The latest Nintendo sports game is Mario Tennis Ultra Smash and brings all the fun and intensity from past Mario tennis games to the Wii U. And with the jump to the next gen console comes some great new features that were unavailable in the past Mario tennis games, namely an online function and amiibo functionality.
That’s right, the uber popular amiibo will be usable in Mario Tennis Ultra Smash when it releases on Nov. 20
We got a chance to meet in the Nintendo New York offices to get a peek at the publisher’s holiday line of games and Mario Tennis Ultra Smash was a big
And before you amiibo hunters get all riled up, you should know that Mario Tennis Ultra Smash won’t have their own special amiibo but will be compatible with other game title figures. However, you can only use character amiibo that are in the game.
So the Mario amiibo from Super Smash Bros or Mario Party will allow for players of Mario Tennis Ultra Smash to scan their amiibo to gain that character as a doubles partner. Characters who don’t have an amiibo like Waluigi can’t be used as an amiibo double partners.
Wooly Yoshii was given as an example of an amiibo that is compatible with Mario Tennis Ultra Smash.
You can use this doubles partner to play online or local and there’s even a new mode that will allow you to team-up with your amiibo to play some 2 on 1 “king of the court” style matches.
Using this mode, you can level up your amiibo and with every 5 wins or so you can gain a new “perk” or ability that you can assign to your amiibo.
This installment of Mario Tennis will finally come with an online mode for you to challenge your friends or complete strangers to matches. Up to four players can play online and play in different match types such as a normal tennis match with no powerups or you can have the powerups.
Some other cool features in Mario Tennis Ultra Smash is how you view the game. You can have three different views, the first being side by side while the other is having the camera set on the foreground and leaving keeping it stationary no matter who is serving.
Then the new angle is called Reverse where the player using the Wii U Pad will have the camera behind their character while the television will have the camera behind your opponent. It’ll have two different camera angles at the same time.
We also got to see the expanded roster that was teased in a video from earlier this week (you can see that trailer below) and it has some familiar faces and a new one or two. Rosalina makes her Mario Tennis debut sans Luma -- that wouldn’t be fair -- while there are some “placeholders” that seem to be unlockable.
The players are characterized by five different play types: Speed, Tricky, Power, All Around and Defensive each given their respective characters some pros and cons.
Here’s the list of the current roster and what we believe are the “placeholders”:
Confirmed
Mario
Luigi
Peach
Daisy
Wario
Waluigi
Boo
Bowser
Toad
Donkey Kong
Rosalina
Yoshii
Unconfirmed
Toadette
Bowser Jr. (or another Koopa)
~3 unknown roster slots
With Mario Tennis Ultra Smash releasing on Nov. 20, the best parts of the Nintendo sports game have yet to be revealed. Check back with iDigitalTimes for the latest on this game and others.
And while you wait, check out the latest trailer for Mario Tennis Ultra Smash below.
