Launch Station: Mario Tennis Open

Out of all the Mario sports games that have been released over the years, my personal favourite has been Mario Tennis.  I found Mario Tennis to be a very competitive affair with friends and family while also having tournaments to conquer on your own.  To this point, most handheld Mario sports games have stuck with a more RPG single-player story mode than the tournaments found in their console brethren.  With Mario Tennis Open, Nintendo and Camelot look to bring the Mario sports console experience to the 3DS in style.  Mario Tennis Open releases this Sunday, May 20th alongside the new Midnight Purple 3DS.

Again Mario and friends pick their tennis racquets to compete on courts and tournaments across the Mushroom Kingdom.  Mario Tennis Open has 17 characters for you to choose from including your own Mii, which you can personalize with new clothes and equipment.  Mario Tennis Open includes your regular singles and doubles tennis matches along with some special games such as Super Mario Tennis, Ring Shot and Galaxy Rally to play.  Mario Tennis Open offers a few different ways to control the game. There are the standard button combinations and circle pad combination for Mario Tennis veterans.  For those gamers just picking up a Mario Tennis game for the first time, Camelot has added the touch screen controls to execute shots and gyro controls to make Mario Tennis Open more approachable to newcomers than any other game in the series.  The biggest addition to the Mario Tennis series in Mario Tennis Open is the inclusion of local and online multi-player over the Nintendo Network.  Mario Tennis Open also uses StreetPass to exchange Miis with other Mario Tennis Open players, which offers players a steady stream of opponents to face on the tennis court.

The more I write about Mario Tennis Open the more I just want to sit down and play a Mario Tennis game.  Mario Tennis Open should be a solid offering for 3DS owners that are done with Kid Icarus: Uprising.  Personally I am most excited about is the online multi-player.  As much as I enjoy playing a competitive match of Mario Tennis with my brothers, I am excited to challenge new people over the Nintendo Network.  Win or lose, it should be a ton of fun.  While I am not going to pick up Mario Tennis Open right away, I will definitely be buying it the near future.  When I do, I will see you all on the court.

Off the Newsstand: Nintendo Power Issue 278

It has been a busy month of gaming and reading for yours truly.  I honestly plow through video game magazines like nobodies business.  Maybe it is just years of reading them cover-to-cover or that magazines are very easy reads because I have never thought of myself as a fast reader in any way.  Now here is my quick look at the newest issue of Nintendo Power, which I finished reading a few days ago.

Many people were surprised to hear last month that Nobunaga X Pokemon was coming to North America as Pokemon Conquest for the DS this coming June.  With the game just announced, it is a cool coincidence (or maybe was it planned?) that the cover story for Issue 278 of Nintendo Power be on Pokemon Conquest.  Even though it was not my personal favourite cover story in recent memory, the cover story on Pokemon Conquest was a solid preview nonetheless.  The cover story look at Pokemon Conquest's story, the basics on Pokemon Conquest's tactical gameplay, how to recruit new party members and Pokemon and how preparing for battle is just as important and maybe even more important than the actual battles themselves.  Having never played a tactical RPG in the vein of Pokemon Conquest, which looks to share a lot of similarities with the Final Fantasy Tactics series, it all seems pretty daunting, but I am looking forward to this game as it is actually a spinoff to the Pokemon series that looks to be worth playing.  My favourite article from this issue goes to the preview of The Last Story, a new type of RPG created by Hironobu Sakaguchi's Mistwalker studios.  Much like Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story looks to advance the Japanese RPG in new innovative directions that revitalize a genre that has not really resonated in the past few years.  Nintendo Power's preview takes a look at The Last Story's real-time battle and cover system, the story which avoids all the JRPG and anime story tropes and a quick asides on The Last Story's multi-player modes.  The article also includes on great two-page interview with great Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the iconic Final Fantasy series and one of the forefathers of the JRPG genre.  Issue 278 also includes ranking of all 14 Super Mario games from the less favourable to the best in the series of excellent platformers, an interesting preview of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, a music game in the vein of Elite Beat Agents where you can play through all the excellent music found in the Final Fantasy series, and an interview with Ben Bateman, a Localization Editor for Aksys Games.  The only disappointing part of Issue 278 of Nintendo Power was the lack of reviews.  There were only two reviews in this entire issue, one for Mario Tennis Open and one for Roller Coaster Tycoon 3D both for the 3DS.  In all my years of reading Nintendo Power, I cannot remember a review section this small.  It was very surprising to say the least.

I always have a lot to talk about after reading an issue of Nintendo Power as you can see above.  While I did enjoy this issue of Nintendo Power, I do not think it is a must read for the average Nintendo fan.  If you are a huge Pokemon fan, Issue 278 is a must read.  For everybody else, it would be easier to check it out at your local library.