Hits eShop NA today, PAL on 1/2 (this means January 2nd, I am American, sorry about this!). Already out in JP.
The Game Boy™ Color version of Mario Tennis is a winning mix of court action and RPG. Train your character from novice to pro as you rise through the ranks of the Royal Tennis Academy, before taking on the champion himself: Mario! Build up your skills in Mario Tour career mode, jump right into the action with exhibition matches and relax with minigames while playing as Luigi, Donkey Kong and more. There is even a dictionary to help you brush up on your tennis terminology!
What was so awesome about this game was the depth to the RPG tennis experience, which is pretty unparalleled. There are also plenty of clever minigames. Per Mario Wiki:
In Mario Tour, the player takes control of Alex or Nina. They are the new students trying to make their way up the ranks at the Royal Academy, a school for tennis. At the beginning of the game, the player gets to choose whether they are going to play singles or doubles matches.
In Mario Tour, the player's character does exercises with coaches and plays against higher ranked players in order to get a higher rank for him or herself. Higher ranks mean they can challenge better players. Eventually, they can get a high enough rank to enter the Island Open. After the Island Open the player can face Mario in singles. In doubles, both Mario and Peach.
As the player progresses through the ranks, the player gets to increase their characters ability in different areas (similar to an RPG).
Mario Minigames
This is a group of minigames presented by various Nintendo characters. Some need to be unlocked. The minigames include:
Luigi Shooting Stars
Baby Mario Target Shot
Donkey Kong Banana Bunch
Mario Boo Blast
Peach Perfect Shot
Yoshi Fruit Factory
Wario Treasure Box
Waluigi Medallion Match
Bowser Two-On-One
Craig Harris (of when IGN was legit) gave it a 9/10 back in the day, read his review to see why the game's so prized:
http://www.ign.com/games/mario-tennis/gbc-14380
Mario Tennis is an extremely deep Game Boy Color game, but there's not as much variety to the game as there is in Mario Golf, and the only difference in challenge is how difficult the computer AI can get in higher levels. It's a brilliant game, absolutely - just one ace shy of perfection on the handheld.
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