Mario Tennis Review

He's spindly. He's slender. He's thin as a rail. And we're just about ready to celebrate his 10th anniversary -- he's everyone's favorite far-too-skinny weirdo, Waluigi! Hard to believe it's been almost a full decade since his American debut back in August of 2000, but sure enough this dastardly, deviant derivative of Mario's twin brother has been making character select screens more awkward to deal with ever since he first stepped into the spotlight, by stepping onto a tennis court. Mario Tennis, from the Nintendo 64, was his first appearance -- so Nintendo's just re-released it through the Virtual Video Game Console specifically to honor Waluigi, right?

Well, maybe not. It's actually a killer game design even aside from the fact that it brought us the Mushroom Kingdom's greatest oddball -- but both are notable avenues to explore here, as we dive back into this classic and gauge its value again, 10 years later. Mario Tennis has had two lasting legacies. The first was that it was, and still is, an excellent, addictive take on the sport of tennis that's particularly suited for multiplayer play. The second is that this game's character roster, and the relationships it established and affirmed, helped shape fans' understanding of the interpersonal dynamics of Mario's universe better than any other game before it.

Let's tackle the tennis first. Mario Tennis was developed by Camelot Software Planning, who just one year before this game had brought out Mario Golf on the Nintendo 64 -- it was a beautiful marriage of tight, simple controls and the characters of the Mario brand that became one of the N64's most successful and accessible sports titles, and helped keep the company on the path that ultimately brought us to the Wii Sports era. Mario Tennis then, like Golf before it, sought to make its sport just as pick-up-and-playable. It succeeded.

The control here is natural and easy. You can have fun just using a single button and the control stick, moving your chosen character around the court and hitting the ball back and forth with ease -- there's a lot of leeway given to you, so your timing doesn't have to be perfect. Players wanting more depth and strategy, though, can also find it here -- as learning the design's more advanced commands and techniques gives you the ability to send your shots to specific targets on the court, activate different types of returns like topspins and lobs, and even power up for super-charged smashes. (Holding down your shot button causes your character to start glowing and gathering energy for a faster return, but it also locks your feet into one spot -- so you'd better be sure the ball is heading straight for you before you begin the charging process.)

So the game is simultaneously beginner-friendly and supportive of more dedicated, hardcore competition -- a rare balance that's perfectly achieved. And it's at its best when you've got one, two or three others to sit down and play alongside you, either as your teammates, or opponents, or both, in singles or doubles matches. The back-and-forth volleying contests that Mario Tennis facilitates are the stuff of legend, and to me much more satisfying than the movement-removed, too-simple style of Wii Sports' tennis game.

This version also doesn't take things into the realm of zany novelty shots, so those of you who thought the over-the-top hammer strikes and rainbow blasts in Mario Power Tennis were too much will be much more comfortable taking on your friends here. Even as a single-player experience, though, Mario Tennis excels -- with tournament challenges and extra modes like a Ring Shot mini-game and a Mario Kart-like Bowser's Castle stage that tosses power-ups like bananas and shells into the mix. (I guess that actually is a bit more like Power Tennis, but it's relegated to the side here, while the main game remains pure.)

So the tennis rocks. Check. Now, on to the character issue.

Mario Golf got away with a comparatively lighter roster thanks to its nature as an individual sport -- for tennis, though, Camelot had to ensure that each Mushroom Kingdom character had a natural partner available for two-on-two doubles matches. Some pairings were easy -- like putting Mario and Luigi together as a brother duo. But other mascots, like Wario, had no natural counterpart.

Enter Waluigi. Camelot created the character from scratch to serve the specific purpose of playing as Wario's doubles partner, and he took on a life of his own after that -- becoming a regular in every Mario spin-off series afterward. The developers also dove back into the history of the franchise to unearth long-forgotten faces, too, like Princess Daisy and Birdo. Both of them now make appearances in just about every Mario sports and karting game released, but prior to Mario Tennis neither had been seen for years. Daisy had been dormant for nearly a decade, while Birdo had been nothing more than a cameo character in titles like Super Mario RPG.

All of these characters being brought to life here, and being made playable for the first time, helped make Mario Tennis the most universe-rich and character-defining installment in the greater Mario series of the N64 era. So if you've ever played as Waluigi, Birdo or Princess Daisy since, you've got Camelot to thank.

Now, that's a whole lot of positive praise for this game. All of it deserved, but let's not wrap up before we address one significant downfall of this particular download -- Mario Tennis on the N64 was excellent, but the same game here on the Virtual Console is diminished a bit. The connectivity isn't here.

A big boost to the longevity and replay value of Mario Tennis' original release came when the Game Boy Color edition of Mario Tennis arrived around half a year later, and brought with it support for the little-used N64 Transfer Pak. The peripheral allowed you to plug Game Boy cartridges into the back of Nintendo 64 controllers, and move data back and forth between games. For Mario Tennis, it was character-swapping. You could play through the RPG experience of Mario Tennis GBC, building up a character's stats and abilities, and then move that upgraded tennis pro to the console version to tear up the court with 3D polygons instead of 2D sprites. Since that connection can't be made with this Virtual Console version, you won't ever be able to access the final four unlockable characters here.

And, what's worse, you'll miss out on several unlockable courts too -- even if you didn't have an interest in beefing up your players' stats, you still probably would have appreciated the greater variety of playing surfaces the Transfer Pak connectivity opened up. They're lost to the ages too. The re-release of Mario Golf on the Virtual Console also had this issue, and it would have been great if Nintendo had somehow addressed it -- just unlocking the extra content by default, maybe. But, no. No solution. So we're left with a lesser edition of a great game, thanks to the limitations of VC emulation and the Big N's unwillingness to find a fix.