Review: Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash

The only reason you should play Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash is to remind yourself how good the franchise was on N64. Hell, or even 3DS of late. As has been the trend with Nintendo games in the latter half of 2015, Ultra Smash feels like a phoned-in effort, just biding time until actual innovation presents itself on the mythical NX.

With a handful of extremely similar modes, there’s not much to this iteration of Mario Tennis. Classic and Online modes are just that, and have been packaged alongside amiibo support, Mega Ball and Mega Tennis. The latter mode throws a titular piece of fungus into the mix, making your player double-sized and providing more power to a shot. On the other hand, Mega Ball doesn’t increase the size of your tennis ball but rather challenges you to get the highest volley count possible with either a friend or an AI. It’s like the ‘keep the balloon in the air’ game you used to play as a kid, but now you’re paying $79.95 AUD for the chance to do so.

Ultra Smash offers amiibo support akin to Super Smash Bros., letting you train your favourite toys-to-life character to spar against whenever you wish. Apart from Online matches, this mode gets the most challenging – your amiibo actually does learn and can devise ways to counter your favourite shots. The only problem? Your favourite amiibo probably has aforementioned Smash data saved onto it, so you’re going to have to make a choice: do you delete Smash to make room for Tennis?

Pro tip: You probably shouldn’t.

Finally, proper Cups have been replaced with Knockout Challenge, a mode where you’ll have to take on 14 AI characters before a final battle with an ever-huge Mega Bowser. The big guy’s always a bit tough, but the mode is fairly easy to breeze through. That’s a good thing, too – you’ll need to hit up to unlock characters like Toadette and Dry Bowser. Your amiibo can act as a doubles partner in the affair, so at least you can shake things up a bit that way.

Despite meager offerings, Mario Tennis at least has that familiar Nintendo polish. The franchise has never looked better, and going up against Online opponents or a friend on the couch will offer up great times. With myriad control schemes, my hubby and I went with the Pro controller and GamePad options; each controller face bottom has a different type of shot to learn and perfect. During the course of a match, hotspots will appear on the court; hitting those will offer up special volleys that usually result in a point. Classic mode lets you determine how you want to play, providing the chance to turn off Mega Mushrooms, hotspots and more to create as close to a genuine tennis experience as possible.

Both my husband and myself took about twenty to twenty-five minutes to really understand Ultra Smash and decimate the AI wholly and utterly, including opponents in Knockout. We had fun doing so, but neither of us could quite shake that ’meh’ feeling; despite being pretty, Ultra Smash is fairly underwhelming.

Unless you’re a hardcore tennis fan or someone with access to a bunch of friends for on-couch play, this one’s just too average to warrant a purchase. You’d be better off with Mario Tennis Open on 3DS… or pulling out that N64 you’ve got tucked away in the closet.

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash was reviewed using a retail copy on Wii U, as provided by the publisher.