Topic: Mario Tennis Aces

I really didn't think I'd like the 'advanced shots', but now that I've played the game I think they complement the underlying tennis strategy well. It's just another way to psyche out opponents when you have full energy and can threaten with a special shot at any time. B)

I can't block shots to save my life, but so far this hasn't been a problem, unless it's critical to the match I ignore the special shots, and will try to hit zone shots if I'm not close to KO.

Also Spike is baller

For me, when I have a full energy bar, it gives me the confidence to go to the net. Lobs stop being a threat since you can just hit 'L'. (Disclaimer - I am far from good at this game lol.)

@Grumblevolcano Wow, you can. I'll have to see how powerful that is right now.

@Grumblevolcano I did some matches where I served with a Zone Shot, and it was... alright. It's not really anything that deadly, though I did wear some some rackets with it, probably because most people (including me before today) didn't know you could serve with a Zone Shot. Regardless though, once the meta settles I think it'll be fine as is.

@Snaplocket I did some matches with and against Waluigi, and yeah he's OP like Rosalina. I think that there should be some balance patches within the future.

Despite these complaints though, I am absolutely loving this demo. It's such a fantastic blend of a sports game and a fighting game that I have never seen before, and this can easily be the best Mario sports game period. Like wow, this is just too much fun.

The downside is that he is Waluigi.

Really surprised how much I am enjoying the demo. The controls are really intuitive and responsive. Like some have said, the tricks add a layer of strategy but none of them are OP once you learn how to handle them and it still feels like a tennis game.

@sr_388 And a shooting game! It's also a first person shooter!

@EvilLucario It's deadly over time, 6 failed blocks means a KO and a game consists of at least 5 serves (0-0, 15-0, 30-0, 40-0, game won). If your opponent is serving in the first game, you can build up your power meter to blue and then serve with a zone shot every single time when its your turn to serve. Then unless your opponent blocks the zone shots, you will get a guaranteed win.

@EvilLucario The thing that limits zone shot serves is still having to shoot within the opposing box. Not exactly easy to get guaranteed points this way, but can be good to finish off an opponent on their last legs. And yes, special shots, or racket breaking in general won't be that prominent once people get better with their blocks. You generally have to catch them with low or no energy to be able to damage them, and specials are not a very economical way to score unless it's the match point.

My personal nemesis has actually been Chain Chomp, he too has good reach that makes it hard to slip balls past him, and frequently gets me in flat shot 50-50s guessing if he's gonna shoot straight or far. Still, I recently beat one as Waluigi in the most intense game I've played, using almost every strategy in the book: countering specials with zone speed, getting opponent to waste their special with your own (countering a special with a special is a guaranteed block, but still puts you in a bad position), drop shot to lob mixups until I finally wore down his racket for the KO.

Strangely enough, I've rarely encountered any noticeable lag even when the connection displayed one bar in a match.

@Grumblevolcano If you're at the point where you can use zone shots for serves repeatedly and the opponent also has no energy to zone speed block them safely, you've probably already been winning handily without that strategy.

@Snaplocket Might just be how I play, but being able to move while charging shots has proven to be extremely valuable, while I've gotten around the slow speed with Zone Speeds and more careful shots. With that I've been able to really wreck peoples' days.

Idk though. If Rosalina actually does turn out to be OP, that'll annoy me because Rosalina is my favorite Mario character.

I dunno, the differences between characters in this game are pretty subtle compared to, say, Power Tennis, so even if some end up having an "advantage" over others, it'll hardly be enough to win games on it's own compared to the skill of the players. Refer to my match description in my previous comment to see what I mean; basically I didn't win that just because I was Waluigi.

Finally had some time to really sink into this today and oh boy is it good!! Have never played a Mario Sports game but this is so ridiculously fun. Surprised by how much we loved it. Definitely going to be a day one buy now, makes a great case for releasing demos for every game!!

Pre-ordered after having fun with the demo

So toad is just flat out awful right?

@Judi The main trade-off for speed characters seems to be range; I tend to whiff more often with Yoshi as well. Wonder if each category works by having one specific strong point and one weak point. Like...

• Powerful: + Shot speed, - Movement speed
• Technique: + Shot aiming, - Shot speed
• Speedy: + Movement speed, - Reach
• Defensive: + Reach, - Shot aiming

Could be wrong about defensive, and tricky weakness seems to be a character-by-character basis, but you get the idea.

my only negative comment so far is the announced refering to you as server or receiver and not the characters name

@Judi Yeah, I dunno! I'm really trying to shine with Toad, but I don't go very far into the tournament playing as him. I'm not sure whether it's his bad reach or his negligible extra speed... or maybe even both.

It's a shame, as Toad is one of my favorite characters but in Aces he just isn't doing wonders for me. Oh well, there's Rosalina anyway..

I also won my first tourney finals, and man was it the most fun match ever. And it was a nail-biting one too, as my opponent would retaliate with a game win after I won a game. But I won, and the fact that it looks like I've finally nailed down Trick Shots makes the win even better.

Only had a quick go but yeah.....this is very good.

Trick Shots are very hard to pull off consistently due to the mindgame meta of tennis, but if you can pull them off you get so much energy it's ridiculous. I still flub up one every now and then, so if I'm really needing to win against someone, I just don't use them unless they're so far away I need to use it to reach something.

Lag still sucks though. I had a few finals ruined on me just because I would drop and it would stay that way for quite some time. Oy.

@Snaplocket it probably is permanent, how would it know why you disconnected

I really hope Nintendo fixes the netcode for this game. Trying to play with input lag is like trying to fix a car with a hammer. It just ain't happening.