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40-Love, game. Time to lace up
the tennis shoes, get some
tennis balls, find that racket
in the closet, and play some
tennis. Camelot has once again
given fans a gem in the Mario
Sports series, this tie through
the form of Mario Tennis: Power
Tour.
This installment in the Mario
Tennis series is one for the
ages for a handheld system. The
game begins with either one of
two characters picked in a RPG
styled storyline. They're
teammates anyways, and they've
both come to the Academy to hone
in on their tennis skills. The
Academy teaches the young tennis
stars all kinds of skills, and
once they have won there, they
have the capabilities to win all
over, including the legendary
Island Open. Even then, the true
dream of all the tennis players
across the land is to play one
game with Mario, which only
chosen ones can.
The tennis aspect of the latest
Mario Tennis games provides
great play for everyone. The
tennis itself is very good in
itself and can be learned
easily. Top Spin, Slice, and
Power can all be used to provide
different effects on the ball.
Combining Speed, Power, Stamina,
and Stroke Play is vital for a
player to reach his or her top
form. Power Tour also lets
players use more shot placement,
which can send opponents in a
frenzy of running patterns. And
for some, this will happen - the
game can provide a challenge in
the later rounds. The difficulty
can be made or broken with Power
Shots, which are special shots
each individual character has.
The controls also lead for great
play in various mini games and
in training.
Power Tour looks visually
exceptional for a Game Boy
Advance game. The courts are
detailed and the boundary lines
are clear. The players
themselves have a nice personal
touch to each of them. The
Academy and other areas in the
game have their own unique
features, and they are colored
beautifully with great detail.
It's very crisp and clear, and
the visual effects, while
limited, are nice without being
complicated.
Unlike the visuals, the audio
portion of this game needs to
have some work done. It's not
that the music is composed bad,
it just doesn't sound very good,
only decent. There are songs
that are somewhat annoying, but
they're not while playing the
tennis itself, so that's a nice
thing. Exceptions become
apparent though, as there are
also a few great tracks, mainly
those of the remixed Mario
themes. There's just not a whole
lot of them, unfortunately.
One of the greatest features
found in this game is that it
doesn't get boring fast. The
tennis play is that good - it
can keep certain players hooked
on it for hours. Each tournament
is very decent in terms of it's
length, so they don't get
annoying by playing round after
round after round. Each
tournament also has a different
court theme - hard court, grass
courts, and clay court.
Different courts provide
different effects in terms of
the ball, so a player will be
playing different throughout the
entire game.
The bottom line is simple: Mario
Tennis: Power Tour is a great,
great game. It's very underrated
and is worth a play.
Overall Score: 9.2/10 |
