Mario Tennis Aces: A Game of Highs and Lows

Broken Rackets, Broken Hopes

Mario Tennis Aces is disappointing; plain and simple. Ever since I first laid eyes on the game during the January Mini-Direct as I covertly watched its reveal in the back row of my AP American History class, Aces has been my most anticipated game of the year, yes, including Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The thing is, I love tennis. It is by far my favorite sport, and one I play competitively in real life. I've been waiting to finally get a great Mario Tennis game once again, and Aces looked to be it. Every trailer, every preview, and even the online tournament served to only bolster my interest in the title. I had no reason to suspect that this game would be anything short of good, but after reading reviews for the game, my hype was deflated somewhat. I'm glad it was, because that softened the blow. Literally every aspect of this game has great ideas, but feels rushed, barebones, or poorly designed in some manner.

Adventure Mode was the first mode in the game that I dove into, and it is easily my favorite part. Even still, it is marred by some very lazy design and odd choices. Essentially, the Adventure Mode serves to develop the player's skill with the new mechanics in the game. When I played the Online Tournament, I was skeptical of the Special Shots being added to Aces which I felt cheapened the core tennis experience. Having the roughly seven hour campaign under my belt, I am much more proficient with these moves, and I now see the dynamic they bring to Aces in a more positive light. One thing that cannot be stressed enough is that Aces has fantastic gameplay. This game's core mechanics are really fantastic, and add new layers of strategy that must be learned through practice. The Adventure in Aces serves to develop these techniques through traditional tennis matches, but also through mini-games and boss battles. I really enjoyed these boss encounters and the way they turned tennis on its head. Whether that involved throwing down against Gooper Blooper on the deck of a ship, rallying ink blobs back at him and using the trick shot to leap over his tentacles, or using a Zone Shot to smack Petey Piranha in his bellybutton, these were incredibly creative endeavors.

The rest of Adventure Mode didn't have that creative spark, however. Each of the five areas became extremely predictable. There would be one regular tennis match, one rally challenge, one target break challenge, one sure shot challenge, and a Zone Shot practice. That isn't to say I didn't have fun as I went through the game, because I did. But it is to say that falling into these routines took away some of the fun in visiting new places, especially when not every challenge was a winner. Target break and Sure Shot missions were relatively middle of the road, but the other three vary in quality a bit more. The regular tennis matches are exactly what you'd expect. They're best out of three games, two-set matches. I was initially disappointed that they weren't longer, but by the time you reach the later zones, you'll be glad the matches are on the shorter side. I found myself losing over and over again to later challenges. Having to rematch characters like Boom Boom over and over could be grating, but equally satisfying to overcome. I was very much pleased that Aces didn't end up being a cakewalk. But, there isn't a retry button. So, every time you lose a challenge, you have to watch the "game over screen" fade in and out, gain experience for losing (we'll get to THAT later), return to the world map, listen to the post-challenge losing dialog, click back on the challenge, skip the intro dialog, wait for the level to load again, and then hit A to begin the challenge. Needless to say, this is a frustrating design decision, and one that really hampered the pace of Mario Tennis Aces.

Restarting a tennis match is frustrating enough, but restarting a mini-game, which can be lost in mere minutes, becomes even more tedious. On the whole, I didn't find myself losing that often to the target break, Sure Shot, or Zone Shot challenges. The latter of which was perhaps the most interesting type of mini-game, and the one with the most care put into it. Essentially, these challenges involved rallying various objects such as fire balls and hammers as well as utilizing Zone Shots to take down enemies, ranging from Piranha Plants to Hammer Bros. I really enjoyed the totally non-traditional style of the games. Each of these encounters was a highlight of the Adventure Mode.

The rally challenges, however, are a different story. These are the clearest example of the bizarre design philosophy in this game. Usually, when you rally a ball in a game of tennis, both players have mutually agreed to attempt to keep the ball in play for as long as possible. Often, rallies are used to strengthen a particular shot, and through repetition of that shot, you improve your skill with it. Want to know what totally defeats the purpose of a rally? If one of the players decides that every shot they return will be with the intention of winning the point. That is exactly the problem with these challenges in Aces. It is totally baffling to me that Camelot would think this makes for a fair mission type. The final instance of this against Kamek was by far the most egregious. You have to score an asinine amount of points by keeping the ball in play while Kamek pounds the ball off the sides of the court, into the hazards, and where ever else to make it impossible to maintain the rally. These are winner shots; not a healthy mix of shot types that would've forced me to utilize all my skills to keep the ball in play. No, these are cheap, purposeful shots that do not work in the context of a rally point. To make matters worse, you can actually sneak the ball past Kamek, or he can hit it out with absolutely zero repercussions. It just horribly designed.

It was during my hour spent trying to rally with Kamek that I learned the extent of the RPG mechanics that go in Mario Tennis Aces. I leveled up many, many times over that hour, which in turn painted a clear illustration of how flimsy these systems are. To say I learned the extent of these mechanics would imply some sort of depth, when in actuality these systems couldn't even be considered surface level. You gain experience points regardless of whether you win or lose, and those points contribute to leveling up Mario. It doesn't get much more arbitrary than this. I finished the story right around level fifty, and I didn't feel any stronger or notice any discernible change in comparison to level one. To further the ruse that Aces has RPG elements, you can earn different rackets throughout your time with the Adventure. I thought this was going to open up some interesting diversity in play style; do I choose a racket with high durability, or go I take the glass cannon route and use an offensive archetype? Well, Mario Tennis Aces simplifies this choice by simply making each racket objectively and undeniably better than the last. So much for any sort of strategic choice. These RPG aspects seem to serve one purpose; be a bullet point in a press release.

Of course, Adventure Mode only represents one part of Mario Tennis Aces. However, all the other modes are flawed in their own way. The only other single player mode in the game is Tournament, which is a laughable attempt at best. The mode is comprised of three cups: Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Star. Each is relegated to a single version of the basic stadium, and feature Toads commentating the match. The latter is actually a rather neat stylistic choice. Having this commentary with the Toads dressed up in suits with microphones is an extra bit of immersion that I really appreciated. What I didn't appreciate, however, is how short and easy the cups are. If you have all your fingers and at least one of your eyes, you'll breeze through the Mushroom and Fire Flower cups in less than ten minutes each. The Star Cup offers a stiffer challenge, but is over equally quickly.

However, I'd be willing to ignore those issues if the local multiplayer was good. Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64 is a game that my friends and I have gotten so much enjoyment out of, and I was hoping Aces would recapture that magical multiplayer. And it does, to an extent. Playing match after match with my sister across wacky courts is a blast. I would've liked to see a few more courts to play in, but each is very well designed with a unique gimmick. The game has a solid selection of characters as well, with sixteen to choose from. I would've liked some deeper cuts, as all the characters represented here are the staples you'd expect, with a few surprises such as Chain Chomp thrown into the mix. We will get new characters later down the line, and if the leaks are any indication, we'll be getting some great new additions. With Ace's good roster and great courts in conjunction with its fantastic mechanics, there is a solid local multiplayer title here. Unfortunately, like everything else in this game, local multiplayer comes with an asterisk.

Rarely do I see such boneheaded design decisions as those present in Mario Tennis Aces' local multiplayer. For starters, the game doesn't have a stage select. It has a stage deselect, though. Yes, you have to enter a plain text menu in the rules tab to toggle off any courts you don't want to play, meaning that if you want to only play one court, you have to turn off all the others. On what planet does that make sense? It is backwards and cumbersome, but not nearly as infuriating as the lack of match lengths. The longest match you can play in local multiplayer is one set, win by two games. It is legitimately impossible to play a traditional six-game set of tennis here. There is absolutely no good reason to restrict play in a local setting like this. There also is no option for local multiplayer doubles without split-screen. In Mario Tennis 64, you could play with everyone on the same screen across the net from each other. For a game where everyone is trapped in a small area, seeing the picture doubled just so you're always closest to the bottom of the screen is jarring and visually distracting. This is a fine option to include, but allow me to keep everyone on the same court as well. My sister and I immediately went back to being on the same team when we discovered this, it is just too distracting to play any other way.

A common defense for Mario Tennis Aces is that the game is going to be receiving post-launch support, and Camelot will fix the issues that the game has. The game will get no such pass from me. I don't have a principled issue with the Games as Services model, but I do take umbrage with them when they're handled irresponsibly, as Aces is. When the on-disc portion of your game is weak and suffering from flaws far more complex than simply not enough characters and stages, no amount of the latter can compensate for deep, fundamental issues with the game. Even if Camelot goes back in and adds a stage select, adds match lengths, and adds more meaningful single-player content, it's too late. There is a difference between rushing a game out the door and trying to make the best of the situation with post-launch content, and creating a well-rounded game that grows as time progresses. Mario Tennis Aces feels like the former.

And here we are, Tuesday June 26th, and I'm already through with Mario Tennis Aces. Sure, I'll be putting this title in my rotation of local multiplayer games that I play with company. Sure, I'll come back for the online tournaments to unlock new characters, but I've got nothing to do in the game right now. I'm not interested in going online. If you're personally content with the game's online portion, that's great. But, I was very excited for the single-player and local multiplayer portions of this game, and both let me down immensely. Some people have tried to tell me that it doesn't matter if the singe-player and local multiplayer aspects aren't strong, because Aces is an online focused game. I just don't agree with that. Firstly, Mario Sports games have had a reputation for local multiplayer. That is the bread and butter of these titles, and neglecting this aspect is to turn a blind eye to what made these games so enjoyable in the first place. Additionally, this content is in the game. If Mario Tennis Aces wanted to be an online title, just ship with online and a basic offline mode. But, when you add these aspects to the game, there is an expectation that they will be of a high quality. If I order a burger with fries and a lemonade at a restaurant, but the fries are soggy and the lemonade is just water with a piece of lemon in it, is that excusable because the main part of the meal is the burger? No, it isn't.