Mario Tennis Aces: lots of details, footage, pre-launch online tournament

9 March 2018 Lite_Agent Camelot, Mario Tennis Aces

Yesterday, during the latest Nintendo Direct presentation, Nintendo gave us a good look at Mario Tennis Aces, and shared a fair bit of details about the gameplay systems.

First, it was revealed that Mario Tennis Aces would have over 15 playable characters. 15 of them were revealed during the Nintendo Direct:

Luigi: All-Around
Mario: All-Around
Wario: Powerful
Waluigi: Defensive
Peach: Technical
Daisy: All-Around
Yoshi: Speedy
Rosalina: Tricky
Donkey Kong: Powerful
Toad: Speed
Bowser: Powerful
Toadette: Technical
Bowser Jr.: Defensive
Chain Chomp: Powerful
Boo: Tricky

Mario Tennis Aces will feature several basic tennis moves:

Basic shots
Topspin
Slide
Lob

There’s also some “fancy” new shots, such as the Zone Shot: it allows you to pin point an area of the court using motion controls, and then send the ball smashing down in that direction. It’s a really powerful move, that can damage your opponent’s racket. Once it’s been damaged three times, it can break, and if your opponent doesn’t have any spare ones left, it’s game over for them!

But Zone Shots are not almighty: they can be blocked, with the right timing.

If things are going a bit too fast for you, you can use Zone Speed to slow down time, making it easier for you to block Zone Shots, for example. But you need to be careful, because you cannot spam Zone Shots and Zone Speed: you need some energy for that. Your Energy Gauge fills up slowly as you keep the rally going, but there’s a much faster way to fill it up…

Using Trick Shots, you can jump over in order to knock a ball back. If you get the timing right, then your Energy Gauge will get a big boost. If you get the timing or distance wrong, then you’re in trouble.

Once your Energy Gauge is compeltely full, you can use a Special Shot. Those are extremely powerful shots that destroy rackets in one hit, but use up a ton of energy at once. Also, it can be blocked, so try to resist the temptation of activating it as soon as your Energy Gauge is full and wait for the best time to do so.

For players who don’t really like all those fancy moves, there’s simple rules, where only basic shots are allowed! And for those who want to move their body around, there’s Swing Mode that allows them to play using motion controls. Finally, players who want to play on their own will be able to thanks to the Story Mode, that offers special twists on the tennis formula.

As for multiplayer, Mario Tennis Aces offer local and online multiplayer, with up to 4 players. Online, you can play either with your friends, or with complete strangers. There will also be online tournaments, that allow you to compete against other players, with matchmaking based on your records during those events. If you participate, you can even get special outfits and additional characters as reward!

Speaking of tournaments, there will be one ahead of launch, with 1 vs 1 matches. More details about it will be shared at a late date!

Finally, here’s the segment from the Nintendo Direct, as well as plenty of pictures: