Pros: colorful graphics, great tennis gameplay, mini-games, new characters and courts
Cons: power shots disrupt flow of the game
The bottom line: Mario Power Tennis is a game that everyone will enjoy. To maximize this enjoyment, make sure that you have plenty of friends over at your house.
The characters from the Mushroom Kingdom return for yet another game for the GameCube console, titled Mario Power Tennis. This is the newer version of the smash hit Mario Tennis 64 for the Nintendo 64, a game that turned out to be one of the most exciting games with plenty of multi-player action. The GameCube rendition features improved graphics and a few gameplay additions. Do these addictions make it a noticeably better game or were they tacked on for the sake of having them? Read on to find out whether Mario Power Tennis is a game that you should check out.

All of the characters from the past Mario games return. Everyone will have a chance to play as their favorite, be it Mario, Luigi, Wario, Yoshi, Peach, Diddy Kong, Bowser, Boo or others. In total, there are 18 characters that you can play as, a few of which must be unlocked. There are two differences between all of the characters: their class type as well as their power shots. In Mario Power Tennis, there are six different character classes: All-Around, Power, Speed, Technique, Tricky and Defense. All-Around characters, such as Mario, are well-rounded characters that are pretty good at everything. Power characters, such as Donkey Kong, usually hit harder serves and volleys, yet they also tend to be fairly slow. Speedy characters, such as Yoshi, excel at getting to the ball in time, although they lack power. Defensive characters are always nice to have in a doubles matches, as they are tall and have a large wingspan, thus allowing them to play upfront and reach many balls. An example of a defensive character is Waluigi. Technique characters, such as Peach, are very advantageous because they are good at hitting balls to the corners of the opponent’s side of the net. Tricky characters, like Boo, are tricky solely because their volleys have more spin and curve to them than all other characters.

Power shots are new to the series, and they come in the offensive and defensive variety. Every four or five hits in a match, your character’s tennis racket will begin to glow, which means that you can activate your power shot. If it becomes completely impossible for you to return a volley, you can use the power shot defensively. This will activate a short cut-scene where your player manages to hurl himself toward the ball, hit it and keep the action going. If you are positioned well, you can use it offensively. An offensive power shot involves the character hitting the ball with extra strength or trickery. All of the characters have unique power shots. Mario takes out a giant hammer and smashes the ball toward his opponent, while Donkey Kong launches himself out of a barrel and hits the ball with incredible strength. Most of the power shots also usually temporarily stun the opponent, which guarantees a point for you.

Throughout my first few matches, I absolutely loved the power shots. I’d switch characters as often as possible merely to check out all the different power shots that the various characters possess. However, the fact that in order to use the power shot, a three-second cut-scene must be shown each time turns into a nuisance. It actually disrupts the flow of the gameplay a bit, which is a shame. There is an option to turn off power shots altogether, however this takes away some fun from the game. I believe that the power shots themselves are a great addition to the series, yet I also believe that they could have been implemented in a better fashion.

In order to pull off these power shots, you must master the controls. In order to cater to the audiences of all ages, the control scheme is very user-friendly and you’ll be used to all of the controls within your first match or two. There is a control scheme for beginners, which is too simple, so I recommend switching to the standard controls right away. With the standard controls, your characters will be hitting shots with a topspin, slice, lob shots, drop shots and power shots with simple presses of the A and B buttons. The impressive amount of shots also showed to me that the developers pulled off a good tennis game.

Mario Power Tennis has a total of ten different courts that you can play on, two of which you must unlock. Three of the courts are standard courts that are enjoyable because of their simplicity. However, the remaining courts are gimmick courts, which means that all of them have something that makes them harder to play on than normal courts. For example, the DK Jungle court has alligators crawling around. If you walk onto on, it attaches to you and slows you down. However, you can hit them when they are on the net to send them to your opponent’s side of the net. The Luigi’s Mansion court has ghost than obstruct you, and you must hit the ball on certain spots of the court to turn on the lights and make them leave your side. What’s interesting is that most courts resembles levels from a game, such as the Luigi’s Mansion court, Delfino Plaza court (Super Mario Sunshine) and Wario’s Factory court.

Mario Power Tennis has quite a few modes of play. As always, there is the option to play an Exhibition match. In Exhibition, you have the option of playing a single one-on-one or doubles match. You pick your characters, the number of sets, the court and head out for match. If you are playing against the computer, there are four difficulty settings to choose from. Besides standard tennis matches, you can even opt to play in Ring Shot or Item Battle mode. Item Battle is the most exciting of the lot, as you hit boxes throughout the match to acquire items and then use them on your opponent. All of the weapons from the Mario Kart series, such as the banana, red shells and lightning bolt make a return. For example, shells knock your opponent back, lightning bolts make them shorter, which reduces their power and make it harder to get to the ball.

However, if you have a little more time on your hands you should head over to the Tournament Mode. This is where the bulk of the single-player hours lie. In Tournament mode, you basically choose a character and then you choose whether you wish to play the World Open or Gimmick Masters (gimmick courts only). After that you simply select a cup that you wish to contend for, and the tennis action begins. You generally have to beat three opponents to win the cup. The first cups are very easy to win, as the opponents are incredibly bad. However, soon enough the difficulty ramps up and the competition becomes intense. By winning cups, you obtain trophies, unlock new characters, new cups, new courts and new mini-games.

Speaking of mini-games, they are definitely a welcome addition to the Mario Tennis series. There are slightly over half of a dozen mini-games (some of which must be unlocked). They are very fun at first and extend the replay value, although they can become boring after a while. Difficulty-wise, they are a lot harder than they appear to be at first. One of the games is Artist on the Court, where you have to paint a picture on a brick wall by hitting different-colored paint balls at it. The fact that there is a time limit and you have to get the colors correctly makes this quite a challenge. Another game that I enjoy is Tic-Tac-Glow, where you try to line up your shots and get the most points. Some of the games are intended for multi-player as well.

In all honesty, this truly is a game that is meant for multi-player action. The single-player tournaments and mini-games will last you for a while, but sooner or later you will grow tired of it because either it becomes too repetitive or the computer AI becomes too easy for you. This is where you realize that if you had a few friends over, it would continue to be a blast. This is a game just like Mario Kart, where the multi-player action makes this a very exciting game. Your friends are far less predictable and offer better competition. This leads me to the conclusion that this game is only really worth it if you have friends over all the time. If you are a loner, renting the game is the best option. If only the GameCube had online play, then this would be simply amazing.

Graphically, Mario Power Tennis is a very bright, colorful and cheery game. The character models and animations are all terrific. Throughout the few cut-scenes that are shown in game and during all of the instant replays, the character close-ups are as sharp as ever. There are no jagged edges and this gives the game a feeling of freshness. The courts and power shots are very appealing graphically because of the nice effects that they show off.

The audio in Mario Power Tennis is also good is comparison with other Mario games. There isn’t much dialogue at all, although the grunts and remarks that all of the characters exert are extremely welcome. A little more dialogue would have been welcome, but it’s good enough. The background music is your standard affair – with plenty of simple tunes that reflect the cheery mood of the game. The sound effects are nothing special, yet you can’t complain about them either.

Overall, Mario Power Tennis is a very pleasant game that will be enjoying by almost everyone. It is perfect for a get-together, although the single-player modes will last people for a while too. I recommend this game to virtually everyone that owns a GameCube, as I simply don’t see how you could not like or enjoy this game. If you own and still play the Nintendo 64 version, I still believe that it is worthwhile to pick up the GameCube version because of the updated graphics, new power shots, characters and courts.