NEW PLAY CONTROL! Mario Power Tennis

Modes

There are three main modes for you to choose from in Mario Power Tennis:

Exhibition Mode

Exhibition Mode offers you the most choice - play Singles or Doubles with up to three other friends and then choose between distinct types of game. You can play standard tennis on a normal court, improve your accuracy with Ring Shot tennis, where you hit the ball through a series of rings, or you can shake it up a bit with an Item Battle. Think Mario Kart but with tennis! And if you haven't tried Mario Kart yet, this means a game of tennis where all sorts of random items come into play, usually to devastating effect! You can check out some videos of Item Battle tennis in the Tricky Tennis section.

Tournament Mode

Take on all comers in classic Tournament Mode! This is tennis for the competitive single player who wants to battle their way to top dog position in the tennis world. There are several types of Cup you can compete for and if you get far enough in your quest for success, you’ll also unlock extra tournaments! What are you waiting for champ?

Special Games Mode

Let yourself loose on a whole range of Special Games in this mode and compete against friends and family as you take on as much fun as you can handle! Try crazy games like Terror Tennis: fire off your best shots at gormless ghosts and put a halt to the hauntings. Or how about getting in touch with your artistic side in Artist on the Court? Watch your slices – you don’t want to end up like Van Gogh!

Shots

Playing Mario Power Tennis with your Wii Remote couldn’t be easier. The Wii Remote is your tennis racket and how you swing or flick it will determine what type of shot you’ll hit. Mario Power Tennis offers all the strokes you would expect to play on a real tennis court but from the comfort of your living room!

Tennis strokes

Serve

A good serve is imperative if you want to be a tennis champion. First, find your preferred spot on the baseline by using the + Control Pad. Then flick the Wii Remote up to throw the ball, and flick it again to serve. The direction you flick the Wii Remote will determine where the serve lands.

Forehand

Take the Wii Remote in your favoured hand, take a short swing backwards and then flick the Wii Remote forcefully forwards. The faster you whip the Wii Remote, the faster your shot!

Backhand

Hold the Wii horizontally in the palm of your hand, facing towards you. Take a short swing in towards your body and then smoothly swing the Wii away from you to create a streamlined backhand!

Topspin

The topspin shot is much like the forehand, but with more of an acute angle. This time, swing your Wii Remote from the lower right to the upper left in order to create topspin. The ball will travel faster and will kick forwards when it hits the court.

Slice

For a wicked slice, flick your Wii Remote from the upper right to the lower left as you play, to add backspin and cut the ball short.

Drop Shot

Hold the Wii Remote in your hand, palm down, and extend your arm out in front of you. To create the crafty Drop Shot, simply raise the Wii Remote and then flick it straight down.

Lob

Take the Wii Remote, palm up and flick upwards to create a lob shot and place the ball out of your opponent’s reach!

Smash

To smash your ball (and your opponent’s chances) out of the court, look out for a star that appears when the ball is coming in high. Move your character over to the star and flick your Wii Remote downwards to catch the ball perfectly and send it flying!

In addition to these shots is the all-important Power Shot! Each character has both an attacking and a defensive Power Shot - you can check some of them out in the Tricky Tennis section. And remember – practice makes perfect – you’ll reap the rewards as you tackle tournaments with a full arsenal of explosive strokes.

Characters

There are six types of players - each with different attributes. And there are 18 players altogether, so try out different types to get the full Mario Power Tennis experience!

All-around Players - Mario

Mario’s an all-round good guy - and so is his tennis! All-around tennis players tend to have equal proficiency in offensive and defensive strokes. They're great players to start out with if you're new to the game.

Technical Players - Peach

Technical Players are all about accuracy and style – they love nothing better than perfectly placing the ball - just out of your reach! It's easy to discount them since they appear physically weaker, but appearances can be deceiving..

Power Players - Bowser

Bowser’s one of the original Power Players and puts his considerable weight behind all his shots, shooting them off like deadly missiles. Power Players are the ones to choose if you like to blast your opponent right out of the court!

Speed Players - Yoshi

Faster than the speed of light (almost)! That’s Yoshi – one of the Speed Players who can cover the court as fast as a dragon catches his prey. You'll need pinpoint accuracy to out-manoeuvre these guys!

Tricky Players - Boo

Boo! Did we scare you? Tricky Players like Boo come up with all sorts of surprising twists and spins on their tennis shots, making it difficult to read where they’re going to land. The element of surprise is the key to victory with a Tricky Player.

Defensive Players - Waluigi

Defensive Players are the players of choice for folks who like to bide their time and force their opponents to make the mistakes. Why rush around like a headless chicken when you don’t have to?

Tricky Tennis

Courts

There are lots of different courts set to test you in Mario Power Tennis. Some are fairly straightforward while others are full of surprises! Try playing all the different game modes to unlock special extra hidden courts. With the Peach Dome court, you can opt for a normal, clay or grass court, while the others come in two versions - normal and Gimmick.

Gimmick Courts

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Mario tennis game without some extra punch! In the Gimmick versions of the courts, you’ll have the added pressure of overcoming special obstacles on the court, designed to make that rally a little more tricky!

Items

In the Exhibition Mode, you can opt to play an Item Battle match. This is tennis with a twist! While you play, you’ll get the chance to acquire and use special Mario-themed items which will confound and confuse your opponents. Shells will cause a stumble, a Banana skin will effect a classic comedy slip, Mushrooms temporarily increase your speed, a Star makes you invincible and a bolt of Lightning can even shrink your opponent!

Power Shots

Every character in Mario Power Tennis has two Power Shots that can be unleashed once the Power Gauge is full. You charge the gauge by waiting and taking your shot at the last possible moment. The longer you wait, the more it rises…

The nature of Power Shots are, of course, in keeping with the player you control. Can you guess who might wield the Acrobatic Banana? Or how about the Sweet Kiss Return? The mind boggles!

WHAT'S NEW?

The NEW PLAY CONTROL! series brings classic Nintendo GameCube titles bang up-to-date with innovative Wii controls. In Mario Power Tennis, the Wii Remote makes the perfect tennis racquet – all you need to do is pretend it IS a tennis racquet and play in exactly the same way. You can slice and smash to your heart’s content and each character also has their own special devastating move – check out all the action in our Controls section.

Other new game features include:

• Enhanced audio with character-specific voice samples and atmospheric sound effects
• Visual additions with a new replay option and zoom-ins
• Now in widescreen with new 16:9 mode!

You can check out details on the other NEW PLAY CONTROL! titles here - get strategic with the delightful Pikmin and go on a monkey-filled rampage with Donkey Kong!