Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash has been released for the Wii U on November 20, 2015 for the Wii U in North America. Is Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash a good game? Well It's certainly not a bad or unplayable game, but it's not all that great at the same time either. The lack of variety of characters, stadiums, and the inability to play with friends online drag the overall score down. I'm actually hoping for Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash to get some DLC to add some more characters, modes, and fix up the online mode to be able to play with friends online.
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash only has a total of 16 playable characters. Several new characters that join the fray are Rosalina, Toadette, and the Green Sprixie Princess that debuted in Super Mario 3D World. Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach, Daisy, Bowser, Wario, Waluigi, Yoshi, Boo, Donkey Kong, Bowser Jr., and Dry Bowser all return as playable characters.
I personally think that in this day and age, there are still not enough playable characters. Even Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U and 3DS have a total of 58 characters including all of the DLC characters. Obviously, this is not called Super Smash Tennis. I'm not expecting Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash to have 58 charcters in the roster, but only having 16 playable characters is still not enough variety for fans to choose all of their fan favorite characters to play as. I think that could of at least added characters such as Diddy Kong, Birdo, Dry Bones, Koopa Troopa, Shy Guy, Petey Piranaha, Wiggler, Nabbit, and the Miis either in the base game or as DLC.
Unfortunately, there is only one stadium to choose from. There may be nine skins of courts to choose from, but neither of them are themes from the past Mario games except for the mushroom court. The only courts that they have are the hard, clay, grass, carpet, mushroom, sand, ice, rebound, and morph court.
The game modes that are available in Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash are Mega Battle, Classic Tennis, Mega Bally Rally, and Online. In Mega Battle, the Mega Mushrooms appear at random times to temporarily make a character to grow into a giant. It allows players to gain in ball strokes and reaches. During doubles mode, only one person per team can get the mega mushroom at a time. It can be played up to four players either with human or CPU opponents.
Classic Tennis is the traditional way to play tennis without the gimmicks such as mega mushrooms. The simple mode has no gimmicks at all, and the standard mode has the chance and jump shots. Like the Mega Battle mode, Classic Tennis can be played up to four players.
Knockout Challenge replaces Tournament Mode from the past Mario Tennis games. The goal of knockout Challenge tests the player to see if he/she can win seven matches in a row against CPU opponents that gradually become harder to beat. The Mega Battles with Tiebraker rules are set as default rules. The player earns coins for every round that that person wins in. The coins can be used to buy unlockable characters, court skins, pro, Amiibo training, and ace difficulty for the CPU opponents.
As stated earlier, you can't set up using friend codes to play against friends in the Online mode. You can only play against random people or Amiibo figures in singles and doubles. Lobbies and communities are not supported online either. Similar to Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U and 3DS, the two separate categories are Play for Fun and Play a Serious Match. For Fun mode has to player ranking, whereas there are ranked matches in For Serious mode. Modes such as Mega Battle, Classic Tennis, and Simple Tennis can be chosen online along with a tiebraker, two-game, or one set matches.
Overall, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash is a passable game to play with friends and family. However, the lack of variety of characters, stages, and the inability to use friend codes to play with friends online takes away of what makes Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash a great game. Based on what I played at Best Buy, the controls work pretty well. The graphics are bright and colorful in HD. However, the music isn't exactly Mario themed, but pretty decent to listen to.
The good- online mode is available, Rosalina is playable for the first time
The bad - not enough characters to choose from, removed some fan favorites such as Diddy Kong, no Mario themed stadiums other than the mushroom skin, can't set up using codes to play against friends online
Overall, GameSpot score 6 out of 10