Review takii 4/5 · Jan 7, 2021
Pong for Millenials
Those of us gamers born in the 90s missed the inception of video games, which means we were a couple decades off from experiencing the craze that was Pong in the 70s. But the simple enjoyment of a game where you simply knock a ball back and forth was enjoyable in the 90s and will probably never get old.
Okay, …
Those of us gamers born in the 90s missed the inception of video games, which means we were a couple decades off from experiencing the craze that was Pong in the 70s. But the simple enjoyment of a game where you simply knock a ball back and forth was enjoyable in the 90s and will probably never get old.
Okay, it sounds like I'm someone that doesn't know tennis is a real life sport, but I'm just thinking about my childhood and how my brother and I had an N64, but we didn't have tennis rackets. Also when you're small tennis can be hard to learn without lessons or it might be difficult to get to a court. So that simple joy of a game where you simply hit a ball around eluded me and my brother until we got our hands on a game of Mario Tennis.
And wow what a game. I remember whole Saturdays of just non-stop Mario Tennis with my brother and friends. Of course we could have been playing Super Smash (and we did a ton of that, too), but the joy of getting a ball past someone was just so satisfying. Or the thrill of a rally slowly building in intensity as it went on longer and longer- it just can't be beat.
I'm sure there were ways to to access pong and other virtual tennis-like games, but with the power of the brand of Mario, I got to experience this simple joy as a kid in my living room.
Just to make this review more than a cringey nostalgia trip: the game does have top spin (tap A), slice (tap B), and power hit (tap a A+B) mechanics. If you play real life tennis, you know that this will cause the ball to spin in different directions. The spin is indicated by the color of the streak that follows the ball after it's hit, giving whoever is receiving the ball a chance to return it appropriately. For example, depending on where you are on the court, you may not want to return a sliced ball (back spin) with a top spin hit.
I can't remember if I understood those mechanics way back when I played this game, but now, as a recreational tennis player, I do :)
