Trivia / Mario Tennis

• Author's Saving Throw:
  • A "Classic Tennis" mode, with the ability to turn off Chance and Jump Shots, was featured in Ultra Smash, which relieved fans who didn't like the game's connections to Open in the returning Chance Shots^note Although significantly less luck based than in Open thanks to the addition of the strategic Jump Shots and the Ultra Smash punishment mechanic. and missed the original gameplay from the 64 and GameCube installments. The developers created the mode precisely for the fans who missed the original gameplay.
  • While Open introduced online multiplayer to the series, it was region locked and in spite of that, still had the potential to be extremely laggy thanks to a shoddy netcode. The developers thought Worldwide online multiplayer would be hard to implement but definitely interesting, so they put a lot of power into making it a reality, and so Ultra Smash introduced Worldwide online multiplayer for the first time in the series alongside an improved netcode for a much improved online experience.
  • For Aces the developers consulted with Nintendo numerous times to see what exactly they were looking for and, based on that, "made a new game to the best of their ability".^note Though the same interview that mentions this also mentions that "Up until now that was really the main distinction within the Mario Tennis series: Story Mode was reserved for the handheld titles. To that end, since the Switch has a handheld mode, we felt it appropriate that the game had a Story Mode.", so this does not necessarily mean that a Story mode with cutscenes was developed for Aces because Ultra Smash lacked one.
  • The motion controls in the New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis port received a nearly unanimous negative reception due to the game not being play tested properly and not being able to properly detect the motions you had to make to perform a shot, Aces's Swing Mode was developed directly in response to that, and as a result they were much more accurate in a properly tested and tailor made mode for them called "Swing mode", which the developers thought of as "revenge" for the earlier attempt.
• Blooper: Bowser's name is still listed as "Koopa" on the international box art for Mario Tennis Open.
• Dummied Out: The Virtual Console ports currently have no way of accessing the Transfer Pak's functionality, so the GBC characters in 64 are not accessible through normal means. However, all Transfer Pak unlocks in the GBC version are unlocked by default to compensate.
• Exiled from Continuity: The Original Generation human characters stopped appearing after Power Tour, and likely won't return because of Nintendo's mandates that limit the number and nature of original characters that appear in Mario games.
• First Appearance: Waluigi debuted in the first installment of this series, on the Nintendo 64.
• Market-Based Title: The GBA game is titled Mario Tennis Power Tour in American English, while the European languages gave it the same title as the Nintendo GameCube counterpart, Mario Power Tennis. The name Power Tour still appears in game as the title of the RPG story mode.
• Orphaned Reference: Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Toad and Toadette were cut from Power Tennis, but are still present in the game's intro cutscene.
• Word of God: Apparently, the writers got sick of writing the same story RPG modes in previous Mario Golf and Mario Tennis games where you had to raise a character who had their sights set on winning a tournament, making the reappearance of the Original Generation characters in the future extremely unlikely.
• What Could Have Been:
  • During the development of the original game, Camelot thought of expanding the Waluigi concept further by also making an evil counterpart for Peach, tentatively known as "Warupeach" or "Wapeach", with the devs describing her to be a "fallen angel" type. Reportedly, Miyamoto felt the idea was too similar to Doronjo from Yatterman, and vetoed the creation of said character before Camelot even got a chance to show the design to him. When Camelot was developing for Power Tennis years later, character designer Fumihide Aoki and Camelot tried re-pitching the idea of a "Wapeach" to Nintendo, but was scrapped for unknown reasons. In December 2023, nearly 20 years after the release of Power Tennis, concept art for the character was shared by Aoki in a now deleted post on his Instagram, where they got far enough that a 3D model of her was made. According to Aoki, she would have been the "boss" of Wario and Waluigi, who would have had a "scary" personality when angered and was intended to be far younger than Peach, with Aoki liking Wapeach's personality as a boss who is also a child. After sharing this art however, the posts were taken down and his Instagram account became private. Another evil counterpart was also planned in which Yoshi would have gotten one as well, known as Wayoshi who was also going to be Wapeach's double partner in the same game, who would have been a full on dragon rather than a dinosaur (akin to Yoshi's Super Dragon from Super Smash Bros. Brawl), but unlike Wapeach (who was fairly along in development to where she got concept art and a workable model), Wayoshi never got past the initial planning stage.
  • Power Tour has Dummied Out data for Chet, one of the Island Open contenders who is eliminated off-screen, showing he was intended to be playable, implying he would also have been an opponent for the player at some point.
  • Kevin, a non-playable character in Mario Tennis, features a full, working, playable character sprite set in the game's data the Japanese version, though his select icon is simply a question mark. This can only be accessed through means of game modifying hardware. All graphics of Kevin's were removed from the US and EU versions of the game with the exception of his HUD mugshot.
  • 3D models for a Hammer Bro (who would have been the linesman), Spiny (based on its design from Paper Mario 64), Shellcreeper (as a small, quadrupedal Koopa Troopa with clawed flat feet) and a Fighter Fly (based of its redesign in Super Mario All-Stars) have been found.
  • Fumihide Aoki drew up concept art for a young girl named Potato◊ who would have worn a green dress and spiral glasses, stating that she was designed "with the image of a rich country girl in mind". She would have had a laid-back and clumsy personality and would have been a Power-type.

---