Mario’s Back On The Court
Mario Tennis Aces online tournament has finally concluded and spent about 16 hours playing. Honestly, I felt overwhelmed by the controls right off the bat, but with a little time, it all became second nature.
Baptism by Fire
Following the tutorial, there were two main choices, practice with the computer or the online tournament. I wasted no time and jumped in the Japanese servers about twelve hours before the NA servers went live. The matches ranged from easy opponents to, “how have you played long enough to have that many points?” I was holding my own with a positive win-loss record, but if the controls hadn’t clicked relatively fast the frustration would have been real.
Fighting Frustration
Figuring out the controls reminded of Smash Bros it is all about precision movement. Button mashing wasn’t going to cut it. Watching my opponents pull off different moves help it all the click. Before too long I was blocking Special Shots and using trick shots to get to otherwise unreachable balls on the opposite side of the court. After six hours of playing, I still couldn’t wait to get back on the court. There was one opponent that brought on plenty of frustration, his name is lag. Matches would be won or lost depending on the connection and even choosing opponents based on connection strength did not assure a lag free match. This is really the point of the beta to see how the servers hold up and to gather data from the players.
Forward Thinking
Thankfully this beta wasn’t set in one-hour increments throughout the weekend, because of that countless hours were lost to this game. With all the time played Nintendo should have all data needed to clean up the code and fine tune matchmaking for a better online experience. This is a step in the right direction for the big N, so I’m hopeful we will see similar treatment with Smash. I played with a wired connection from the moment the NA servers were live, but one out of three matches seemed to be plagued by lag. Fingers crossed that ratio will improve with the full release. Even with the lag issues, this game was incredibly fun.
Beyond The Basic Formula
Mario Tennis Aces is the first game in the series to break the cookie cutter mold. The Mario Tennis games have also been solid tennis games but lacked innovation over the last few instruments. It’s funny to me to hear comments like; “I’m really glad they are bringing back the simple mode.” The last three games were simple mode and that was the biggest complaint about them. Don’t get me wrong I think it’s great that they’ve added so many options letting gamers play how they want is never a bad thing. With story mode, online play, simple mode, couch multiplayer and the ability to play with motion controls or traditional controls, this game offers something for everyone.
Now We Wait
As of writing this, we have about three weeks until release and it’s going to be a long three weeks. I can’t wait to get back on the court! If you need some help improving your game check out my beginners guide here I want to hear from you. Did you enjoy the beta, is Mario Tennis Aces a day one pick up? Let me know in the comments below.
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