Much like Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Mario Power Tennis is a sequel that improves on the original in every way possible, and yet somehow I'm still left slightly disappointed by this one.
To begin with the core gameplay is MUCH improved from the N64 original, by introducing character specific special shots and courts with actual gimmicks the game feels much more like a Mario Sports game instead of just a sports game. The tournament mode had a good sense of progression and difficulty and some of the latter matches in the a tournament run actually felt like a culmination of the skills you gained through playing the game which was good for one of these games.
My main problem with the game is its lack of content and lame unlockable method. Every other Mario sports game up to this point had plenty of side modes for when you wanted a break from the main tournaments. Mario Power Tennis on the other hand has only exhibition (which for a single player is next to useless), tournament and a minigame mode with most of the minigames needing to be unlocked by beating specific tournament matches and that's really it. Furthermore, it feels like the game is aware of its lack of content because all the main unlockables are once again just locked behind beating certain tournament runs instead of spread across all the game's modes, which feels like a regression in this area given how well Toadstool Tour handled this on the same console and with the same developers.
All these problems aside Mario Power Tennis is still a fun game which is its main goal, but one that just doesn't have quite enough content to get by.
To begin with the core gameplay is MUCH improved from the N64 original, by introducing character specific special shots and courts with actual gimmicks the game feels much more like a Mario Sports game instead of just a sports game. The tournament mode had a good sense of progression and difficulty and some of the latter matches in the a tournament run actually felt like a culmination of the skills you gained through playing the game which was good for one of these games.
My main problem with the game is its lack of content and lame unlockable method. Every other Mario sports game up to this point had plenty of side modes for when you wanted a break from the main tournaments. Mario Power Tennis on the other hand has only exhibition (which for a single player is next to useless), tournament and a minigame mode with most of the minigames needing to be unlocked by beating specific tournament matches and that's really it. Furthermore, it feels like the game is aware of its lack of content because all the main unlockables are once again just locked behind beating certain tournament runs instead of spread across all the game's modes, which feels like a regression in this area given how well Toadstool Tour handled this on the same console and with the same developers.
All these problems aside Mario Power Tennis is still a fun game which is its main goal, but one that just doesn't have quite enough content to get by.