#110: Mario Tennis (2000, N64)

The Shining Force series was a fairly prolific tactical RPG series released across several Sega systems in the early to mid 1990s. The developer behind all of them was a Camelot Software Planning, they did do a sports game (Hot Shots Golf), but it still strikes me as odd that Nintendo would seek them out to head up their entire Mario-sports series, rather then handling them in house or something. Even more incredible is that Camelot would wind up doing a far better job then Nintendo themselves probably would have managed (well, there isn't much to back this up, since Nintendo has passes off all their sports games).

What's most remarkable is that Camelot, an RPG developer, understands perfectly the need for rock solid control in a game like this - as a result, Mario Tennis winds up being incredibly easy to pick up and play while remaining really precise, resulting in gameplay that can stand up to hours upon hours of playtime. Mario Tennis quickly became a N64 multiplayer staple, alongside greats like Bomberman 64, Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye 007/Perfect Dark, Super Smash Bros. and uh... I suppose that was the list (there really weren't a lot of games for it, you know).

I find there to be something ingenious about the swing mechanics here - A for topspin, B for slice, A+B for smash - with A then B for lob and B then A for a drop shot - or maybe I have those backwards - the point is, that is the list of shots, and basically then the extent to which you can actually do anything in the game. It is because of this simplicity that the games can then be more about things like movement and rhythm than an exercise in control - you can even survive pretty well just using the slice or the topspin, turning Mario Tennis into essentially a one button game.

It's remarkable how well suited for multiplayer tennis is, by the way. Both sides are always more or less equally involved in the proceedings - or more specifically, the time spent on 'defense' (waiting for the ball) is so short as to be unnoticeable - by the time you've seen your shot through, you get to set up for the next. Compare this to football where the defensive time can be interminable, or even to something like basketball where it is short but noticeable. And another big plus is that even when the score may be lopsided, the losing team never really feels out of it, especially in something like Mario Tennis where the learning curve is low enough that there will never be that huge of a gulf between the experienced and the novice.

The Mario Tennis series, because of its engaging simplicity are probably my favorite sports games out there in terms of actually enjoying the game itself (Tecmo Super Bowl notwithstanding) - I may enjoy the hell out of a Madden, but this is because of the things that I bring into the proceedings - my love of sports statistics and my desire to manipulate rosters - when I play Madden itself, I'm mostly concerned with wanting to put up crazy numbers with the roster of guys I've spent time assembling. With Mario Tennis, however, its a simple case of picking a character I like to play as (aka Yoshi) and playing.



Fun fact, this game is not called Mario Tennis 64 - shocking only because that makes it one of about maybe 10 games ever released on the N64 without the number '64' in the title. I also would be remiss to not mention how shockingly crisp the texturing is in this game - spend time with basically any other N64 game - texturing was not its strong suit.

Mario Tennis
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Camelot Software Planning
Released: 8/28/2000
Obtained: Fall 2000

9.0/10