Mario Tennis: Power Tour

"Mario Tennis Returns to the Gameboy"

Mario Tennis was one of my favorite Gameboy color games, so when I learned that they were going to release a newer version for the GBA, I was very pleased.

Caution: you cannot transfer characters to the console version of this game like the past installment!

With that said, that is probably the worst part about this game. Besides it's difficulty perhaps.

Graphics - 8/10

These graphics were superb for the GBA. That intro had some phenomenal graphics. The textures were nice and smooth in comparison to the original Gameboy Color's. The grass actually has some sort of texture and looks like it would actually be smooth, the Royal Tennis Academy has bright and vibrant colors rather than have the dull colors that were in the original Mario Tennis for the GBC. The character sprites are nice and crisp when you are walking around on the field. Many of the character sprites are unique as well. Everything is a vast improvement over the unrefined and sort of blobish and pixelish looking characters that were in Mario Golf and Camelot's Golden Sun games. However, this only applies to the characters when one is on the fields or playing a mini-game and not when one is actually playing a tennis match unfortunately. During the tennis matches, Camelot decided to make the characters have the "3d" (it's not really 3d) appearance that they have in Golden Sun and Mario Golf. While these graphics may have looked good in 2001 and possibly 2003, they do not look so great today. Other than that, the graphics look excellent. Except the tennis balls were a bit too large but it's not that big of a deal.

Story - 8/10

To make a long story short: you are a new kid that strives to be the best tennis player in the world. That's pretty much it. It's not much of a story anyways, but for a sports game, they actually managed to do a good job with it. The story loses a few points for being a bit too similar to the original Mario Tennis for GBC and for it having Camelot syndrome... in other words, having cutscenes that are a bit tedious for absolutely no reason.

Sound/Music - 9/10

The music is not as good as the other Mario Tennis games, but that doesn't mean it was bad. The music does it's job well. The mini-games have pretty catchy tunes and the Island Open has good songs, but everything else is pretty much average. One thing to take note of about the music is the length of the songs. Most songs take at least 2 or 3 minutes before they actually loop, which is something that should not be taken lightly. What really excels out of this department are the sounds though. The sounds were much improved over Mario Tennis GBC. In Power Tour, when you hit the tennis ball, it actually sounds like you hit a tennis ball rather than brushed a piece of paper up against the wall (I swear that's what it sounded like in the original game). The characters all have grunts for just about every action they do on the courts. Whether that be them serving the and then hitting the ball with a nice long "HIIIIIIIIIIIIYA" or whether the character is getting hit by that same ball.

Gameplay - 9/10

"It's so much better than the original", that's about all I can say about this section. For starters, they stat system has been remade and I most say I like the tweaks they have made to it. First, your character now has primary stats and secondary stats. Each time one levels up they are able to put skills into 1 primary (Speed, Power, Control, Spin) and one secondary stat (Serve, Volley, Stroke, Topspin, Slice). These new options give you a bit more control over the way your character plays. For instance, you can make a power player that has awesome slice, but lacks in the ability to volley well, so while you hit phenomenal slice shots, you're volley will have not so great angle on it. These new additions let you customize the character a bit more than the previous counterparts (where if you had a person with good control, they also had good angling skills whether they were playing stroke or volley). The stats have been tweaked so that they don't drop as much so now it is finally possible to make a well-rounded character as well. Finally, they also fixed the drop-shot... they are no longer broken shots that defy physics and float half-way across the court anymore. However, lobs have taken drop shots place as the new broken shot unfortunately.

Camelot has also took the liberty of adding the Powershots that are in the Gamecube version of Mario Tennis. These special moves can be added by doing Mini-games (usually one minigame for each type genre of Powershot) that will help your character to gain experience to learn the Powershots. It's a nice addition to the game without taking away too much from the normal tennis gameplay.

My only qualms with this game are the lack of unlockables and the lack GBA and Gamecube connectivity.

Overall, Mario Tennis is a solid game that would make an excellent addition to one's GBA roster. It's a nice game to pick up every now and then. I would definitely recommend buying it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/06