Sports Betting

Mario Power Tennis: Hands-On

Sports Betting Tip In all the chaos that is Halo 2, people may have let Nintendos latest first party Mario game slip through the cracks. Mario Power Tennis was officially shipped on the eight of November, which put it on most shelves the 9th, which just happened to be Halo 2 day. Nonetheless, for those of you who have picked up Mario Power Tennis, youre probably pleasantly surprised. Mario Power Tennis offers an interesting mix of tennis and Mario-esque style that proves once again that the plumber can do anything.

Immediately after booting up the game, I happened to notice the style is not unlike another certain Mario sports title (Mario Golf, anyone?). The introduction is fun and amusing, and worth watching at least once. Once you get past the Press Start screen, you see that the meat and bones of the game consists of exhibition, tournament, and various minigames modes. Through tournaments, you unlock a variety of things including new minigames and characters. Tournaments are only single player, however, which is somewhat disappointing. It would have been nice to have played through a doubles tournament with a human partner, but you can still play with up to four players in exhibition matches. Tournaments are fairly challenging, once you get past the first easy ones. Right around the time of the Star Tournament youll notice your opponents suddenly have brains. I found myself feeling pretty inferior when they habitually drew me in with drop shots and then lobbed the ball over my head. Peach is a mad, mad woman. Watch out for her.

The number of initial characters to choose from is rather large, giving you a wide range of players who are fast, powerful, tricky, or technical. There is actually a pretty wide range as far as skill levels, and each character is worth trying out. Once the game starts, the addictive gameplay and simple controls really take a hold of you. On normal courts its a lot like typical tennis, even when you count in the special defensive and offensive maneuvers that each character has. Anyone who was afraid these maneuvers would make the game rather unbalanced, fear not. The powers are very well balanced so assuming your opponent is positioned correctly, theyll have a good chance of returning the ball. Also, even if the ball is way out of reach, a well-timed defensive maneuver automatically returns the ball. This system allows for massive volleys that can take forever to finish, but leave you rather satisfied if youre the one that comes out on top.

Thats the story on the normal courts. However, when you play on the special Gimmick courses, it becomes a whole new ball game. On the gimmick courses, it starts feeling a lot less like tennis and more like run around randomly and press buttons. Its fun, but it left me rather annoyed in the end. I played on the Luigis Mansion court and I guarantee those ghosts had a personal vendetta with me with their stupid banana peels. Ive only been on a couple of the gimmick courses, so Ill have to try more and see how they feel, but as of now I prefer the normal courts. The gimmick courses arent the only oddity youll find in Mario Power Tennis however, as there are also a variety of minigames that reminded me specifically of Mario Party. One of which featured a giant paint-by-number image of Mario and required me to whack paint balls into it, and the other required me to smack tennis balls in order to soothe the chain chomps that were pursuing me. Both of these games were cute and clever, but required a lot of accuracy that you just dont have with a tennis racket. The paint by number sequence was difficult because you could lob the ball right over Marios beady little eyes, but it was difficult to nail him square in the cornea. The minigames are less about skill and more about luck, it seems. While theyre fun, you probably wont find yourself turning on the game specifically for them.

Here's one of the better minigames, in which you return the many balls the squid shoots at you.
Overall, Mario Power Tennis is a solid tennis game, with shaky Mario add-ons. Also, although I won't dive into details, the graphics are amazingly crisp and beautiful. The normal tennis matches that you play in Mario Power Tennis are an absolute thrill and are addictive, to say the least. However, I have yet to really get into the quirky stuff like gimmick courts and the odd minigames. Then again, Ive only played for a few hours now, so theres always time. My buddies and I are taking a break from Halo 2 to give Mario Power Tennis its fair share of TV time. Mario Power Tennis can make a tennis lover out of everyone, thats for sure.

Look out for GCAs full review soon!

In the meantime, have you played it? Write your own review!

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