorly used.
The bottom line: I don't recommend buying Mario Tennis GBC at all. It has a few redeeming qualities and decent depth, but unfortunately, this game isn't very fun at all.
Mario. The ultimate mascot and cash cow of Nintendo. It seems like lately, Nintendo has come up with all kinds of different types of games, stuck Mario and a few of his pals on each one, added some bright colors, and sold them as games. And these games... well, they were really good, so I had no right to complain about them. Super Smash Bros. (my favorite line of fighting games), Mario Party (which is actually very original), Mario Golf for the N64, and even Mario Tennis for the N64 were all quite good. They were FUN. Mario Golf for the GBC fared just as well, with fun gameplay and incredible depth. Mario Tennis for the GBC combines the the basic gameplay of Mario Tennis 64 with the depth and mini-games of Mario Golf GBC, and somehow manages to be a lousy game, due to a few critical flaws.

As usual, I am going to start with the technical qualities of our game in question. Mario Golf has solid, colorful, and detailed (for a GBC game, anyway) graphics. When you hit a ball certain ways, it leaves streaks of color, which is VERY helpful since you can't see the nuances of the ball's course looking at a tiny GBC screen. The sound is basic and what you would expect from a game like this. It does its job and I'm fine with that. The control is decent, too. You have control over some of the fine movements of your character, and an intuitive control scheme for hitting special shots is present. Want to hit a power topspin? Hit A then A again as the ball comes to you. Soft slice? Simply Tap B. Drop shot? B then A. This is a very good system for a tennis game, and allows ease of gameplay with relatively few buttons.

Like Mario Golf GBC, there is a storyline in Mario Tennis, to keep the game together. You are a new student at a tennis school (you can choose from two characters), and aim to make the varsity team and travel to an island somewhere to participate in a tournament. You do have a partner for doubles matches, which is based on your selection of character. There are a few instructors who give you lessons on different types of shots. Furthermore, if you walk around the academy (by the way you don't take classes or anything), you can find some quasi-cool minigames such as a tennis wall with panels that make the ball go in different directions. While sort of fun, it's very repetitive and it's fun factor does go down the longer you play it.

The storyline, while decent stand-alone, actually hinders the gameplay a bit. You beat one opponent, and your rank gets raised by one and you move onto the next opponent. That's basically how it works. A major flaw is that, for example, your first four opponents play on a standard concrete court. Once you have beaten them, you can't play them again. Thus, you won't be able to play one-player matches on a standard concrete court anymore. Your next five matches are on clay. Clay, with its low bounce and slow action, can get monotonous really quickly, and you'll probably wish you could go back to concrete. You can't. And suppose you developed a liking to clay? Well, once you've beaten these 5 opponents--in a linear order, of course--you can't go back to play. Too bad, so sad. I'm mad!

Mario Tennis does have some good qualities. Among these rests character development, a decent sense of satisfaction, and the mini-games. When I talk aobut the mini-games now, I'm not talking about things like the tennis wall. I'm talking about mini-games that you access from the main menu and just play for fun. And these are pretty fun. You do stuff like try to volley the ball continuously through stars as Luigi, hit the ball to nail specified fruits as Yoshi, etc. And the sense of satisfaction is there. You get it when you win (relatively) tough matches and you realize that you have won, and at least you never have to play them again.

The last strength is character development. It's kind of cool being able to specialize in certain areas, and equally cool going from a lousy player to a superb one, but, like the game itself, this system is flawed. The game actually discourages specialization because the amount that you have built up your skill in a category is inversely proportional to the amount that you will receive next time you choose to increase that category with your level-ups. I, for example, hardly care about power. But as I let that area drop below the others, I found that adding to my power skills was beneficial--even after its lack of importance to me--to level up. Furthermore, there are 4 types of stats that each have several sub-stats in them. Power, for example, has volley and serve. Well, I want volley points, but not serve points. Can't do it that way, though. So your volley and serve will almost always be nigh even--very unrealistic. Lastly, the game does not involve one highly numerical stat, like Mario Golf had "drive". It's hard to explain why this is bad, but it stunts the ability to grow effectively at the later levels.

Alas, these are but minor nit-picks in comparison to some of Mario Tennis' bigger flaws. First of all, as mentioned before, is the storyline. You beat a chgallenger, you move onto the next. You lose... from what I've read, you simply play them again. So there isn't much at take and it isn't realistic. If you challenge someone for the #1 spot in the junior class and lose, you should be demoted to #3, or maybe #3 should have a CHANCE to claim it from you. I don't know about everyone else, but if someone were to go and take my spot on the varsity team, for example, I'd want it back. Apparently, the guy on the varsity team didn't. Oh, and wonder why I said "from what I read?" for when you lose? I've never lost a game (I've lost several games in the N64 version, to CPU players anyhow). Yes, I'm boasting, but the important part is why I've never lost a game. This is explained in the following paragraph.

Even worse is the monotonous gameplay WITHIN the tennis matches. The volleys usually last about 8 to about 16 hits, apiece. The A.I. can get to about anything and hit it, but can rarely hit anything so you can't get to it. And it usually takes SEVERAL shots to get the CPU player out of position in order to hit a shot by them. Therefore, it basically comes down to human error. You make human errors a lot, you lose. You make human errors less often, you win. Basically that simple. The more advanced opponents won't fall victim to drop shots, lobs, or even power shots, so it basically involves slowly getting them out of place and hitting a standard shot (a power slice or power topspin shot) past them on the other side. Then you do it again, about half a dozen time per game, several games per set, and 2-3 sets a match. Not fun. And not challenging or thought-provoking, either.

Compounding the problems is the poor use of the Mario license. The only reason they were able to call it Mario Tennis is the characters in some short mini-games, and a match at the end where you play against Mario (or Princess Peach and Mario if you're playing doubles). Mario is a better player than any other opponent, but still has a ridiculously hard time hitting the ball past you. The other characters make a VERY brief cameo right beofre your match. It would have been nice to... um... play as some of the Mario characters throughout the game, but it's not happening.

The two-player mode fairs a bit better. Playing against a friend is far more fun, because they make human errors yet have intelligence and can hit the ball past you if you screw up. There is also a more competitive edge, and, hopefully, more difficulty.

All right, after about two hours of ferverish writing, I've made it to the last paragraph. I do apologize for the transposed letters and other typos, I tried to do this quickly. Hopefully I'll get around to editing it soon. Anyhow, I do NOT recommend buying Mario Golf unless it still sounds good after you've read all of this. The game had enormous potential and failed because of a few critical flaws. Unfortunate.