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Slush's First Mario Tennis Impressions
Time Played: 2 hours, 17 minutes
Well, the day before Banjo-Tooie's scheduled release I finally bought and played Mario Tennis for the first time. Since I'm probably not going to manage to get B-T on Wednesday due to unfortuante circumstances, this will give me enough time to beat the entire game. Seriously. Anyway, enough about Banjo-Tooie. This is the Mario Tennis First Impressions (by Slush). So let's get some first impressions.
The game started out with a bizarre intro. I found it to make a lot more sense than Chad did, though. I actually liked it. It set up the game rather nicely, with Wario and his brother Waluigi crashing the party first (but only wanting to play tennis in the Mario Star Tournament) and then Bowser and Boo crashing it (but only wanting to play tennis in the Mario Star Tournament). I first played an Exhibition game against Mario, and won. I was amazed at how easy to control DK it was (or any character, I presume), and how easy the basic controls were. Sports games can have mind-numbingly bad button setups at times, but thankfully in the fruity land of Camelot, they always seem to come out rather nice. I then found myself playing against every character in Exhibition mode, one after another (winning every time, but they WERE all on easy). Then I played a few times with the characters on Normal. The thing I noticed about the increased difficulty was that it wasn't frustrating like a Mario Party game. If Birdo was kicking my "arse" (it's been awhile since I used that term, mainly because I don't want to sound like a sad Leigh Loveday copycat), I wouldn't get mad and toss the game to the other side of the room. I'd just simply keep trying. I wanted to keep trying. I loved to keep trying. That's when I realized it
This game was turning me into a crack whore. Well, a Mario Tennis whore at least. I was addicted.
So far I've only played Exhibition and Ring Shot, but I love each mode to death. This game really reminds me of Mario Golf. Now, I'll always favor Mario Golf because golf is my favorite sport to play, bar none. However, when you consider the fact that I rarely play tennis and already I'm in love with the sport thanks to this game, it's saying something. True, it doesn't have the "expansive" feel of Mario Golf (because quite frankly, how can you make a tennis court appear larger than a golf course?). But in a way, the simplicity of the location makes it feel like a less daunting task. That way you can just concentrate on having some fun.
I've noticed that the graphics in MT are a step up from MG, but then this game doesn't require good graphics to make it enjoyable (even though it helps). Donkey's body looks a tad more polished than before, but it may just be my imagination. The music is standard Camelot fare. In fact, if you closed your eyes and listened to it without anyone telling you what game you were playing, you may say Mario Golf for the Nintendo 64. That's not a bad thing either.
Before I sign out, I would like to comment on the character of Waluigi. Waluigi has recieved some somewhat negative attention from the staff of the Vine, mainly because of his goofy name and the fact that any game he's in from now on will automatically make that a DKU game (since he was introduced in one). However, that no longer bothers me. Why? I'm in love with Waluigi. No, I don't play as him, but playing against him I just fell in love with the character. Here we have an elf who dressed up as his brother's rival's brother just to help out his brother in his insane passion to "become" Mario. It doesn't get any better than that.
Chad isn't that fond of Mario Tennis. He enjoyed it in his First Impressions, but that quickly degraded by the time his Review rolled around. Everytime I bring up MT (or any other Cameo Game) and try to talk with him about it, I get grunts and groans and then the topic is changed to Banjo-Tooie, religion, or political debates. Will my love for MT die once it's time for my review? I certainly hope not, because disliking this game would be a crime against nature. Well, the industrilized side of nature, at least.
by SirSlush2
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