Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash arrived on the Wii U in November 2015, carrying the weight of a franchise that had already set a high bar. Camelot Software Planning built it. Nintendo published it. The pitch was simple: grab friends and family, pick a character, and trade shots across a court that changes how the ball moves. It is a fine pitch. The problem is how little the game does with it.
Trailer, via Nintendo of America.
The Jumpshot and the Mega Mushroom
The core additions are the Jumpshot and the Mega Mushroom. The Jumpshot lets a player leap and strike the ball for a faster, longer-ranged shot. The Mega Mushroom is thrown onto either side of the court and makes the player grow, which allows stronger and more distant hits.
Both ideas are sound. Neither changes the game enough to matter. The Jumpshot is a new move, not a new way to think about a point. The Mega Mushroom is a spectacle that wears off.
The game also brings back Chance Shots, glowing spots on the ground that, when a player stands over them and presses a button combination, trigger a powerful move. The Ultra Smash itself is a unique kind of Jumpshot, a punishment mechanic that only becomes possible when the opponent loses form returning a shot. It lands hard. It is also rare enough that most matches never hinge on it.
Four Modes, Sixteen Characters
Before a match, players choose from four modes, 16 playable characters, and decide between 1-on-1 singles or 2-on-2 doubles. Then they pick a court. Each court is themed as a different texture of ground, and that texture affects the ball’s speed and bounce.
The modes break down cleanly:
- Classic Tennis, which lets players build a custom rule set and strip out Chance Shots, Jumpshots, or Mega Mushrooms, bringing play closer to Mario Tennis games before Mario Tennis Open
- Mega Battle, the mode built around the Mega Mushroom
- Knockback Challenge, a single-player endurance run where opponents get harder after every win
- Online multiplayer, which supports single or multiplayer and pits players against worldwide opponents in either Mega Battle or Classic Tennis
That online support is worth naming. Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash is the first game in the series to feature simultaneous online worldwide multiplayer. It works. It is also the only structural addition the game makes to the series, and it does not fill the hole where a real campaign should be.
Camelot’s Roster Problem
Deciding the roster, Camelot used pre-existing characters from older franchises, hoping players would gravitate toward faces they recognized. Each character’s skills were determined by appearance. The studio found it hard to balance those skills against fan opinion on stats. Mario was the hardest of all, because he is the starter character and could not be too strong or too weak.
That is an honest account of a real design tension, and it shows. The roster is smaller than what prior entries offered. The result is a game that feels thinner the longer it is played.
The game does not require motion controls. That is the right call, and the gameplay itself is sharp. The audiovisual presentation holds up. Multiplayer is where the game works best, and it is genuinely fun with another person in the room.
Grab your friends and family and dive into multiplayer mayhem with Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash on the Wii U console.
What Ultra Smash Gets Right
The amiibo functionality deserves a mention. A player can train a character through artificial intelligence to compete in matches in a similar fashion to the player, much like the Super Smash Bros. games. It is a small feature, but it is one of the few places where the game asks something new of the player.
The problem is that none of these pieces add up to a full game. Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash has four modes, but only Classic Tennis and Mega Battle carry real weight, and they are variations on the same match. Knockback Challenge is an endurance test, not a campaign. The online play is a genuine first for the series, but it is a feature, not a reason to keep playing alone.
Where the Ball Lands
This is a competent tennis game with too little around it. The Jumpshot and the Mega Mushroom are not enough to build a full release on, and the smaller character roster makes the absence of content harder to ignore. Camelot clearly understood how to make the ball move. What the studio did not do is give players enough reasons to keep hitting it.
The game was criticized at release for a lack of additional modes, a smaller roster than prior entries, and not enough innovation, with many calling it inferior to earlier installments in terms of content. That read holds up. The presentation, gameplay, and multiplayer earned praise then, and they earn it now. The rest of the package does not.
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash is not a bad game. It is a slight one. On a console that needed reasons to be turned on, a tennis game with four modes and 16 characters was never going to be enough. The Jumpshot is a good idea in search of a better game around it.
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