Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash Review

Running a Racket:

I don’t really care much about sports games usually, but Nintendo have always managed to bring enough joy to the genre to make me forget about that. In the past I’ve loved the Mario sports games and put countless hours with friends into Mario Golf, Strikers and the Olympic Games titles. The Mario Tennis title on the Gamecube was a standout game for me and my friends, so it’s strange to see the Wii U iteration take such a definite step back.

Story:

It should be no surprise that there is no story in Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash. It’s a tennis tournament, and Mario and his friends are evidently fighting to see who is best on court. What is surprising is that there is no campaign or career mode, no battles to fight through or classic cups to get your hands on. There isn’t even a snazzy cinematic for the menu to open with.

This scarcity of content unfortunately expands to every aspect of the game, and it’s absolutely baffling. I can’t comprehend how Mario Tennis Ultra Smash has launched in this state and at full price – in terms of value for money it’s honestly one of the worst offenders I’ve seen in years.

Gameplay:

Luckily the gameplay of Ultra Smash is solid. Moving your character around the court and returning shots make up the meat of every mode: once you’ve pushed your character into the general vicinity of where you expect the ball to bounce, you can press one of the four face buttons (each offering a different style and speed of shot) in the hopes of surprising your opponent into giving up a point.

Where Ultra Smash differs in its approach is power shot markers that appear on the court. If you place your character in these coloured rings and punch in the correct combination of buttons you can perform a flashy return that has extra speed and power. It’s a great feeling to nail an opponent with one of these, and they add some much needed variety into what boils down to a very simple game. Watching your opponent move into one of these markers as they get ready to return always kept me on my toes trying to anticipate where the ball would go next (and at what ridiculous speed).

The only other addition is the Mega-Mushroom which is thrown onto the court at random intervals in certain modes. It causes your character to grow in size so you can cover more of the court and, hopefully, return more shots. I would have liked to see more varied power ups litter the court instead of just the Mega Mushroom, and these could have really helped mix up what quickly becomes a tired formula.