I'm cheating a bit. This isn't my first playthrough of Mario Tennis: Power Tour for the Game Boy Advance. I used to have this game in high school, and played it a ton yet. But I'm going to bend my rules for What I'm Playing going forward, and include any games I'm playing through, even if it's a replay.
Power Tour is a very good handheld adaptation of the superb Mario Tennis games for the N64 and Gamecube. Apparently there are Game Boy color games of Mario Tennis and Golf based on the N64 versions of those games, but I started with my mobile experience here, and I really wanted to play some Mario sports games again.
While my limited experience with Mario Baseball, Basketball, and Soccer (not the exact titles), weren't fantastic, I have always loved the Tennis and Golf series. Both take very complicated sports and boil it down to the essentials while adding on the cutesy charm of the Mario universe. While I probably prefer Golf, the Tennis games are excellent as well.
Power Tour is developed by Camelot, who are most notable for creating the Mario sports series, but also produced standouts like the Golden Sun series, which compose two excellent GBA games and one dismal DS game. In the main thrust of the game, you control a boy or girl attempting to distinguish him or herself on the mean streets of a tennis academy, and become the very best. Controls are simple but very effective. You can move with the d-pad, hit top spin shots with A, and slice shots with b. The computer decides whether or not your character will dive or not, a very good decision due to limited reaction times and a small number of button inputs possible on the GBA. The AI controlling whether or not you hit backhands or forehands, and when you dive is excellent, and never really makes a mistake, enabling you to focus more on spin, positioning, and shot direction. You can also hit power shots that you can unlock by training after you conduct a long enough rally.
The game features an RPG style mode in which you get experience after every match, and can use that experience to improve a certain aspect of your player's abilities. You climb the ranks through juniors, seniors, and varsity, and eventually progress your way through higher levels to become the champ. There is a certain charming story to the game that works, and I don't want to spoil it for you, so just check it out!
You can climb the ranks of doubles and singles, playing with your counterpart (girl if you selected boy, and vice versa) in doubles and by yourself in singles. Your doubles partner is controlled by the AI, which is perhaps too good. Your partner will rarely make mistakes, even if you don't level them up at all, making it far more worth your while to only level yourself to capitalize on big play opportunities. I wish that they had made the partner AI less perfect, forcing you to decide between investing in yourself, or your partner.
The tennis itself is fun and cartoony, with power shots that sparkle, freeze your opponent, blast them backwards, or spin them around in tornadoes. You can unlock these power shots by playing mini games, all of which are very fun. The better you get at the mini games, the more advanced your power shots will become.
The music is very good, as is the sound. There are good voice samples in the game which tell you the score, and make voices for the players. The game's visuals are solid if unremarkable, although the tennis shots do have a delightful streak behind them that never fails to make me happy.
The enemy AI in the game is probably too weak to be fun, although I may just be very good at the game. I never lost a set in my path to tennis greatness, whether in singles or doubles. What's worse, it seemed like the most common strategies were very effective from start to finish, and the opponents never really learned. After sending backhand serve returns up the line past my opponent in doubles 5 or 6 times in a best of 3 set match, I would hope that that opponent would start to position close to the line to force me to alter my strategy, but the opponents never really learn. With that being said, you probably won't lose much, but it also won't feel like a cake walk, as the ball will be delivered to different locations to force you to alter your strategy and shot selection to them.
The game is a good length, although it errs on the side of probably being a bit too long, which is better than being too short. It's long enough to feel rewarding (I spent about 8 hours completing both the singles and doubles stories), but short enough that the gameplay doesn't get too repetitive. If you really like the gameplay, you can play exhibition matches anytime, and can even play via a link cable against a friend, although I didn't test this out at all.
While I feel like the AI could have used some tweaking, I really enjoy this game. It's a fun sports RPG, and boy do I love those! If you're looking for a nice diversion that you can wander back to every few years, Mario Tennis: Power Tour is for you. I'll give it an 8.8/10.
Here's a hint as to what's up next on the handheld front:
-TRO
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