Mario Tennis: Power Tour
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 Pack some power in your swing!
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Mario Tennis: Power Tour also known as Mario Power Tennis in Europe is a 2005 sports game developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance This serves as a sequel to the Game Boy Color version of Mario Tennis as well as the GBA counterpart of Mario Power Tennis.
Why It's Going To Rank 1
- A huge cast of playable characters consisting of 36. Most of them are unlockable. The majority of them are original human characters, but you can still unlock the star version of the Mario characters.
- Minigames exist in this game. They are there to help you get PS Points with the Tennis Machine and Wall PRactice giving you EXP instead. The list of minigames consist of these
- Wall Practice - You need to rally the tennis ball off the panels on the wall to gain points. You will be rewarded with EXP.
- Tennis Machine - A machine will shoot a ball that you need to hit. It's best to hit the ball in the targeted area. Great for Speed
- Treadmill - You are placed in a conveyor belt and you have to avoid barrels and banana peels just by jumping over them. Looks like a small callback to the original Donkey Kong.
- Bicep Pump - Raise a spiky ball to pop balloons. Great for muscle
- Jump Gym - Jump and break the bricks Mario style. Great for jumping skills
- Swift Spin - Raise and lower the screws as you collect coins. Great for spinning skills
- Duck Walk - Hop over electrified panels on a stript composed of panels. Great for speed
- Rope Climb - Self-explanatory, but you would need to collect flags. Great for muscle.
- Reflex Rally - Choose rock, paper, or scissors with the control pad depending on which one would be the RPS Mech's choice of the three. Great for response skills
- Tightrope - Balance the player in a tightrope. Great for Balance.
- Tacklebot - Defeat a big dummy while defending the bot from its own attacks. Great for body skills.
- Instinct Drill - Use ESP in order to see the symbols on the front of the cards. The player then needs to select and flip over pairs of cards.
- Power Shots get to return in this game. They are much more prominent to the story due to the characters wanting to develop the shots. You can earn them by completing minigames at the Tennis Academy Training Center and assigning Ace and Clay shots. The number of Power Shots is a whopping 44 with 12 being exclusive to the Mario characters. The shots come in a variety of different effects and visuals.
- The story mode is quite unique as it feels pretty much like an RPG much like in the GBC version of Mario Tennis. The style has a similar vibe to Golden Sun given the fact that Camelot worked on both of them. You get to be in the shoes of Clay or Ace who want to be the very best like no one ever was just by climbing up into different ranks. Even though the story is basically just a typical sports story, it's still worth it due to the rewards you will get for doing so not to mention that it feels like a GBA JRPG of some sort only with Tennis.
- An improvement on this game is that the matches are much shorter since you can clock the game easily.
- Clay and Ace are quite unique because they are the only playable characters who go through leveling up and customization.
- The graphics are pretty and colorful not to mention how vibrant they are compared to the GBC version of Mario Tennis which is a big step up due to the GBA's hardware. Also, it's great to see that certain graphics here are in 3D much like in Mario vs. Donkey Kong with the vibes of Golden Sun.
- If you were to beat the Peach Tournament, you can unlock the Peach Dome which takes place in Mario's world complete with Mario-related elements such as the audience members.
- The controls are responsive and well crafted that is enough for a good tennis game. You can do certain actions to play tennis as you mean it.
- The tennis gameplay is still pretty fun just like what you expect with a good Mario tennis game like Mario Power Tennis. No matter if you're playing a tennis game in the story mode or just a quick friendly match, you got the power. Get's even better when you play multiplayer.
- The AI is much better compared to the original GBC version whereas the game is nowhere as frustrating as the original.
- Because of the experience points that you can get in the game, you can distribute between your character and your partner so you choose who gets to go to a new level. For each level gained, you can use points to better your stats consisting of either the main ones or the additional stats.
- Nice soundtrack. The soundtrack fits so well with the tone of the game. Some are engaging while others are more peaceful to listen to.
- Stats are better handled compared to the original. Your character now has primary stats and secondary stats thus allowing you to get more control over the way your character plays. And they don't drop as much as before because you can now make a well-rounded character.
- The drop shots are no longer broken shots. The drop shots are much more balanced just for a fair match.
- Sound quality is pretty great and lively for a GBA game like the sound effects and a bit of the voice effects for the characters.
- Alex, Harry, Nina, Kate, Mark, Emily, Kevin, A. Coz, and B. Coz from the GBC version of Mario Tennis makes an appearance in the game as NPCs which is a nice callback to the original game where they come from.
- The Great Fairy of Victory returns in the game. If the player character approaches the pond and can swing their tennis racket 100 times within 10 seconds, the fairy will appear and award you with a 1-Up Mushroom.
Bad Qualities
- Unlike the GBC version of Mario Tennis, Power Tour lacks any connectivity to Mario Power Tennis for GameCube. Keep in mind that GBC's Mario Tennis has some connectivity with the N64 version of Mario Tennis.
- The European's title is misleading. Despite being called Mario Power Tennis, it's way too different from the Mario Power Tennis on GameCube.
- Most of the unlockable characters is original human characters meaning that this game doesn't have any other Mario characters featured in this game including Daisy, Toad, Birdo, Yoshi, Boo, Diddy Kong, Koopa Troopa, Koopa Paratroopa, Shy Guy, Baby Mario, Bowser Jr., Fly Guy, Wiggler, Petey Piranha, and Wario. In fact, they could've added other Mario characters as well that are not related to any of the mentioned characters like Dixie Kong, Hammer Bro., Pianta, Noki, King K. Rool, Funky Kong, Candy Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Chunky Kong, Lanky Kong, Boom Boom, Monty Mole, Toadette, Kritter, Dry Bones, Ukiki, King Bob-Omb, King Boo, Professor E. Gadd, and Cranky Kong being examples.
- However, Wario does make a voice cameo in the opening where he can be heard saying "Nintendo". However, this might be a case of false advertising because it may suggest that Wario is gonna appear yet he doesn't.
- Unlike the original GBC Mario Tennis, there are not that many courts this time around.
- On your stats, the Power, Control, Side Spin, and Speed stats will slowly decrease if you just ignore them for a while so you better be careful.
- Even though the story mode is pleasing, it's way too similar to the GBC Mario Tennis and the cutscenes are a bit tedious.
- Getting lobs are broken unlock the drop shots.
- The non-Clay and Ace human characters have more recycled and samey voice clips.
Reception
This game has positive reviews. Metacritic has generally positive reviews on the site, Nintendo Power gave the game a 7/10, Nintendo World Report gave the game a 10/10, the Detroit Free Press gave the game 4/4 stars, the Sydney Morning Hearld gave the game 4 and a half stars, and GameZone gave the game a 9/10.
Trivia
- The character Mel (one of the original human characters) has a resemblance to Chun-Li from Street Fighter
- This game was released on the 20th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. in Japan.
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