Mario's Tennis

Not to be confused with Mario Tennis.

Mario's Tennis
North American game cover. For alternate box art, see the game's gallery.
Developer	Nintendo R&D1, TOSE
Publisher	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Virtual Boy
Release date	July 21, 1995 August 14, 1995
Language(s)	English (United States)
Genre	Tennis
Rating(s)	ESRB: - Kids to Adults
Mode(s)	Single-player
Format	Virtual Boy: Game Pak
Input	Virtual Boy: Virtual Boy Controller
Serial code(s)	VUE-VMTJ-JPN

Mario's Tennis is a game that was released as a launch title for the Virtual Boy in 1995. It is the first tennis-related Super Mario game, and would later be followed by the Mario Tennis series. All playable characters that appeared in Super Mario Kart for the SNES (with the exception of Bowser) are also playable in Mario's Tennis. The cable that would have been used to connect two Virtual Boy systems together was never released due to the Virtual Boy's poor sales.

Basics

Serving

A serve begins each point in tennis. A single player serves each game, and players alternate serving throughout the course of the match. If the player wishes to serve, they must press either the button or the button, for regular shots and for long-distance shots.

Top-Spin

The basic shot in Mario's Tennis, this shot has a higher arch to it, and can be used by pressing the button. The shot is mainly used for regular, run-of-the-mill shot.

Lob

The Lob Shot is the second method of hitting a ball in Mario's Tennis. The Lob Shot is a powerful shot that can be used to shoot high, powerful shots whenever the button is pressed. However, the Lob can be a disadvantage if the character hitting the ball is in the front of the court.

Doubles

Doubles is the second method of play in Mario's Tennis. Doubles are very different than singles, and can be a great advantage for beginner players. In Doubles, the player can choose a partner to help them play tennis, while the player serves in the back the computer partner covers the net, and vice-versa.

Playable characters

The descriptions are taken from the game's instruction manual.

Characters
Mario "He is an average player whose court speed and leg strength are solid. His racquet contact area is average, and he relies on his skillful groundstrokes, though he will approach the net occasionally."	Luigi "His skill level and court strategy are similar to Mario's. He has better court coverage, though, due to being faster than Mario."	Princess "The princess is slow, but her racquet contact area is large. She doesn't like to approach the net, preferring to instead rally from the baseline."	Yoshi "He is the fastest of all the players, but his racquet contact area is small. He plays an aggressive type of game by rushing the net at every opportunity."	Toad "Toad is quite quick on the court, but his racquet contact area is not very large. Like Yoshi, he tries to approach the net often. Though he is not strong, he has great court coverage because he can lunge at tough shots."	Koopa "Being a turtle, basically, his court speed suffers. He has a large racquet contact area, though. He likes to rally from the baseline, and he also can lunge at tough shots like Toad."	Donkey Jr. "He is slower than all the other players, and also has a smaller racquet contact area. He is, however, understandably the most powerful of all the players. His strong groundstrokes allow him to win many points from the baseline."

Pre-release and unused content

Early title

Early logo

The game was initially known as Mario's Dream Tennis during development, as unveiled in Issue #73 of Nintendo Power.

Cassarin

Evidence of the scrapped character "Cassarin", through a game rip.

The character list in this game's ROM features the name "CASSARIN", which is notable for, unlike the other characters, not having any sprites. "Cassarin" is an alternate romanization for "Catherine", which is Birdo's Japanese name; it can therefore be assumed that Birdo was initially planned for playability in Mario's Tennis.

Staff

Main article: List of Mario's Tennis staff

Reception

Critical reception

Mario's Tennis received generally mixed reviews from critics. A common complaint cited by reviewers was the fact that it was a tennis/sports game that lacked a multiplayer mode. 1UP.com praised the game's 3D effects, but criticized the game's lack of a multiplayer mode, or much to actually accomplish in the single player mode. Nintendo Life gave the game a 7 out of 10, calling it a "solid, if simple, tennis game" that processed "Good music and graphics combined with...excellent 3D effect", though they too felt the game was held back by a lack of multiplayer mode, and a lack of characters, which lead to the tournaments being too short. IGN's Patrick Kolan compared the game to Wii Sports, another one of Nintendo's pack-in games for one of its consoles, the Wii, in that it showed off the system's unique strengths, but suffered in regards to non-impressive graphics and a lack of long term game content. Games Radar echoed these sentiments, stating "Gameplay was rudimentary, and lacked all the flash and silliness that came to define the Mario Sports series, but as a 3D showpiece it worked fairly well". Famicom Tsūshin scored the game a 26 out of 40. The Rome News-Tribune referred to Mario's Tennis as "the only decent stab of tennis" prior to the release of Sega's 2000 Dreamcast game Virtua Tennis.

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:Mario's Tennis.

• 

  Cover artwork

• 

  Mario

• 

  Yoshi

References in other games

• Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins: Mario's character selection sprite is an edited version of his sprite from this game. Luigi's sprite in the character selection also looks noticeably similar.

Trivia

• Cameos from other Super Mario games can be seen slowly flying across the top of the background on rare occasions. These include airships, Albatosses, pairs of Boo Buddies, and pairs of Para-Beetles.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	マリオズテニス[?] Mariozu Tenisu	Mario's Tennis