E-Mail This Article to a Friend Smashing Mario Power Tennis serves up an ace BY RYAN STEWART
	Mario Power Tennis Published by Nintendo. Developed by Camelot. For Nintendo GameCube. Rated E for Everyone.

No matter what you think of Nintendo, you have to give them this: they know which side their bread is buttered on.

In the past five years or so, they look like they've figured out two things about their video games. First, the first wave of kids who grew up with Mario and Luigi are all between 18 and 30 now. Second, people in that age group like to play video games in groups.

Therefore, Nintendo, while not dropping their action/adventure franchises altogether, has taken the time to bring us some big-time multiplayer winners that incorporate the fun characters we're all so familiar with into niche market games with previously limited appeal.

Sure, if you took Mario out of these games, they'd still play well, but would they be as fun? And just as importantly (from Nintendo's perspective), would as many people be as interested?

Personally, I normally wouldn't go anywhere near a tennis video game under most circumstances. I can barely understand the rules of tennis. But knowing Nintendo's pedigree and remembering the good times I've spent with Super Smash Bros and its sequel, Super Mario Kart and its offshoots (and even Mario Golf), I figured Mario Power Tennis, their latest foray into such territory, was worth it. And, not surprisingly, I was correct.

To start, there are 14 playable characters. Most are faces you know, from Mario to my personal favorite, Shyguy. Others, like Wario's sidekick, Waluigi, are what I call "made-up characters," meaning Nintendo created them specifically for games such as this; they don't really have a storyline outside of wanting to race and play golf and tennis.

As veterans of these games know, each one excels in different areas, but new to the GameCube update of Mario Tennis are the characters' individualized "power shots." One is used to knock your opponent back on his heels (or blaze it by him when he's out of position); the other is used to recover a shot that's out of your reach. Thanks to this ability, the ball is conceivably still in play until it either comes to a stop or hits the back wall. Since these shots can only be used at certain times during the match, there's more strategy involved here than Jimy Williams employed in his last season with the Sox, making for some interesting and intense matches.

In single-player mode, you can enter into one of two styles of tournaments: World Open and Gimmick Masters. The World Open, the more traditional of the two, offers – you guessed it – Mushroom, Flower, and Star cups, each played on different surfaces and growing progressively more difficult. And while realism isn't what you're looking for when you play this, the shadows on the outdoor courts and the lighting all do change as the tournament wears on.

The Gimmick Masters tournament is played in places like Wario's Factory, and there are various calamities on the court to distract you. Granted, all these "gimmicks" do is make it more difficult to move around (like the Klaptraps from Donkey Kong Country clamping onto your feet), but hey, they look neat.

There are also special single-player games that test your tennis skill, but let's be honest here: This is a Nintendo game, and they don't care whether or not you ever play the single-player mode. The reason this game excels in multi-player mode is because the controls are so simple. Any four people can hop on and have a fiercely competitive time, regardless of skill level. Don't forget, since this is a Nintendo game, there's that special, barely-noticeable advantage the CPU gives to the player who's losing at the time. If you fall behind early, suddenly balls bounce a little further out of your opponent's range, his serve loses some MPH – and yes, there's a radar gun for effect – and before you know it, you're back in the game.

The main criticism of these GameCube updates has been that that's all they are – faithful translations with better graphics and some new locations or characters. That's mostly true here as well; the individualized power shots are the only significant new feature. As big as this is and as much as there is to do, you always feel like it could be bigger. Perhaps for the next installment we'll see Link and the rest of the Nintendoverse. Who wouldn't appreciate the unintentional humor of Samus Aran on the tennis court?

But really, my complaints are minor. I can always turn the sound down to avoid the annoying voice acting. And the animations and replays may interrupt the flow, but I found myself getting used to it after a while. Call me a mark, call me a fan boy, but I'll take something like this any day over most of the more realistic sports games out there. And despite the cartoonish presentation, it's hard to imagine even the crustiest gamer resisting at least one match. I'm sure we'll all be hearing stories of a friend of a friend who's "like, the best" at this one soon enough.

Score: 8.0 (out of 10)