Mario has been quite busy
as of late. He's mastered the sport of golf, held three parties,
and now has become one of the world's best tennis players. The shocking thing is that each
of his games have been masterpieces of video gaming.
Mario Tennis is so basic in its premise, it's surprising that it is so addicting. After selecting one of your favorite Nintendo mascots, it's simply a matter of batting a green ball back and forth over a net. The depth of the gameplay comes from the variety of the characters which range from the super-fast weak hitters to the brutally slow power smashers. Picking a character is one of the hardest aspects of the game and requires a well thought out strategy.
All of the games' mascots are represented in perfect polygonal form, and the frame rate keeps up flawlessly. The ball features a "Fox-Trax"-like tail keeping with the games fantasy setting. Special courts include one with Mario's picture planted on it and one set in Bowser's castle which tips side to side.
The usual round of
features have made their presence known including a championship mode, versus mode, and a
few mini-games thrown in for good measure. Beyond the versus mode, each of these modes
offer the player a chance to earn a few extra characters and courts to play around with,
putting the replay value sky high. On a side note, if you have four controllers, take two
of them back because with four players on the court at one time, your life will simply
dwindle away and you'll miss out on the finer aspects of your time here on Earth. Then
again, maybe this isn't such a bad thing.
To keep it simple, this is one for the most enjoyable games to come out on the 64 in quite some time. Nights can go by attempting to unlock everything and even more time passes when battling it out with the multi-player mode. Keep the difficulty level high, and you may never, eeeever, finish this one. From the addicting gameplay to the enjoyable characters, any gamer will find this game in their console for quite some time.
