Mario Power Tennis

Enjoy a bit of tennis? Played any version of Mario Tennis before? Yep? Then you'll know not to expect the ordinary

 

Your aim at the academy is simply to get good at tennis and become a pro, basically. To do this you start in the lowly Junior Class with no rank, and must rise up the ranks by beating the ranked players in both singles and doubles matches. After winning matches you're given experience points to level up your characters and improve their abilities. It's particularly important to spread the points evenly, unless you like being able to perform a killer serve yet are only able to paw lamely at the ball when it makes its inevitable return

 

The RPG mode is just an excuse to put together strings of many tennis matches more than anything, though, which becomes quite apparent as you realise there isn't that much to do aside play, play, play; not that this is a bad thing. As they should be, matches are an absolute joy to participate in, with never a moment for you to stop and get bored during the proceedings. It has to be said that the singles matches are less interesting than doubles matches until you get higher statistics, going on for an age while doubles matches are more fast paced and enjoyable. Also frustrating is that it is impossible to pause mid-match

 

Mario Power Tennis certainly takes full advantage of the mighty portable's abilities. While the music can be a bit repetitive (though the special effects are tremendous), the visuals are stunning for the Game Boy Advance, with special effects a-plenty on Power Shots, with trails zooming after balls and bunches of things flying about the screen in some instances - time has allowed developers to really get to grips with the GBA, and it shows here. As previously mentioned, the characters resemble those used in Golden Sun, only more fine-tuned, and the intro features some shockingly good pre-renders that just weren't expected on the platform at all. If, sadly, the GBA is indeed slowly sailing towards the end of its era, this is the kind of thing that is leading it into a very graceful swansong.

Where are the mentions of Mario and his various cohorts though, throughout all this? Well, there's a quick and easy explanation for this