On the surface it's a simple tennis game with Mario characters, and that's exactly what it is but there's just something about it. The controls have aged remarkably well. They are easy to learn, hard to master which is what most games should strive for.
If you have a friend I recommend trying this out with them. When I first got my NSO+, we went through a bunch of games and while we kinda picked this one just for the hell of it, we kept playing and now it's basically tradition to play this game at least once when we meet up at this point.
I'd recommend playing doubles, it really is the most balanced and skilled way to play this game. For me, I really clicked with the way Paratroopa plays. He's speedy and can really slice through cracks in the opposition's defences.
Honestly just try this game. It's way more fun then you'd first expect.
If you have a friend I recommend trying this out with them. When I first got my NSO+, we went through a bunch of games and while we kinda picked this one just for the hell of it, we kept playing and now it's basically tradition to play this game at least once when we meet up at this point.
I'd recommend playing doubles, it really is the most balanced and skilled way to play this game. For me, I really clicked with the way Paratroopa plays. He's speedy and can really slice through cracks in the opposition's defences.
Honestly just try this game. It's way more fun then you'd first expect.
I don't know why this works so well, but it does. I like it quite a bit more than later Mario Tennis games which add too many ancillary mechanics, this one is basically just tennis with Mario characters and that is enough for me.
After playing Mario Golf on the NSO, I tried to give a shot to the Tennis counterpart, expecting a similar, kinda just okay/ mediocre experience.
And what I played was not amazing, but still incredibly solid.
For what it is supposed to be, a quirky tennis simulator with Mario flavor, it does A LOT of things to make it stand out.
It has an incredibly charming opening cutscenes that gives life to a lot of the mario cast; and it adds such bizzarre pics to the roster for the time, like the princess from that Land game, that miniboss dinosaur from SMB2, a random Boo and Shuguy (that weren't really that big of an enemy at the time), both DK and DK jr, and some weird camelot OCs, including what would become one of the most memorable nintendo characters. Not to mention that compared to othe sports titles, Mario Tennis builds different modes out of the mario universe: we got classic tennis matches and tournaments, but also the ability to play items on Bowser castle, and even have minigames themesd around piranha plants......
Even at the time Camelot was able to take the Mario world, shape them as they wanted and add so much more charm and personality to it. I highly respect that, even though the formula of Tennis here is... just rather simple and repetitive.
While the skeleotn of the game is "just tennis", the flavor of Camelot led to a charming experience, that is able to set the standards that will make the future Mario sports games so memorable.
And what I played was not amazing, but still incredibly solid.
For what it is supposed to be, a quirky tennis simulator with Mario flavor, it does A LOT of things to make it stand out.
It has an incredibly charming opening cutscenes that gives life to a lot of the mario cast; and it adds such bizzarre pics to the roster for the time, like the princess from that Land game, that miniboss dinosaur from SMB2, a random Boo and Shuguy (that weren't really that big of an enemy at the time), both DK and DK jr, and some weird camelot OCs, including what would become one of the most memorable nintendo characters. Not to mention that compared to othe sports titles, Mario Tennis builds different modes out of the mario universe: we got classic tennis matches and tournaments, but also the ability to play items on Bowser castle, and even have minigames themesd around piranha plants......
Even at the time Camelot was able to take the Mario world, shape them as they wanted and add so much more charm and personality to it. I highly respect that, even though the formula of Tennis here is... just rather simple and repetitive.
While the skeleotn of the game is "just tennis", the flavor of Camelot led to a charming experience, that is able to set the standards that will make the future Mario sports games so memorable.