Mario Power Tennis
The New Play Control! range returns with a special update of the GameCube’s hit tennis game. Starring the whole of the Mushroom Kingdom pantheon, there’s much more to this sports sim than it first appears.
Mario Power Tennis is the second in the series of New Play Control! titles and will see the much loved Mario Power Tennis from GameCube adapted to offer this great game with all-new controls on Wii. This new game will still allow you to choose from a range of characters from the Mario franchise, and you can then either play regular tennis or tennis-themed minigames. You will play through the Tournament Mode in both Singles and Doubles matches allowing you to unlock a variety of new characters, extra minigames and courts as well as a more challenging Star Tournament.
At the heart of the game is a traditional tennis sim with controls that have a little bit more depth than Wii Sports for a more realistic feel. The game can be controlled using the Wiimote and the control stick, allowing the player to trigger actions such as forehands and backhands by swinging the Wiimote like a tennis racket. The new controls allows you to, perform different strokes by flicking the Wiimote in the corresponding direction, utilising the motion sensitive controls for Wii. You can now charge up the power shot gauge by waiting and hitting the ball back at the last possible moment. The game offers different levels of control types which increase in difficulty appealing to varied levels of gamers: Easy, Medium, Technical, and Difficult.
These Special Games come in multiple forms, incorporating themes from past Nintendo games, such as “Tic-Tac-Glow”, which requires the player to hit balls of water to liberate Shine Sprites trapped in dirt, a reference to Super Mario Sunshine. Power Tennis supports the option for four-player multiplayer, which can be accessed during “Exhibition Mode”, the standard mode of play where the player can choose his or her opponents and the conditions of the match. Such options include the difficulty of the opponent, the court used, and the number of games and sets required to win the match.
Power Tennis features 18 playable characters, all of whom derive from the various Mario games, each with their own unique abilities and different styles of play. Each character has two unique moves known as “Power Shots”, which are accompanied with an animation each time they are triggered that can only be triggered occasionally in the match, but will usually result in defending or scoring a point, depending on the type of shot chosen.
Special Features:
New Play Control! allows you to utilise different strokes, by flicking the Wii Remote
Special game modes including Ring Shot where you score extra points by hitting the ball through hoops or Item Battle where you use Mario Kart style power-ups.
Optional gimmick courts bring bizarre obstacles and rules to the game as you play in haunted houses and gunge filled courts.
Each character has its own unique power shots for both attack and defence, from wielding a mallet to hit the ball to using an extending arm to return an incoming ball.
Huge selection of mini-games to test your skills, from painting a mural on a wall to playing noughts and crosses for hidden Star Shines.
The game offers 4 levels of control - Easy, Medium, Technical and Difficult
Cost: £24.99 (at Amazon, Play.com)
