Mario Tennis Aces Review
Screenshot from Game. © 2019 Nintendo / CAMELOT. Mario Tennis and Nintendo Switch are trademarks of Nintendo. © 2019 Nintendo.
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Mario Tennis Aces – Nintendo Switch
Developer – CAMELOT
Publisher – Nintendo
Number of Players Up to 4 – Local, Online
ESRB Rating – E for Mild Cartoon Violence
Release Date June 22nd 2018
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Mario Tennis Aces is Nintendo’s latest Mario Sports game that came out June 22nd 2018.
Mario Tennis Aces was also WINNER: Best Sports Game of E3 2018 – IGN.
Gameplay
This particular review will be for the current 3.0 Version.
I was actually pleased with the gameplay of Mario Tennis Aces. Being a Mario Tennis fan since the Nintendo 64 version.
It has everything I would expect and want from a Mario Tennis game. But, it didn’t start out that way. Mario Tennis Aces has received additional characters via a free update each month since it’s June 2018 release and in December, they added a Shy Guy as a playable character. Which is my favorite of the Mario characters.
Along with those updates, Mario Tennis Aces has also received some updates that fix some gameplay glitches and if I understand correctly, they did reduce some of the “Tricky” characters shots. That were, excuse the pun, a little to Tricky.
Speaking of Tricky, there are different Play Styles of each character. They go from All Around, Powerful, Defensive, Technical, Speedy & of course, Tricky. Each giving the character a different style of play and different shots. Also, even though one character might be the same Play Style, they have I different style of the Play Style.
Like for instance, Petey Piranha is a Powerful character, but plays differently then Bowser or Donkey Kong. He’s a little slow and sometimes when serving you get a “Bad Shot” or “Good Shot”.
Another example is Boom Boom. Although he’s a Defensive character, he walks slow while moving forward. But moves faster when moving left or right.
One thing in this Mario Tennis, is that you have Special Shots and Trick Shots.
Special Shots
Zone Speed
If you have enough energy in your meter you can temporarily slow down time by holding the R button to get a better shot in at hitting the tennis ball or blocking a Zone Shot or a Special Shot.
You build up your gauge by hitting the tennis ball back and forth and can also build up your gauge faster by doing successful Trick Shots.
Trick Shots
The Trick Shots are for hitting tennis balls that are almost out of reach and you use a Trick Shot by tilting the Right Thumbstick toward the tennis ball.
Zone Shots
You can use a powerful shot called a Zone Shot, where you choose where to send the ball when hit. When can also damage the other players racket if they hit the tennis ball at the wrong time.
Zone Shots can only be done when a Star shape is shown on your side of the court and by pressing the R button while standing on it and then aiming where to hit the tennis ball by pressing the normal hit button.
Your energy gauge needs to be at least yellow before doing a Zone Shot.
Special Shots
The Special Shots are the most powerful shots you can make and if done correctly, you can break the other players racket. But sometimes if hit at the right time, Special Shots can be blocked. Use a Special Shot by pressing L when your energy gauge is full.
Modes
Mario Tennis Aces has a couple of game modes for different styles of play, from the main single player Adventure mode, to the multiplayer online Tournament mode.
Adventure Mode
This is the single player Story mode where you go though various styles of tennis matches and challenges and fight bosses.
Tournament – Online & vs COM
In this mode you can play either a Standard Class game or a Simple Class game with no special shots.
You can play a tournament in Singles or Doubles as you go through 3 matches to win a tournament and get the new character that month or points for an accessory for a specific character to wear during matches.
Co-op Challenge
Challenges are a new feature that were recently added.
Challenges are short Mini Games you play Cooperatively with others online and if you reach a certain amount of points you can get an accessory for a specific character to wear during matches.
You can play this mode online in either Single Player Co-op or Multiplayer Co-op.
Free Play – Local & Online Matches
This mode is 1-4 players and you get to choose various settings for tennis matches. Like which court to play on or how the score works and a few other settings.
Ring Shot
In this mode 1-4 players each hit the tennis ball back and forth to get the most rings by hitting the tennis ball though each ring above the net.
Sometimes getting rings can be tricky, as they can either be high or low and sometimes keeping an eye on the rings and the tennis ball can get hard.
Swing Mode
In this mode you use the Joy-Con as a Tennis racket like how you’d play if this was on the Nintendo Wii. Players 1-4.
Story
The story actually had a new cutscene added in Version 3 that shows Wario and Waluigi digging in Bask Ruins for a treasure chest. Upon finding it, they open the chest and take a Legendary Racket out. After touching the Racket, it takes control over them.
Mario and friends go on an island for a Tennis Championship. After Mario & Peach had won the Tennis Championship with Bowser and Bowser Jr, Wario and Waluigi show up with a special racket to give to Mario as a prize. Upon reluctantly showing the racket to Mario and Peach, Luigi sees it, but Wario and Waluigi tell him not to grab it, but upon reaching for it, Luigi grabs the racket and it takes control over Luigi and Lucien appears as a big smokey shadow looking creature then Luigi, Wario, Waluigi and Lucien disappear.
So the story of the game is to play Mario and battle your way though tennis matches with other characters from the Mushroom Kingdom until to finally face Wario, Waluigi and Luigi in a tennis match.
Content
For a tennis game, there’s really nothing to think about in terms of content that would’t be family friendly or suitable for all ages.
But, as mentioned above, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi do get “controlled” by Lucian the Tennis Racket and in the Story Mode you do go to a temple called Bask Ruins where a long gone King does speak to Mario. But none of this is done in a occult way and nothing is shown to be anything serious.
And you can play as a Boo which is a ghost, Dry Bones which is a skeleton Koopa Troopa and Kamek who uses magic.
There is a Mansion with Boos and mention of a Queen who you don’t really or know anything about. The boss of the Mansion is a Mirror that is the Queen.
Conclusion
I’ve rated the game in 4 different categories with a maximum score of 8-Bits.
Gameplay / Difficulty – 7 out of 8-Bits
The single player Story Mode is a little hard for beginners or for people who have played Mario Tennis before, but because of the new mechanics and play styles it might still be a little hard.
The Online Tournaments can be really hard, but that’s just based on each players skill.
Story – 7 out of 8-Bits
I thought the story was light and not a whole lot went on, but that’s not to say that it was bad. It was light in a good way.
Content – 7 out of 8-Bits
The content in the game was light in terms of things that could have been more serious, like Lucien the Racket and the characters like Boo, Dry Bones & Kamek are ghosts, skeletons & characters that use magic, I don’t think it’s anything to worry about in terms of family friendly content.
Replay – 8 out of 8-Bits
Since Mario Tennis Aces has an Online Tournament Mode, it can keep family and friends going back online for online matches a lot.
Total Score 7.75 Bits out of 8-Bits
I think Mario Tennis Aces is a good family friendly game that people can play with their families and friends and not have to think about whether or not it has content not suitable for a young audience.
Thank you for reading this review of Mario Tennis Aces!
If you want to try this game out before you buy, you can rent it on GameFly – Video Game Rentals Delivered. Start for only $10 + Get a Month Free
Or If you want to buy Mario Tennis for yourselves, Click here to buy Mario Tennis Aces from GameStop
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