Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
Shigeru Miyamoto: "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." Nintendo, 19 years later: *rushes this game*
Genre(s): Sports Platform(s): Wii U Release: NA/EU: November 20, 2015 AU: November 21, 2015 JP: January 28, 2016 Developer(s): Camelot Software Planning Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Series: Mario Tennis Predecessor: Mario Tennis Open Successor: Mario Tennis Aces

"F■■■ you, f■■■ this, and f■■■ tennis!"

— Scott the Woz's friend

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash is a tennis game developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo. It was released for the Wii U on November 20, 2015.

Why It's Ultra Trash

1. The game was rushed for the 2015 holiday season due to the fact that Star Fox Zero got delayed until 2016, and that Nintendo wanted a game for the 2015 Holiday Season on the Wii U, which is extremely ironic since it goes against Shigeru Miyamoto's famous "a rushed game is forever bad" quote. Sound familiar?
2. No opening or a cinematic.
3. Lack of features like game modes and alternate ways to play which the previous Mario Tennis games had, such as a Tournament Mode.
   • Speaking of which, Tournament Mode has been replaced with Knockout Challenge, which is a barebones single-player mode for the game where you battle each character and has absolutely no plot. The fact that the only rule changes are different courts and the Bowser bosses having a permanent Mega Mushroom effect makes the mode very bland.
4. The Mega Mushroom mechanics. They seem to be a good idea on paper but are unfortunately used poorly.
   • The Mega Mushroom is contradictory most of the time, as if both players happen to end up giant (which will happen a lot), it will just be the same as both players are small.
   • The Mega Mushroom isn't thrown randomly, instead it's thrown in a pattern where one player gets it and few seconds later the other opponent gets it and so on, which makes it even more pointless.
   • Once a player takes the mushroom you'll see a cutscene of the character growing, not only does it interrupt the match, but all characters share similar cutscenes which get boring quickly.
5. Boring multiplayer and even online multiplayer.
6. Unlocking characters is extremely easy (if you want to unlock Toadette, for example, you just need to play 10 Mega Battles or spend 5,000 coins).
7. Only one court to play in the entire game, but you can change the type to make it like the other Mario Tennis games, though.
8. Lack of other features and extras which makes it feel like an unfinished game or tech demo.
9. Artwork has been recycled from previous Mario games; there's no new artwork whatsoever in the game. This is especially notable in the character select screen, specially Peach.
10. The game's achievements is made to make the game longer but ends up being repetitive, you will need to play 200 matches with each character to complete them.
    • The only thing you get for winning the achievements is a star per character but it does nothing.
11. Some characters like Diddy Kong, Birdo, Shy Guy and Petey Piranha did not return.
12. It is riddled with bugs and glitches. Few examples are when the music stops during gameplay and when the character models get spazzed out.
13. It is overpriced. It costs $50 when there was very little content. Very similar to these 2 Games.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Amazing graphics, which is a large step up to the previous Mario Tennis games.
2. Great soundtrack, on par with the rest of the series. Besides the recycled Mega Mushroom theme.
3. Classic and Simple Tennis modes don't overstay their welcome, the latter of which actually being exactly the same in Mario Tennis Aces.
4. Decent choice of characters. Toadette and Rosalina make their series debut in this game, and the one-shot Green Sprixie Princess character from Super Mario 3D World returns in this game.
5. Features Amiibo support, where the amiibo teammate can get customized stats and learn from its owner similar to the Smash Bros. series.
   • You can even get Gold Mario as a partner thanks too the Amiibo
6. Fast-paced, arcade-y action.
7. Deceptively nuanced Jump shot mechanics.

Reception

Ultra Smash received "mixed" reviews from critics and "mixed" to "negative" reception from gamers, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. It is one of the lower scoring Mario games, with a critic score of 58/100 and a user score of 5.3/10.

In its first week of release in Japan, it sold 55,331 units, which made up 80% of its initial shipment.

Comments

Loading comments...