Mario Tennis Open

Game Info

It’s widely known that Mario loves to get his sport on.  Having joined the Mushroom Kingdom gang to play soccer, baseball, and golf, he’s not one to turn down a game (as long as physics defying powers are involved).  Now he gets to return to the tennis court to play in 3D on the go.

The Mario Tennis series has been a fan favorite for a while.  A lot of fans loved that a sports game could feature a fun and compelling RPG mode.  For this effort however, the RPG mode is gone, and in its place comes a multitude of clothing items to unlock.  Each match played in single player will unlock a new piece of attire for your Mii to wear.  These items can then be purchased in the shop with coins earned in the included mini-games.  The outfits aren’t just for show though, as they all have a different effect on how your Mii plays.  Collect four items from the same set to get an extra ability boost.  And don’t think you’ll work your way through all the items in a day or two, as there are 48 different sets to fully collect (that’s 192 total pieces for you math majors).  There are also extra characters, costumes, and courts you can unlock by accomplishing certain feats.

This is where longtime fans of the series may be let down.  There is no story mode.  While I did find unlocking the different shop items addicting, it would have been nice to have something else to bring me back to single player.  As it is, once you work your way to winning the trophy in all the cups, you might not feel any reason to come back.  I also would have liked to see a better way to compare different outfit combination stats.  A pie chart appears when highlighting each one, but it was hard for me to get a sense of what changes I was making without going back and forth to my options several times.

The visuals in the game look great.  The 3D effect doesn’t add anything but it also doesn’t take anything away so that’s a bonus.  You notice the depth it provides, but mostly it’s just there.  Some of the environments look a little bland in the color department, however it balances out as some are also very cool looking and very vibrant so there is a good balance established.  The lava and galaxy courts in particular stood out to me.  All the characters look great during gameplay and the various replays you can view after a point is won are fun to watch at first, but I mostly found myself skipping them after a few rounds.  The music is decent, never getting in the way.  It was nice to hear the Mario Galaxy theme again when playing on that court, and it sounds just as great as the original.  Thankfully, the voices of the characters aren’t too annoying, they were done well, though they do make a lot of noise.  The best part is they changed the horrendous Mii voice from Mario Kart 7.

How does the game actually play, you may ask?  Pretty darn good!  The controls are easy to get the hang of with the ability to use either the touch screen or the face buttons to select the type of shot.  This being a Mario game of course, various spots appear on the court during your match, and if you pull of the shot that matches the color of the spot, your character will put some extra oomph (and physics law-breaking) into that shot.  This keeps the player on their toes and always keeps the game interesting.  I felt the difficulty ramps up nicely as you progress through the tournaments.  Though playing an exhibition match on Ace difficulty is an exercise in futility.

Besides the tournaments for single players, there are four new mini-games to play.  This is the primary way to earn coins for use in the shop.  These are a great way to hone your aiming skills, but I couldn’t see myself really returning much to these if I didn’t need to get coins to spend or unlockables.  The one exception is the Super Mario Tennis game, which sees you play through a level of Super Mario Bros. by hitting a tennis ball against a giant screen.  Your aim is to hit question blocks and gather as many coins as you can.  It’s a goofy little concept, but pretty entertaining.

If you get sick of playing computer opponents, you can hop online to play matches against friends or strangers in your region.  Games are easy to get into after you choose what type you want to play (tie-breaker quick game or one best-of-3 set).  I never waited for more than 10 seconds waiting for a game.  While most games played smoothly without hiccups, I did experience some laggy matches, which completely destroys any fun you may have had.  You also get points for every match you complete and a ranking, so you can see where you rank compared to other online players.  It’s pretty bare-bones, but gets the job done.

I think Mario Tennis Open is a pretty great package.  The tennis plays well with enough Mario touches to make it accessible for anyone.  Sure, it might grow old pretty quickly to some without a story or RPG mode like in past iterations, but with the addition of online play and the large amount of items to unlock, I found myself returning to the game more than I expected.  With a lack of quality sports games available for the 3DS, Mario Tennis Open serves up a winner! Definitely a title worth picking up.