Mario Tennis on the Gameboy was an ace which served up a great story mode
Turns out Mario is great at tennis too, but at The Royal Tennis Academy you can train to beat him
Just like the strawberries and cream at Wimbledon, tennis and Mario just go together so well. Mario’s adventures into the world of sport typically offer exciting exhibition-style games, with a fun Nintendo twist, that offer great multiplayer fun. But Mario Tennis went further, it added a story mode that implemented RPG progression and a reason to play single player.
The story begins as your character (who you can name and choose the gender of) arrives at The Royal Tennis Academy. This begins a long introduction to the mode which gives some context and a tour around the main parts of the academy. It’s your character’s first day, which is strange as they don’t typically accept students mid-term, which sets up that your character is expected to achieve great things. Your tour guide, Emily, shows you around the campus: from the Junior and Senior Courts, to the training grounds, restaurant, and the living quarters, where you meet your doubles partner. After this long introduction your character is free to do as they wish.
The purpose of the story is to constantly improve your stats. Speed and power can be improved through leveling up, which can be achieved by winning matches or completing training tasks. At the training area you can improve a variety of different techniques. Each technique has three levels: Junior, Senior and Varsity. There’s also the opportunity to play a special type of game once the training is completed. For example: you can play a game where you have to score from the net, or hit a service ace. These were great additions to the normal matches, and it’s a shame there were only a limited number of techniques available to learn and compete with.
Each class has four ranked players, who you have to beat in order to progress. Once you reacher number one in your class you can then challenge the fourth ranked player in the next class. Each step up offers a slightly more challenging level, which helps you see the progress your character has made through leveling up.
Things don’t get that challenging until you become first in the Senior Class and can challenge for Varsity. Emily is the second ranked player in this class, which is a nice call back from the introduction, and helps make you feel like you’ve progressed a lot. The Varsity class players’ skills are much better than what you’ve faced before, which puts your training to the test. Once you become number one the game progresses to the Island Open. This is a tournament where you play other characters from different tennis academies, and offers a great challenge.
Winning the Open allow you to challenge the tennis master: Mario (who else?). Mario is the best player, and it takes all of your talents to be able to defeat him. The story follows a similar format for doubles too, with Peach as Mario’s partner…Poor Luigi.
Mario Tennis, on the Gameboy, may well be the best sports game involving Mario. It tackled a challenge which all sports games suffer from: sameness. It gave a reason to improve, a clear progression and alternatives to match, after match, play. Mario may be the king of tennis games, but Mario Tennis allowed you to rise up the ranks and become number 1.
