What an original name for a game... (Mario Tennis (GB))

Member Name: defiler

Product:	Mario Tennis (GB)
Date:	14/07/01 (193 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: RPG elements add a lot to the game, A fun tennis game

Disadvantages: Music gets annoying, Why can Mario do everything better than anyone else?

Provided you like tennis games this is one of the best I have played. I've always been a fan of "fun" tennis games (ones that aren't too realistic) and provided you like this type of game you should enjoy Mario Tennis.

Despite being called Mario Tennis if you play the main mode of the game you will probably see little of the mario characters in comparison to normal humans.

--RPG Elements--
The game adds a number of RPG elements to the normal tennis game which helps to make you feel you are actually achieving something when you complete a task or win a match. Rather than just playing a game and having it have no impact on anything, you can play the "Mario Tour" mode of the game, in this you create a new player that you have to work on improving through a number of matches and mini-games. The RPG elements come from a number of places, for example you can wander around and actually talk to people rather than constantly playing match after match of tennis. The main part of the RPG elements however comes from the advancement of skills, every time you achieve something (win/play a mini-game, play a match etc.O) you get some experience points, the better you do the more you get, after you have a certain number of points you can advance a level and improve one of your skills. Rather than skills constantly improving however they can also get worse through not being advanced, this is useful in that i prevents you getting perfect at every single skill quickly, high levels in one skill will come at the expense of low levels in another skill until you have been playing for a large amount of time.

The other RPG element in the game comes from the different items you can equip. While you can only change your racket and shoes this does offer a number of different choices, for example you can equip shoes which lower your skills but let you gain 50% more experience while wearing them or a racket which will raise a few
of your skills at the expense of others. The fact that these are changable at any time means you can experiment to find the best for you in general and also equip specific items when you feel you need them to complete a task or win a match.

--Game Modes--
As previously mentioned there is the Mario Tour mode, this is the story mode of the game and is probably that the majority of people will play most often. You start as a new entrant to a tennis academy (along with a doubles partner) and must work your way through to the top, once there you go on to enter tournaments, play Mario and a variety of other things. This mode contains a number of mini-games which vary in difficulty and aim to teach you a variety of skills and improve them once you have learnt them (as well as provide valuable experience to make you more able to face upcoming tennis matches). This is the best mode in the game for me and one which will last a long time before you have achieved everything possible.

You can also play a single match using either one of the Mario characters (initial choice of Luigi, Baby Mario and Donkey Kong but new characters can be unlocked) or one of the characters from the Mario Tour mode (either ones you created or just ones you face in that mode). This is a single match which lets you choose the number of games, sets, doubles/singles, court and difficulty and is great if you just want a quick game or to quickly practice something.

There are also a number of mini-games that can be played from the main menu, one for each Mario character (Luigi, Mario etc.), while you cannot improve the skills of your Mario Tour character here your top score is recorded and many of the mini-games can be very fun to play. The games consist of doing a number of things, Luigi has to aim to hit a star on the court to get points, Donkey Kong has to hit a moving banana panel against a wall etc.

You have the ability to link to another Game Boy and play
a 2-player game of Mario Tennis however not knowing anybody with this game I have been unable to test this out.

All game modes allow both singles and doubles tennis to be played (except the mini-games), both can be fun to play and though you aren't forced to play either to get the most out of the game you should try both.

--Gameplay--
The game itself is very smooth to play and easy to pick up, it builds you into the game slowly starting with relatively easy challenges and opponents (perhaps too easy if you have played many tennis games before) and slowly increases the difficulty as you progress. While it is possible to easily beat challenges by taking them when you are much higher level than intended you will find it harder to get to that level without taking the challenges in the first place and there are certain things you must acomplish to progress in the game so it does balance out somewhat.

Many of the ways of hitting the ball may take a bit of getting used to to start with as many require a combination of buttons and directions to be pressed (for example A then left/right then B) but given a bit of practice and the training you do during the Mario Tour mode and you should get used to them reasonably quickly.

--Graphics--
These are limited by the Game Boy Colour however certainly achieve what they need to. The graphics take on a more fun and comic rather than serious look and whille you will never see anything as impressive as could be seen on the N64 version of the game you can see where your character is, where the ball travels and what characters look like easily enough to play the game perfectly well. For the machine they are on they look great but some people may not be prepared to accept them.

--Sound/Music--
The sound is good and never gets annoying to me, the music however does get a bit repetative fairly quickly as most other Game Boy games do, as well as this it tends to try to make cer
tain moments of the game sound dramatic but unfortunatly fails to do this very sucesfully. The music can be turned off however if you do get annoyed by it and is just as playable without any sound on at all. It's not great but I don't think it could have been done much better either.

--N64 Link--
The game can be linked to the N64 version which allows a number of functions to be performed such as unlocking certain things and trasfering your character(s) back and forth so you can improve them on either game. This is great if you have an N64, the peripheral to transfer data and Mario Tennis for the N64 however isn't something I can see most players of this game using.

As well as this the controls are apparently the same for both games making it easy to start playing either after you have played one.

--Saving--
The game can be saved at any time (even in the middle of a match) which makes it easy to pick up and play knowing you can quit whenever you want to, it also means that if batteries are low you can save without having to repeat what you have recently achieved.

--AI--
The AI in the game is good however not perfect, it is noticable when playing a singles match that the computer can be fooled a few ways making it easier than it should be to win certain matches. This problem however seems less in doubles matches as you have 2 computer players to fool and a computer partner to work with. As well as this it seems that some things are easier than they should be, I have yet to see a double fault for example. I personally have no complaints with the AI.

--Manual--
The manual for this game explains everything that needs to be explained and does everything a manual needs to. While it won't fascinate you with interesting details it will tell you how to do things if you are stuck, explains the controls well, explains the game modes well etc.

--Problems--
The game isn't perfec
t though, there are a few problems with it that may spoil your enjoyment.

Firstly once you have finished the "Mario Tour" mode of the game there is little incouragement to improve your character further, once you have completed it the most fun you can get often comes from replaying the game or concentrating on the other modes of the game.

Secondly if you don't have the N64 version and a way to transfer data you miss out on a number of characters and other little features, annoying to have to be forced to buy another game to get the most you can from this one.

Another problem is the lack of realism, while I don't like complete realism in a game this one makes it too easy at times, faulting while serving for example is nearly impossible unless you are specifically trying to do so.

--Conclusion--
If you like tennis games this is a great game for you and it could even convince a few people who haven't got much enjoyment out of this type of game that they actually can be fun. Having said this however if you dislike tennis games chances are that you will also dislike this. Constantly playing matches can be a bit boring over time however if you only play the game now and then or mix in different types of matches (singles and doubles) and play some mini-games inbetween it can maintain your interest for quite some time.

Summary: