Video Game / Mario Tennis

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A series of Sports Games by Nintendo and Camelot Software Planning (the two companies also partnered with each other on Mario Golf) starring Mario, Luigi and the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom gang in a half-sports game, half-RPG rather realistic take on tennis coupled with some kind of unique mechanic added in each game that spices up the gameplay.

The games also give you a large selection of characters all from the Mario universe and are notable for making characters Mario spin-off game staples, Daisy reappeared for the first time since her debut in the series and the first installment is also famous as the First Appearance of Waluigi.

Games in the series:

• Mario Tennis 64 (2000) - Nintendo 64, Virtual Console, and Nintendo Switch Online (Released as simply Mario Tennis outside Japan)
• Mario Tennis GB (2000) - Game Boy Color, Virtual Console, and Nintendo Switch Online (Released as simply Mario Tennis outside Japan)
• Mario Power Tennis (2004) - Nintendo GameCube (Re-released on the Wii as a "New Play Control" game)
• Mario Tennis: Power Tour (2005) - Game Boy Advance and Virtual Console
• Mario Tennis Open (2012) - Nintendo 3DS
• Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash (2015) - Wii U
• Mario Tennis Aces (2018) - Nintendo Switch
• Mario Tennis Fever (2026) - Nintendo Switch 2

Camelot also developed the tennis portion of Mario Sports Superstars, a sports-themed mini game collection released for the 3DS in 2017. Another tennis-related Mario game was Mario's Tennis (developed by Nintendo R&D1), released for the Virtual Boy. Mario also was the referee in the 1984 NES and Famicom Tennis game and its Game Boy port.

Game series provides examples of:

• The Ace: Dweezil and Elroy from Power Tour are the champion and runner up of the previous Island Open tournament, and are viewed as the players to watch out for, with Elroy even being considered the Academy Team’s captain, and both of them also get byes in the Island Open that you participate in.
• A.I. Breaker: Lobs in Power Tour, specifically in Doubles. Executed properly, you can enjoy the back AI futilely trying to reach the ball clear on the other side of the court. This technique, combined with how good net play is in Power Tour, can potentially make even Luigi and Donkey Kong look like jokes. Sadly, this does not work so well in Singles.
• Anti Poop-Socking: The Virtual Boy game will automatically pause after 10 minutes (but not during a play), with the manual recommending a quick break to avoid eye strain.
• Antagonist Title: He’s not a villain, mind you, but in both Mario Tennis GB and Mario Tennis: Power Tour, Mario serves as the main antagonist, and ultimately the Final Boss of Singles in both games.
• Ascended Extra: Waluigi is a major playable character in Power Tour. It's also the only game he appears in to not have Wario appear alongside him (although Wario's voice can be heard on the Nintendo logo at the start of the game).
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Volcano Shot and Rainbow Save power shots in Advance Tour require insane status to obtain, but suck.
• Bamboo Technology: Downplayed, but Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong's racquets throughout the series are built from a tree branch, complete with leaves sticking out of them.
• Big Bad: For the handheld games the Factory team would qualify, their team is shown as the most prominent threat to Royal Academy and the rest of teams in the game(s). They’re directly responsible for A. Coz and B. Coz who are dreaded by most of the players at the Island Open in Mario Tennis GB. In the sequel, both A. Coz and B. Coz devote their time and energy into training their little brother to usurp Royal Academy in the Island Open after losing to Alex in the prior game.
• Big "NO!": This is Luigi's reaction to losing a match in Power Tennis and Open, with some Inelegant Blubbering to go along with it.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Slider Shot requires one stats (Spin, which is one of the first to become accessible) to be boosted and is still a fairly solid shot.
  • In the same vein is the High-Power Shot. The ball becomes a fireball. It’s fast and, aimed properly, can score the point. This shot is a very early one, but it can easily get you through to the end of the game.
  • Lob shots in Doubles, particularly in Power Tour. The AI cannot return a well-aimed lob very reliably, making net play borderline broken even on Technical.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • 64 and Power Tennis' victory animations aren't exactly kind to Luigi. A Lakitu steals his trophy in the former and he gets Eaten Alive by Yoshi in the latter.
  • Of the four schools in Mario Tennis (GBC) and Power Tour, Union gets the worst of it. They have a reputation of always doing badly in tournaments—in part because they lack a star player, as noted by one observer in PT—and only once in either game does the school manage to make it past the Island Open's first round. In PT, they enter the Open thinking that they were the only ones using Power Shots and get a rude awakening because of it. No one, if anyone at all, respects them: the people working at the tournament setting's restaurant even say that the Union-affiliated food they provide is "loser food". As a result, the Union's Dean is left in a downer mood throughout the Open.
• Can't Catch Up: Any opponent you unlock in the GBC version and Power Tour that 1. Aren't opponents in the Island Open, 2. Aren't in the higher ranks of the Varsity Class, and 3. aren't a Mushroom Kingdom character will generally be bad to mediocre and end up as Joke Characters.
• Character Customization:
  • In the GBC version and Power Tour, the story mode playable characters' stats can be customized to the player's taste by acquiring EXP points after every level up or by obtaining hidden 1-Up Mushrooms.
  • Ultra Smash is the only game in the series with amiibo support, working similarly to the Super Smash Bros. series; the player's amiibo partner can be trained and its stats can be customized to their taste.
• Climax Boss: A. Coz (in Singles), and The Costello Brothers (in Doubles) in the GBC version. Willy Costello, joined by Sheri in Doubles, in the GBA version. Winning nets you the trophy and a victory screen with credits alongside an invitation to the Mushroom Kingdom for a chance to face off against Mario.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In the GBC version of the original game, each of the 3 rivals schools gives their players unique colors to signify who they play for. Union players are green, Empire players are yellow, and Factory players are always blue.
• Confusion Fu:
  • Tricky/Tactical characters like Boo in 64 and Power Tennis, Curt and A. Coz in the GBC version, Bowser Jr. in Power Tennis, and Willy Costello in Power Tour have insane amounts of spin on their balls which can catch a player off guard.
  • Strangely, in the GBC game, an All-Around character, Spike, has a tricky-type move; his drop shot (a deliberately weak shot that barely makes it over the net) curves to the right, making it harder to follow. Meanwhile, A.Coz has a very powerful lob (high) shot that will fly high, regardless of what part of the court he's on.
• Cultural Translation: A mild example from Power Tour. The protagonists of that entry are named Clay and Ace in the North American English version, while the British version included on the European version renamed them to Max and Tina, since the original names wouldn’t make much sense to European and Australian audiences.
• Cutting Off the Branches: The GBC game's campaign allows you to pick between playing as Alex and his partner Harry or Nina and her partner Kate. You can additionally choose to play either Singles or Doubles. Power Tour would establish Alex was the canonical character and that he won both the Island Open Singles and Doubles with Harry.
• Deconstruction: In Power Tour, the Academy has training facilities for Power Shots, which are essentially like the kind of minigames you'd find in Mario Party. This wouldn't be problematic at all for Mario and his friends, but since everyone in the Academy is an average human being, it's more Training from Hell than anything else.
• Defeat Means Playable: Every tennis opponent that you play against in the first two handheld titles. This includes Mario himself in the GBC version. For Power Tour, Mario series characters are instead unlocked at the start and you get Star versions of them instead.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Should the player leave the Island Open in GBC (either by quitting a match without saving or by not continuing a match) you’ll respawn with your partner who will mention that you shouldn’t be here before saying that must’ve come back for your lucky socks.
  • In Power Tour, the two campaigns, Singles and Doubles, can be played through individually. As a result, one could complete one campaign before even touching the other. NPC dialogue can change in one campaign depending on your progress in the other campaign. For example, if one completes the Doubles Island Open before starting the Singles version, then the first opponent will acknowledge your Doubles victory, and ask you to go easy on her.
• Elemental Weapon: Well, elemental rackets. The original game had those whenever a character released a charged swing. For example, Mario had sparkles, Peach had hearts, Toad had bubbles, Wario had lightning, Bowser had fire, etc...
• Fake Longevity:
  • In all games besides Ultra Smash and Aces, to fill all of the Exhibition match records, you have to play a match with every character against every character.
  • To unlock the Super Star versions of characters you have to beat all normal tournaments with all characters. This is somewhat alleviated in Open, where you just have to beat the Final Cup to unlock them, and in Ultra Smash, where you can unlock them via Knockout Challenge (the game's equivalent to Tournaments) or just using coins instead. Aces ditches Super Star characters altogether.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Just look at the box art. Occasionally he does some plotting, but for the most part he just wants to play tennis.
  Mario: Hey, let's-a ALL play!!!
• Hermit Guru: The Stroke Play "master" in Power Tour decides to become one each time he loses to you.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Luigi and Baby Mario both break down in hysterical sobbing should they lose a match in 64, Power Tennis, and Open.
• Insufferable Genius: Tori is one, Elroy and Dweezil are mild examples, Emi at first appears to be a mild version of this but turns out to be a real sweetheart, and Mason thinks of himself as this, but is more of a Small Name, Big Ego.
• Jack of All Stats:
  • Mario, alongside other All-Around characters such as Luigi, have generally well-balanced stats throughout the series. They do have their differences, though. Luigi for example had notably better reach in 64, while Mario was more powerful.
  • Willy's partner Sheri and Rank 1 Varsity Player Elroy in Power Tour.
• Jerkass: The Costello Brothers, A. Coz, and B. Coz, are minor examples. Tori in Power Tour plays this a bit more straight at first, while Dweezil is a somewhat more mild example. Averted with the third Costello brother, Willy, who just desires to play against a worthy opponent regardless of the outcome, as well as his partner Sheri who is just confident in both her and Willy's skills, Willy even emphasizes that he's thrilled to be playing in the final regardless of the outcome.
• Joke Character: The Royal Academy Junior and Senior students of Power Tour all qualify, they all lack Power Shots the Varsity, Island Open, and Mario cast possess, and many of them have poor stats on top of that.
• Lethal Joke Character: You can set the Mario characters onto any difficulty in the GBC game, but all of the story characters, regardless of their class, will automatically be set on hard each time you play an exhibition game.
• Lightning Bruiser: By spending your points wisely, you will be able to make your player character into one of these.
• Limit Break: The Offensive Power Shots from Power Tennis and Power Tour.
• Limited Wardrobe:
  • While Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi usually play tennis (or any other sport, for that matter) in their overalls, Aces gives them proper tennis outfits.
  • Peach and Daisy had this in the original N64/GBC Mario Tennis/Mario Golf games, before Power Tennis and Toadstool Tour introduced their sport minidresses.
• Mana Meter: Power Tennis and Power Tour features one for Power Shots, also charged by hitting the ball repeatedly.
• 👁 This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.
  Market-Based Title: The GBA game is titled Mario Tennis: Power Tour in American English, while the European languages gave it the same title as the Nintendo GameCube counterpart, Mario Power Tennis. The name Power Tour still appears in game as the title of the RPG story mode.
• Master of None: Many of the early game All-Around type tennis players from the handheld entries could qualify as this, but the most notable example is Pam, the Warm-Up Boss given to players at the start of Junior class in Mario Tennis GB. All of her stats are below average even compared to the other players.
• Memory Match Mini-Game: In Power Tour, one of the minigames used to level up your stats is Instinct Drill, where you have to match pairs of cards in 60 seconds, with the twist that you can use ESP to see the underside of the cards.
• Mighty Glacier: Heavy characters like Bowser, Petey, Wario, and B. Coz have slow movement speed making it difficult to cover the court, but enough power behind their swing to make life just as difficult for the competition. In Open, Dry Bowser takes it even farther with the glacier part — his walking (as opposed to running like everyone else with feet) movement is the absolute slowest in the game, as if his bones were joined together by molasses joints, instead focusing on his power.
• Musical Nod: The trophy celebrations for some of the characters in 64 and Power Tennis reuse familiar jingles associated with the character. Mario (as well as Baby Mario) uses the Ground Theme from Super Mario Bros. 1, Wario uses Out of the Woods from Wario Land 3, and Donkey Kong uses both the title jingle and the "Pauline kidnapped" theme from Donkey Kong (1981) to name some examples.
• Near Victory Fanfare: The games have special music for game, set, match, and championship points that override the current court music.
• One Game for the Price of Two:
  • Both the N64 and GBC versions of the first game are necessary to get all the playable characters in either version.
  • Averted with all games from Power Tennis onwards.
• Original Generation: Present in both the GBC version and Power Tour are several human characters unique to this series. They serve many roles such as playable Story Mode characters, helpful advisors, opponents, and more. Alex of the GBC game becomes head coach in Power Tour, and Harry, Kate, and Nina become very high ranking coaches.
• Palette Swap: In Power Tennis, Yoshi can unlock the ability to change color every time he uses the Rolling Egg Return. These variants return as downloadable characters in Open and Aces.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In Power Tour, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Waluigi, Donkey Kong and Bowser are able to fool everyone at the Royal Tennis Academy just by putting on masks, which also fools the characters from the GBC game who had already seen Mario and the gang before.
• Power Glows: Rackets glow whenever Power Moves are available.
• Promoted to Playable: This series marked the playable debuts of Daisy, Birdo, Boo, Shy Guy and Paratroopa in 64, Wiggler and Fly Guy in Power Tennis, Luma in Open, the green Sprixie Princess in Ultra Smash, and Chain Chomp, Pauline, and Fire Piranha Plant in Aces.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • In Power Tour, You and your partner are blue and red respectively (your character is a Heroic Mime, but your partner speaks and clearly has a hot-headed personality).
  • Also in Power Tour, the top varsity opponents Elroy and Tori, who are blue and red respectively because Elroy is more laid-back than Tori, who is more aggressive.
• Ret-Canon: Bowser Jr. in Ultra Smash and Aces is playable exclusively while sitting in the Koopa Clown Car instead of moving around on his own like in Power Tennis and Open, which was inspired by his playable appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series starting in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.
• The Rival: Wario and Waluigi's rivalry with Mario and Luigi gets more focus here than any other Mario spin-off, especially Waluigi since he was introduced in the first game. Said rivalry was undeniably mutual in 64, as the two duos actually growl at each other in anger (with Mario even shouting "Watch it, buster!" at Wario), but Power Tennis turned the rivalry into a comedic one-sided rivalry on Wario and Waluigi's part, and it's largely stayed that way since.
• RPG Elements: The GBC game and Power Tour feature such features as raising stats and Character Level. The games are made by Camelot, and it shows.
• Save Scumming: That CPU in Star Tourney is at 40 while you're at 0? No problem! Save to keep your record intact!
• Secret Character:
  • Donkey Kong Jr. and Shy Guy in 64. The handheld version had every tennis opponent you faced during either singles or doubles (meaning you had to play both singles and doubles to unlock them all) and the GBC version included prominent Mario series characters that were unlocked by beating them in the last tournament (Mario and Peach) or by connecting your game with the N64 version (Yoshi, Waluigi, Wario, and Bowser). Because they can't replicate the Transfer Pak functionality, the Virtual Console releases of the latter have the secret characters unlocked by default.
  • Connecting the GBC version of ''Mario Tennis'' to the N64 version adds four human characters to the N64 version: the characters that you go through the Story Mode and their doubles partners. As there is no current way of replacing the Transfer Pak method, and no way of getting or connecting to the GBC game currently, you cannot unlock those characters in the VC versions. Partially justified in that these characters stats depended on how you had leveled them up in the GBC versions. Fortunately, all of the Transfer Pak characters are unlocked immediately in the VC release.
• Shown Their Work: All games are surprisingly accurate and true to the real sport, featuring very accurate and realistic court sizes and ball physics. The handheld games even include an in-depth tennis dictionary, which shows the developers really went the extra mile to create very deep tennis video games.
  • The depiction of tennis court sizes, tennis ball speed radars, and the very gravity of the tennis ball are surprisingly accurate or damn near accurate in Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and Mario Tennis Aces.
  • The GBC game and its GBA direct sequel Power Tour have a very in-depth dictionary and tutorials using accurate tennis terminology, which is fitting since it's set at a tennis academy for most of the story mode. If you wanted to know the difference between a cross-court serve and a down-the-line serve (and more importantly, how to pull them off in-game), you can learn it here.
