Mario Tennis Ultra Smash Secret Characters: How To Unlock Them All

Since the players chose to play this doubles match in Mega Battle mode, a new mode in Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, the familiar Mega Mushroom power-up appears on the court. Players can choose the court and length of the game, but the allure of standard tennis wears rather thing after a while, especially with the continuing problem of generic characters and lackluster controls.

Simplicity in approach has always been a mantra for the Mario Tennis series, and Ultra Smash remains as refreshingly accessible for the whole family to get in on the action. It’s latter-half namesake, for instance, comes as a power shot when your opponent mistimes or misplays a volley.

The biggest change is the Mega Battle mode, where players have the chance to become enormous versions of their characters by collecting mega mushrooms throughout a match. Despite this interesting concept, the oversized characters are described as more of an annoyance rather than an improvement, according to Venture Beat. The game is very fast paced and crisp, and can be played with friends so you don’t have to worry about being bored with the AI players after an extended period of time. Players can choose to use the Wii U GamePad, Wii Pro Controller or Wiimotes to play the game.

The Wii U exclusive Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash just launched, and Nintendo has gone ahead and provided a small Day 1 patch. Ultra Smash unleashed! Point for Mario and Luigi (and a few much-needed revenge). You have a variety of shots; smashes, lobs, curve balls and more. Your choice of character isn’t just aesthetic – their play styles fall into one of six categories, but the only discernable difference I noted was how much slower the beefier characters were.

When it comes to the overall quality of Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, I am of two minds. The first mindset revolves strictly around how the game plays; amicably. Chance shots add nearly an eccentricity to standard play, with special shots that extend the reach of an arcade style of play.

The great shame of it is that it looks great and plays better. It perfectly provides the scratch to the “Mario and friends playing tennis in a way that plays to their strengths and weakness” itch, in a barebones way of producing it. With the addition of Green Sprixie and Rosalina, you get to see even more of the new Nintendo variety troupe. Because most button inputs are simple, there is no need to waggle for the Nintendo Wii controllers. Uh oh. It looks like a glowing circle just appeared on the court. A blend of chaos, reflexes and strategy, the Mario Tennis series has continually evolved from its main Nintendo 64 debut; Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, sadly, is a mis-hit.

No matter how winning a formula can be, it’s still up to the creator to bring magic to the recipe. It’s tough for me to understand why Mario Tennis leans so heavily into this feature when it stumbles so staggeringly. Knockout Challenge is an uninspired cycle of monotony, bereft of the whimsical charm of the previous games’ tournament mode, and ultimately unsatisfying.

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash performs very well on the Wii U, with fluid gameplay that makes movement on the court a breeze. All aspects of audio design are lacking, including the game’s very limited selection of musical tracks. My major concern though, which unfortunately relates to every other aspect of the game, is just that there isn’t enough game here to back it up. For the NES there was the aptly named Tennis, and that title was followed by Mario’s Tennis for the ill-fated Virtual Boy. Doubles matches are often high in tempo and pretty dramatic when two teams are evenly matched, and certainly makes the effort to level up your amiibo worthwhile. It’s full of characters so lovable you’ll want to reach into the screen and hug them, plus smooth animations, eye-popping effects, fun replays, and nice little details – like crowd members holding up boards to create mosaic pictures of the match’s victor. For christ’s sake, it’s 2015.

Regarding doubles play, the restrictions in online search functionalities can lead to die situations.

Outside of standard tennis games are three modes that put a different spin on traditional play, such as the aforementioned Mega Mushroom-centric Mega Battle option.

It sets up weird gameplay scenarios, including the Mega Battle + doubles format. However, in doubles’ play, only one player of each side can grow large at a time. The gameplay balance is so skewed towards the bigger players that its removes the enjoyment and necessity of teammates, inherently devaluing the experience. Thankfully, the gameplay is rock solid and as addictive as ever. It would be so easy to write it off as an aggressively bad monstrosity, worthy of nobody’s time. Everyone else can safely skip it, and hope Nintendo takes our collective refusal to purchase as a message to fatten up future versions of its Mario sports games.

There’s definitely fun to be had in performing an ultra smash that scores you a point because it’s a body shot, however, and online play works well enough.