• Sore Loser: Almost every character reacts this way to losing a match throughout the series. Special mention goes to Wiggler, who turns red and goes berserk.
• Static Role, Exchangeable Character: Clay and Ace in Power Tour. The one chosen as protagonist can have their dialogue chosen, while the other has a straightforward, hot-headed personality.
• Stone Wall: Waluigi and Wiggler are this in Power Tennis, as is last year champ Dweezil in Power Tour.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Dweezil the champ of last year's Island Open in Power Tour. He refuses to speak with you on the grounds that you are a newcomer in the tournament and thus "fresh meat", but warms up to you before the start of your next tennis match against him.
• Tears of Defeat: Many of the characters cry after losing a point; examples are Pam, Beth, and Alex, while Nina cries if she loses a match entirely.
• Tears of Joy: Nina lets out a Single Tear of happiness after winning the Island Open and receiving her trophy in Mario Tennis GB.
• Tournament Arc: Both the GBC version and Power Tour have the Island Open tournament to serve as the player's goal. Power Tour has the Peach Tournament immediately after that.
• Training from Hell: When the Academy in Power Tour begins training its students to learn Power Shots, the training exercises are typically like the kind of mini-games that Mario characters usually face and have no problem with, but as these are regular human characters, they justifiably have great difficulty trying to get a hang of these hard exercises.
• True Final Boss: Mario serves as this for both Singles and Doubles play (joined by Peach) in the GBC version. He was degraded to just Singles play Final Boss in Power Tour, while Bowser and Waluigi seized the Doubles spot.
• Tsundere: Tori starts off as an Insufferable Genius but when you visit her in the infirmary after she sprains her ankle, she's considerably nicer and wishes you luck in the final.
• The Unfought:
  • Kevin, the Varsity Champion of the GBC game (and Varsity Coach in Power Tour), is never in a tennis match with the player (he is defeated in the Island Open by the Costello Brothers in both Singles and Doubles), and thus is never a playable character, despite Mark and Emily, the Junior and Senior Coaches respectively, being playable.
  • In Power Tour, none of the original playable characters that appear in cameos are unlockable, save for the Mario series characters of course.
  • Ellis, Edgar, and Frank in the Island Open are never played. Interestingly, Edgar and Frank are just palette swapped versions of each other.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Everyone engages in this throughout the series, but Daisy takes the cake in her victory animation in Power Tennis.
  Daisy: Alright, yes! I won! Take that!
• Updated Re-release: For the Nintendo Switch Online release of the Game Boy Color game, since the Transfer Pak function can’t be emulated, all Mario series characters unlocked that way (Yoshi, Wario, Waluigi and Bowser) are available from the start.
• Vocal Evolution:
  • Waluigi's voice was really different in 64 compared to how it would sound in every later entry, despite Charles Martinet voicing him in all appearances. Though there are instances where he has his normal nasally voice, he more often sounded like he was putting on a tough guy falsetto.
  • Daisy is a lighter case; while her softer voice in 64 remained for a few games (notably Mario Party 3, 4, and 5), this game actually gives her a slight British accent that never appeared anywhere else.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • In the GBC game, it's pretty easy to bumble your way through the Junior Class. The Senior ranking match can be a bit challenging since you are playing on a clay court - so that can be a bit tricky if you didn't expect it. Similarly, the Varsity doubles ranking match is against Mark and Bob. Sure, Bob is nothing you haven't faced before... except Mark will teach you not to rush the net.
  • In Power Tour, when you play in the Mushroom Kingdom Tournament for the first time, the first opponents in both the Singles Tournament (Peach) and the Doubles Tournament (Luigi and Donkey Kong) are considerably harder than the later opponents up to and including the Final Boss of each.
• Weak, but Skilled: Peach, Daisy, and Waluigi in 64 and the GBC version, as well as Shy Guy and Wiggler in Power Tennis and Tori in Power Tour, aren't particularly powerful, but they have an exceptional ability to control where they hit the ball and defend their side of the court.
• Zener Cards: Power Tour features a Memory Match Mini-Game where the player has to match Zener Cards. The underside can be viewed through ESP, as the minigame is meant to build the protagonist's ESP stat to unlock new Power Shots.